Tent cities. Altercations with the fuzz. And that one guy on the soapbox. The Occupy Wall Street movement has momentum that could rival the Tea Party, if only they could get their best soapboxers to run for office.

The Tea Party movement made its presence known and rapidly became the face of conservative American politics. Their interests now dominate the presidential race.

The Occupy movement is a more recent development, and while it has dominated the media in recent weeks, it may not have the same influence the Tea Party has had.

Occupy Wall Street could act as a balancing force against the Tea Party, but first they would have to demonstrate the same lasting political clout.

While the Occupy protesters are clearly devoted to their cause, spending weeks demonstrating across the nation, their long-term potential is less clear. Popular hashtags come and go every day on Twitter. A new meme dominates the Internet every week. What makes OccupyWallStreet more than a flash in the pan?

That the Occupy movement has spread across the world is impressive, but perhaps it is a sign that the movement is short-lived. The energy the Occupy movement has expended by going global may mean it lacks the energy to sustain itself — the bigger the blaze, the faster it burns.

This raises a question: What does the Occupy movement need to do to sustain itself and carry its message through to actual political action?

The answer is simple: They need to run for office.

“I don’t think Occupy Wall Street will have the influence they want unless they do what the Tea Party did and take over the nominating process,” said PBS host Bill Moyers in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. “Unless they do, they will never have the satisfaction that they want and that the civil rights movement, say, had back in the 1950s and ‘60s. 

“These people are not going to have long-ranging effect unless they have a party to act on their interests,” said Moyers. “They need to become a political movement instead of a grievance committee.”

While creating a political party may be a radical move, it is still possible for the Occupy movement to influence the elections. If they were to identify a candidate to put their energy into supporting, the Occupy protesters could secure a position of lasting political influence.

An Occupy Party could occupy Congress if the many individual movements around the country began supporting candidates for the upcoming Senate and House races. 

Somewhere at every Occupy protest, there must be a person with a megaphone making the most noise, sharing the most opinions, handing out the most flyers and getting the most attention. If each smaller movement could identify who that person is, they would have their candidates.

If each Occupy movement produced a congressperson, the power of the Tea Party would be rivaled, and — more importantly — the Occupy protesters would be able to find the lasting solution they are looking for.

So here is hoping that in the next few weeks Occupy Wall Street disappears from Twitter, and that Occupy Congress and Occupy Oval Office start to trend. Perhaps we could finally find the change we were looking for.