Monday, February 8, 2010

The Party of Populist Anger -- The Envelope, Please

Glenn Greenwald has some good commentary on a New York Times article about Wall Street's "buyer's remorse" -- that is, they bought and paid for Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress, but now they don't think they got their money's worth, so they're going to buy some Republicans instead. As Greenwald points out:
that Wall Street is dissatisfied with the Democrats and the Obama administration reveals how extreme are their expectations of control of the Government. The second-highest-ranking Democratic Senator, Dick Durbin, recently conceded of the Democratic-controlled Congress: "frankly, bankers own the place." It's impossible to find a more loyal and attentive servant to bankers than Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. As the NYT article this morning details, Wall Street executives and their lobbyists have virtually unfettered access to the administration and to the President himself. You would think they'd be satisfied with the state of affairs in Washington. Yet so extreme are their perceived entitlements of control that even mere symbolic and rhetorical disobedience from the politicians they own -- he said some mean things about us -- creates a sense of righteous grievance: our government employees do not behave this way toward us and will be punished if it continues.
And:
note that, more than a year later, Wall Street can only complain about "rhetoric," not any actual legislation that has been passed ...
As the Times writer says, "Bankers, unhappy at the president’s proposals for tighter financial regulations, are shifting donations to Republicans." That's proposals. By the time Obama gets through being bipartisan, it's not likely those "tighter financial regulations" will amount to anything that could trouble a banker's sleep or digestion. Read all of Greenwald's article. Every voter should be aware of the Times article, the bankers' threats, and the Republicans' (and the Democrats') readiness to do the bankers' bidding.

And not that it matters, but this might come in handy:



But don't forget that Obama also supported Bush's bailout. It's easy to make fun of the ignorance of Palin's fans, but Obama's fans are no better.