We heard it from three different voices. All of them acting as surrogates of the Obama campaign. They're message was as clear as it was disturbing. "Lay off Wall Street."
No sooner was Cory Booker walking back his now infamous "nauseating" comment about Bain Capital that two other Democratic titans were letting loose with the same criticisms of Obama 2012's milquetoast critique of their opponent's record of destroying American companies for profit. Deval Patrick, the current occupier of the only political office Mitt Romney ever held and none other than former president and current Wall Street stooge Bill Clinton joined in with their own version of the "Lay off private equity" argument.
Of course none of this should surprise us. The same wizards of finance who shipped off American jobs overseas, bankrupted our economy with complex and destructive derivatives, and are living off of the teat of the Federal Reserve's promise of free money in exchange for nothing are also currently footing the bill for the up and comers in the Democratic Party.
Without contributions from private equity, Booker would never have been able to break the machine of corrupt Newark politics which dispatched him with ease in his first election. Patrick would not be able to maintain his governorship in a state which has become more and more of a toss up. And of course Clinton would have nobody to pay his six figure speaking fees to appear at Wall Street conferences where he gets to rub elbows with financial high rollers (and in some cases, recently, porn stars).
And these Democrats know on which side their bread is buttered. In return for their handsome campaign treasuries paid for by private equity, not only do these donors get incredibly favorable treatment across the board in the form of beneficial laws and tax codes, they also buy themselves the luxury of being free from any criticism at all.
Obama is learning this the hard way. In 2008, the Obama campaign raised more money from Wall Street than any campaign in history. Their money paid off handsomely for the financial sector of our economy as the new administration bypassed any criminal penalties for the 2008 crash, passed what amounted to very weak reforms that were essentially useless in changing any of the behavior that led to the collapse, installed all of the architects of the financial bail out as his Treasury Department, re-appointed Ben Bernanke to keep the free money flowing, and even stated that the underhanded practices and scheming that led to our financial meltdown were legal. Not bad for a few hundred million dollars.
But all of that wasn't enough. Because Obama occasionally would break out his populist rhetoric from the campaign, referring to Wall Street as a casino or the CEO's reaping twenty million dollar bonuses financed by tax payer cash "fat cats" Wall Street has chosen not to fill Obama's coffers quite as much as they did four years ago. The message was clear: if you hurt out feelings, we will hurt your bottom line.
So, when the campaign rolled out long form documentary style ads on the Internet criticizing Mitt Romney's time at private equity firm Bain Capital, the surrogates had to be called out. And of course in cunning fashion, Wall Street's surrogates happened to be Obama's surrogates as well.
Let's take a minute to look at what Bain Capital, and their cohorts in private equity do, shall we? Private equity firms, also called derisively "vulture capitalists" target struggling companies, buy them out, load them with debt, more often than not then strip them of their value, selling off the remaining assets, thereby profiting off of the remaining carcass. The result is a boon to the private equity company and usually a modest profit from the company's shareholders. The other result, inevitably, is the loss of jobs for the company's workers.
This is the modern version of the corporate raiders like Ivan Boesky and Michael Millkin in the 1980's. The only difference is that Boesky and Millkin ended up serving long prison sentences after being prosecuted by the justice departments of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Now, the raiders get to potentially run their own justice department.
After seeing the fall out from 2008, the resulting recession/depression, the enormous crises in home foreclosures and unemployment and the still stagnant economy, attacking Romney's record in private equity should be a no brainier. But the Democrats are apparently still unwilling to bite the hand that feeds it.
Look, a growing number of people both across the country and across the globe are waking up to the fact that the financial sector and its growing influence on our politics, is the enemy of free and democratic process. This has been the spark that has led to uprisings across the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and in the US in the Occupy movement as well as the breathtaking protests in Madison against the anti-worker Scott Walker administration. People realizing that their livelihoods and futures are being sacrificed for some kind of corporate kleptocracy are refusing to lie down and accept it.
But the Democrats stubbornly refuse to believe in this movement, or for that matter refuse to show any real beliefs at all. By refusing to attack Mitt Romney on what is likely his most vulnerable issue, the Democrats will once again avoid what should be a reasonably easy win against a remarkably unlikable opponent. The same goes for the unwillingness if the DNC to aggressively campaign against Walker in his recall election in Wisconsin and the lukewarm support they are showing anti-Wall Street crusader Elizabeth Warren in her bid to unseat Scott Brown in the US Senate race in Massachusetts.
Of course by not fully representing their own true constituents, the Democrats deserve to lose, and by continuing to support front men for Wall Street running for office as Democrats, we all will end up with the government we deserve.
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