So while Romney and Clinton are ostensible political opponents, they share more than you’d know just from press reports. The primary difference between them is not a question of fealty to finance, but that Romney made his fortune with Bain Capital before he sought office, whereas Clinton made his afterward.
[...]
Bill Clinton can star in a television commercial bashing the deregulation of Wall Street, and then immediately collect cash from Wall Street firms whose industry he deregulated. Barack Obama can say that this election is a choice between a middle-class country and extreme inequality, even as inequality is higher under his administration than it was under George W. Bush’s.
[...]
For Clinton, Romney, Obama, etc., finance is just a group of highly intelligent capitalists who make the occasional mistake, and kick back some cash for good measure. They are living in a democratic structure, where their voices are heard and policy changes in response to their needs. For millions of Americans, the financial services industry is a daily terror. Forty percent of young people are now describing themselves as poor, and one out of every seven Americans is being pursued by a debt collector. Student debt loads are staggering, and the possibility of a foreclosure is real for millions of families. These Americans are living, not in a democracy, but in an authoritarian state, where they have no choice but to claw at whatever job or jobs they can get, with no access to legal, political or social rights.
[...]
Bill Clinton offers essentially the same belief system as both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, one in which private industry runs the government through payoffs to ex-officials, and government returns the favor through bailouts. If Americans are ever going to grapple with the power of banks over their lives, they are going to have to come to grips with the real track record of their leaders, including Bill Clinton. And it isn’t pretty. And until people like Bill Clinton can be compensated in ways that aren’t obviously corrupting, and their track records honestly assessed, elections will continue to be unimportant, simple popular ratification of an increasingly authoritarian creditor state.
Salon
[...]
Bill Clinton can star in a television commercial bashing the deregulation of Wall Street, and then immediately collect cash from Wall Street firms whose industry he deregulated. Barack Obama can say that this election is a choice between a middle-class country and extreme inequality, even as inequality is higher under his administration than it was under George W. Bush’s.
[...]
For Clinton, Romney, Obama, etc., finance is just a group of highly intelligent capitalists who make the occasional mistake, and kick back some cash for good measure. They are living in a democratic structure, where their voices are heard and policy changes in response to their needs. For millions of Americans, the financial services industry is a daily terror. Forty percent of young people are now describing themselves as poor, and one out of every seven Americans is being pursued by a debt collector. Student debt loads are staggering, and the possibility of a foreclosure is real for millions of families. These Americans are living, not in a democracy, but in an authoritarian state, where they have no choice but to claw at whatever job or jobs they can get, with no access to legal, political or social rights.
[...]
Bill Clinton offers essentially the same belief system as both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, one in which private industry runs the government through payoffs to ex-officials, and government returns the favor through bailouts. If Americans are ever going to grapple with the power of banks over their lives, they are going to have to come to grips with the real track record of their leaders, including Bill Clinton. And it isn’t pretty. And until people like Bill Clinton can be compensated in ways that aren’t obviously corrupting, and their track records honestly assessed, elections will continue to be unimportant, simple popular ratification of an increasingly authoritarian creditor state.
Salon
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment