I thought this one of the most interesting/telling items of the week:
This comes from a “nationally-advertised pre-election survey” by The Free Enterprise Nation, “The Voice of the Private Sector.” And in one aspect – it’s exactly what you’d think. An overwhelming number of Republicans blame Congress (the Democratic Congress, mind you) and Obama for the slump. The Democrats overwhelmingly blame Bush for the slump.
The Democats, you’ll note, are more apt to blame Obama than Republicans are to blame Bush. Lesson – some Democrats will criticize their own. Comparably fewer Republicans ever will.
But for me, the big takeaway is the amount of blame heaped on Wall Street/Bankers in particular. Look at how little blame Republicans want to place on Wall Street.
It’s astounding.
But it also buttresses my sense that Republicans ultimately want to give Wall Street a pass. Democratic politicians/leaders may not hold Wall Street accountable – but rank and file Republicans don’t hold Wall Street accountable.
Because it’s all about “personal responsibility,” right?
Cue Karl Denninger:
Notice that “Wall Street/Bankers” manages to draw 25% – among Democrats. 40% if you include “Big Corporations. – among Democrats. But among Republicans? Under 10% for both groups combined.
This is beyond ridiculous. It’s stupid.
If we don’t cut this crap out we’re going to go down the hole as a nation.
You want to know why I have been all over the Tea Party? Well gee, this might be why. The Tea Party is essentially all Republicans and yet nowhere (in the 90th percentile) do we see any acknowledgment of what actually caused the problems in this nation – particularly when it comes to the economy.
Ramps in housing prices based on fraudulent appraisals and intentional hype? No acknowledgment.
Fraudulent loans? No acknowledgment.
A Hummer with a rollover loan at 120% – or more – of it’s value, and no money down? No acknowledgment.
Banks selling money to “home buyers” and mortgage paper to “investors” that by their own admission, under oath, they knew were 60% crap by 2006 – and 80% by 2007? No acknowledgement.
Offshoring our jobs for 20 years and replacing that income with credit – that is – debt – generated and promoted under the false pretenses above? No acknowledgment.
None.
This is exactly why, as we say in the vid, that electing the tea party right won’t mean a damn thing in terms of the economic morass we’re trapped in. For there is no acknowledgement that when it comes to crony capitalism, it takes two to tango. Apparently, they think it only takes one – goverenment. Ideologically, I suppose, they are required to believe this. Because Wall Street/Bankers are only doing what good and virtuous capitalists do – making money, creating jobs, making the world go ’round. Or making the world stop in its tracks.
It’s interesting – I have supported Obama for cultural reasons. I see the necessity of an intelligent and well-informed president, as opposed to the populist know-nothingism that might put Palin in office. I think Obama is ultimately on the right side of, say, gay rights. He’s not looking to use government as a syringe with which to inject more religion into American life.
But as noted in the vid yesterday, on this issue, on the degree to which the economy of this nation and as a result the nation itself has been captured by high finance, Wall Street and the banks, I think he has failed – or rather, he has accomplished what he set out to do, which was to ensure that the hegemony of finance is extended and protected; to patch up the system as it was/is. Maybe it’s ridiculous to think that any other president or candidate with an actual shot at the Big Chair would be any different. The president, these days at least, serves the system – the system does not serve the president.
But the point is that Obama, to a certain extent, is under pressure from his own base to do something about foreclosuregate and similar malfeasance. A Republican Congress, or a Republican president, will be under no pressure from the GOP base to do a damn thing about any of it.
More than that, I think the system, and the real powers behind it, smell a real opportunity with the tea party-ized GOP. Charles Hugh-Smith wrote earlier this week that the welfare state is basically a bone thrown by the power elite to keep the citizenry is a relatively docile state:
They also have to care a bit (but not too much) about the bottom 60% who own no assets to speak of, as this class could create political turmoil were they to recognize the hopelessness of their serfdom. So the Power Elites will support bread-and-circuses: cheap entitlement programs like food stamps, and abundant entertainment (cable TV and Internet). This combination has a long history of success in placating and distracting the masses.
But these elite – and I don’t use that term as a populist conservative does, to indicate “someone with a big fancy degree who looks down his nose and thinks he’s better than me,” but rather in the sense of, the folks with all the money, and thus all the power – also realize that some entitlements are growing to the extent that they themselves might have to pony up if they are to be kept solvent. And that can’t happen:
Out-of-control costly programs like Medicare will be pared back. They are only valuable as ways of diverting the national income into cartels owned by the Power Elites. To the degree they threaten to disrupt the overall financial status quo, they will be pared down via reduction of benefits.
In the tea party, the elites see the vehicle not just to pare back programs like Medicare – but to spend less on bread-and-circus entitlement programs like food stamps; the tea party-ized GOP will permit the elites to fork over even less to that bottom 60 percent, and not demand any additional sacrifice from those at the top at the same time.
The game can continue – and now it can be even more profitable.
