Ever since the economy crashed and the government paid hundreds of
billions of dollars to bail out the fat-cats who were responsible,
a populist rage has been seething away across the country. Home
values have collapsed, more than two million homes have been
foreclosed on, retirement nest eggs are decimated, seven million
jobs have been lost. Hard-won feelings of financial security now
seem like a distant memory. The economy is turning around, they
say, but where are the jobs? And what about all the money
that's been lost? Meanwhile, not only have the bankers and Wall
Street financiers who caused this mess avoided accountability,
they've actually been rewarded -- the biggest among them being
told that no matter what they do, they can buy their way out of
trouble with a seemingly endless supply of taxpayer dollars. This
summer, we've seen one possible pathway for the nation's
angry populism -- one that exhibits many of the worst behaviors of
disgruntled Americans throughout history. The birthers, deathers,
town hallers and tea-baggers are paranoid and irrational and more
than a little racist. They're also being cynically used by
corporate-funded demagogues who are lining their own pockets as
well as those of their masters. As Tom Edsall reported for the
Huffington Post this week, this is all giving the GOP high hopes
for 2010. But as the nation heads into a spirited debate over the
proper role of financial regulation in the coming weeks, the
formidable resentments of the American middle class -- for whom the
crash was basically a big exclamation point after three decades of
downward mobility -- could also be channeled in a more constructive
and hopeful direction. It's self-evident to pretty much
everyone not on Wall Street or Capitol Hill that the nation's
financial laws need some serious reform, particularly when it comes
to corporate governance, reining in outrageous bonuses and
salaries, adopting rules that stop fat-cats from taking dangerously
overleveraged risks with the taxpayers as their backstop, and
protecting the consumer from deceptive practices. The meting out of
a little punishment to the irresponsibly greedy wouldn't hurt,
either. All of which makes the time ripe for a grassroots reform
movement. But one thing that's become abundantly clear during
the health-care debate is that you can't count on President
Obama to lead a populist revolt. His impulse is to find common
ground, not grab a pitchfork, and that's especially true when
it comes to his approach to people who make a lot of money. And
even if he wanted to, his credibility to lead such a movement has
been terribly undermined by his role in bailing out the banks and
the big auto companies. So who will lead? And how many people will
join in? When it comes to moving aggressive financial regulation
through Capitol Hill, a pro-reform grassroots movement is going to
have be enormously successful indeed to offset the extraordinary
lobbying muscle of the banks who, as Senator Dick Durbin so
famously said, own the place. Without hearing an awful lot of
threats from constituents, swing votes -- particularly the
so-called "moderate" Democrats -- are likely to find the
possible loss of financial support from their banker bankrollers
considerably more terrifying than a few angry voters. Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/who-will-harness-the-rage_n_291683.html
