Recent letters in various newspapers implore voters to unseat President Obama next year. Apart from the standard reason—“He’s a Marxist!”—their authors rant about Obama’s bailout of the banks. They condemn the Occupy Wall Street movement—generally considered “leftist”—for hypocrisy, for being on the same side as the obviously corrupt corporatists the protesters deride.
But the bailout of the banks was, in fact, carried out under George W. Bush. Why don’t those letter-writers know that? They’re not alone: According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Americans believe TARP was passed by Obama.
How could that be?
It is because Obama, though corrupt, simply isn’t corrupt enough for Wall Street. Obama received more cash from Goldman Sachs than any other presidential candidate in 2008, and hasn’t pushed to prosecute anyone for Wall Street’s massive thefts. He passed tepid reforms that left holes “big enough to drive a Ferrari through” according to one pundit. However, some minor, mostly symbolic, regulation has been put in motion.
But Wall Street wants zero regulation. These companies have utter contempt for the rule of law, and for democracy itself. They’ve cranked up the corporate news channels with endless propaganda, so they can replace Obama in 2012 with someone even more corrupt. And that blather has been stupendously successful. In spite of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world—ransacked from the middle class to enrich the top 1 percent, with just four banks controlling the majority of residential property for the first time in history—they’ve managed to convince millions of viewers and listeners that any effort to enforce the rule of law, why, that’s pure Stalinism! How did we become so indoctrinated?
Thomas Jefferson warned of the rise of a “landed gentry,” that is, an uber-wealthy elite that would become so powerful it would topple democracy. By 1816, he was the revolutionary again, writing: “I hope we shall … crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
Jefferson failed in his efforts to rein in these powers, which grew unabated until the 1890s, when the passage of the Sherman Act placed limits on corporate growth. But the Sherman Act, though still the law of the land, hasn’t been much enforced since 1980. By then these powers were fully organized, and became entrenched when Ronald Reagan was elected. The first real test of their influence was the hard sell of “trickle-down” economics. The uber-wealthy simply wanted to pay less taxes, but they had to disguise that naked goal as a benefit to the middle class.
Trickle down is a transparent, ludicrous scam. America’s economy is 70 percent consumer-driven. That’s what makes it move: people buying shoes and soap and tacos by the millions. Giving tax breaks to the top 1 percent doesn’t add to that spending; in fact, it does just the opposite. And once consumption slows, the wealthy stop hiring. Why build a business to serve a middle class that isn’t spending money?
Nonetheless, the trickle-down scam convinced tens of millions of middle-class Americans they would make hay by making the super rich even richer.
Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by Bill Clinton, really enabled the elites to manipulate and control the national debate. This deregulation allowed consolidation of the media, and by 2000, five corporations controlled virtually everything every American saw on television or heard on the radio.
The preposterous notion the vast wealth that has flowed to the 1 percent at the top will somehow trickle down to nourish everyone else is entirely debunked, too late. But the top 1 percent still tenaciously control most media and the government. They will endlessly spin analyses of our economic catastrophe to avoid taking the blame, to maintain their power. That is why people have taken to the streets in nearly 1,500 locations across America so far. Our republic and the institutions that support it, including both major political parties, are being shaken. Whether the movement will succeed depends on shedding the red and blue lenses that distort clear vision.
Sean Shealy is the author of Corruption & Cover-Ups of the Bush White House Unmasked and is a staff writer for Information Press in San Luis Obispo. Send comments via the opinion editor at econnolly@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2011.
