Recognizing the Enemy

I am no admirer of the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  Some on the Left have characterized their emergence as a Liberal answer to the success of the Tea Party, but I fail to see a loose coalition of union movements, idealistic emotional adolescents, George Soros’ tools, and 1960′s leftovers and wannabes as the equal to a true grass-roots movement that was responsible for the election of a significant portion of the newest members of Congress.

Then again, I also refuse to recognize anarchy as a viable solution to our nation’s current financial and social miseries.

Still, the OWS protestors have successfully highlighted the influence that Wall Street and other corporate entities have over our national policies and politics.

Let’s be honest.  Wall Street bought itself a President.  Even if one is intentionally ignoring the evidence of massive Wall Street financial contributions to the Obama election campaigns (past and ongoing), consider the infiltration of Obama’s Cabinet by stalwarts of the corporate world:

Obama’s first National Economic Council director, Lawrence Summers, (of hedge-fund giant D.E. Shaw and venture-capital firm Andresssen Horowitz) who has also had some nice paydays courtesy of Lehman Bros., JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup.

Citigroup’s Michael Froman, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

Hartford Financial’s Neal Wolin, deputy Treasury secretary.

JPMorgan’s William Daly, Obama’s recent Chief of Staff and his predecessor Rahm Emanuel of Wasserstein Perella.

And a true star: Fannie Mae’s Tom Donilon, national security adviser (No kidding.  One of the geniuses who contributed mightily to Fannie Mae’s woeful state of affairs – upside down to the tune of trillions of dollars is running national security.  Plus, the former director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, was on the board of IndyMac when it went defunct.  Makes one feel warm, toasty and secure, eh?)

And we don’t want to forget the leaders of the Obama economic-transition team Robert Rubin (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup) and venture capitalist vulture Warren Buffet.

Nor should we overlook Treasury Secretary/tax cheat Tim Geithner, who came up through the ranks as part of the Robert Rubin-Hank Paulson-Goldman Sachs cabal and went on to a position as chairman of the New York Fed where he was able to bestow tens of billions of federal (taxpayer) dollars upon a failing Citigroup through a structured investment that allowed the government to buy a 27 per cent share in the bank, for which it paid more than the entire market value of the institution.

But Obama is certainly not adverse to redistributing boatloads of goodies to other members of the corporate world such as his man David Alexlrod’s firm being allowed to set up Astroturf campaigns on behalf of Exelon subsidiary ComEd (despite the president’s voluminous denunciations of “Big Oil”).  Nor was Obama hesitant to appoint GE chief Executive Jeff Immelt to his White House jobs commission, or choosing former Kraft and Duke Energy board member Mary Schapiro to run the SEC.

(My acknowledgements to National Review contributor Kevin D. Williamson for the article “Repo Men”, from which this rogue’s gallery of unofficial lobbyists was compiled).

If you would like a more extensive examination of the joined-at-the-hip relationship between the Washington establishment and the Wall Street crowd, please peruse Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison, by Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution.  This laundry list of recent “Congressional insider-trading, self-dealing, IPO shenanigans, inexplicably good investment luck” should be enough to set your blood pressure at unhealthy levels.

The thing that shines through here is not merely the utter inadequacy of the Obama Presidency, but the utter corruption of our government structure and the complete moral collapse of both Congress and the Executive Branch.  And this is hardly limited to Democrats and their past and present administrations, but has been a burgeoning problem for decades.

Anyone who has been a member of the Washington establishment for more than two terms in office is justly suspect and that certainly includes the current four members of the Maine Congressional delegation.

It is long past time for our political establishment to be held accountable for these shortcomings, but to accomplish true “hope and change” the voters must be willing to closely scrutinize the records and actions of all candidates for office and most likely will have to make an electoral choice between the lesser of two evils – at least for the near future.

But keep in mind that the true measure of American exceptionalism is that we still have the opportunity to make changes through electing officials who can be directed to do the best for the population as a whole.  Allied against ethics and morality is the entitlement mentality and the significant number of citizens who are dependent upon Washington for a continuing check.

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