A worthwhile tipping point (Gov. Sarah Palin and Crony Capitalism)

The Rome Sentinel ^ | September 13, 2011

[2ndDivisionVet]

We may be reaching a tipping point.

Thursday, Obama’s job speech helped make it increasingly clear that the president’s approach doesn’t so much work as impoverishes everyone except his cronies. While Obama can still obstruct the recovery, he has become increasingly irrelevant to our future. Meanwhile, even as pundits like Paul Krugman and political cartoonists like Gary Trudeau try to ridicule those who present different ideas, those ideas have become increasingly relevant. Even writers in the New York Times take notice.

Friday, the Times published Anand Giridharadas’ column, "Some of Sarah Palin’s Ideas Cross the Political Divide." Palin "made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a ‘permanent political class,’ drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called ‘corporate crony capitalism.’ Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private)."

Giridharadas concluded, "in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs. Strangely, she was saying things that liberals might like, if not for Ms. Palin’s having said them."

At LegalInsurrection.com, Prof. William Jacobsen made the same point, "What I do know is that in attacking crony capitalism, Palin gave voice to those of us who refuse to buy into the Democratic narrative that the answer to Democratic union pandering is Republican big business pandering. It’s not about them, it’s about us."

Many Democrats want to help others. So do a lot of tea party Republicans opposed to big government elites. As it becomes increasingly evident that Obama’s approach to big government is self-serving and ineffective, good Democrats may find themselves partnering with tea party Republicans who want to put individuals and the economy back to work again.

If that happens, an Election Day steamroller will hit the big government political elite on both sides of the aisle.

[SatinDoll]

“... an Election Day steamroller will hit the big government political elite on both sides of the aisle.”

Yep. That’s the idea.

[ReneeLynn]

Like Rush, Sarah is ‘right’ in so many ways.

[Gargantua]

I've most often referred to the coming Palin effect as a "tsunami," but "steamroller" works, too.

8^D

[21twelve]

Last year my daughter and I were talking about the old revolutionary war “anti-federalists”. And of course her book made some comment comparing the “anti-federalists” to the democrats today. I argued the point that I thought that was wrong - that the conservatives are the “anti-federalsists”.

I guess it can’t really be compared to the old days - but it seems to me that more and more folks, D & R alike, are becoming more and more concerned about “the little guy”. And I think the Tea Party folks (and Palin in particular) are showing how Big Government is screwing over Small Main Street.

[Happy Rain]

(Gibson) “Han's Bratz and Beer” was a privately owned politically unconnected business competing with “Shultz’s Shnitzel and Schnapps” across the street in 1942 Berlin.
That was Capitalism in the midst of Nazi tyranny.
(General Electric) I.G.Farben,on the other hand,was given lucrative government contracts (like for Zyklon B) because they kissed the Fuhrer on one end and did everything the Fuhrer’s other end told them.
That is crony Capitalism—or Fascism for short.

[reasonisfaith]

Either you’re for crony capitalism, or you’re against it.

[tarotsailor]

Among my friends there are as many people with underauthe-table businesses going on as those who have regular jobs.

When you have an anti-entepreneur mentality that requires $2000 in licenses and fees to sell a 50¢ glass of lemonade, people aren’t going to work for starvation wages if they can find a way around it...why should they pay taxes to an entity that’s an enemy to their making a living?