Cheers!
Posted on 01/17/2010 5:42:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If you held a contest to pick the worst thing a politician could be called at this moment, my nominee would be “Wall Street liberal.”
That label has everything. I personally despise the way the noble liberal idea has been devalued, but face it: Conservatives have had great success in discrediting liberalism, to the point that most liberals dare not call themselves by their own name.
And what institutions are held in lower esteem right now than those represented by the words “Wall Street”?
The left has always disliked Wall Street. Populists of all stripes have gone after financiers since the days of Andrew Jackson. And the right can cast Wall Streeters as the recipients of Washington’s largesse. Oh, yes, and they were the high-fliers who tanked the American economy.
Put “Wall Street” together with “liberal” and: bang! About the only more unpopular combination I can think of is high-cholesterol broccoli.
If you want to understand why President Barack Obama’s standing in the polls is not where it used to be — and also why the populist-sounding Tea Party movement has gained so much traction — consider that some significant part of the American voting population has come to see the administration as both too liberal and too tied to Wall Street.
Never mind that Obama is not really all that liberal (read any of the liberal bloggers if you doubt this), and never mind that Wall Street is fighting Obama on financial reform, particularly on his excellent proposal to create a financial consumer protection agency. The fact is that the Wall Street tag is sticking, and Obama was always going to battle the L-word.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at columbiatribune.com ...
Conservatives haven't discredited Liberalism, the Liberals have.
“This is why his announcement of new fees on the biggest banks to recoup the costs of the bailout comes just in time. So does the idea now floating around Congress to pay for a reduction in the sweep of the tax on so-called Cadillac health plans by applying the Medicare tax not only to wage income but also to investment income.”
Taxing investment income? Don’t working families have 401K from those nasty big corporations? Don’t labor unions? Don’t small businessmen? Don’t state governments invest for their workers pensions? etc etc etc
Now Working American families who do try to save and invest in companies through Wall Street are going to be socked by
Taxing investment income?
Congress.
The Washington Post, for whom E.J. Dionne is writing.
(Oh, and the New York Times and MSNBC and CNN).
All fixed.
Cheers!
Cheers!
This guy Dionne sure loves his LSD... Whew!
Since when is being a communist “not really all that liberal”?
And oh how easy that was! All it took was telling the truth.
Re: Obama is not really all that liberal..
I agree. He’s a Red!
” I personally despise the way the noble liberal idea has been devalued, but face it: Conservatives have had great success in discrediting liberalism”
Oh, BOY. Can I take THAT apart!
Liberalism has spent its career discrediting itself, culminating in a morph into Soviet-style Communist oppression!
“Liberal” used to mean kind generous, free-thinking - all the good things we associate with a Democracy or a Republic.
But by their crooked, sleazy and sordid political behavior, “Liberals” have dragged the very name in the mud. It now means mean-spirited, vengeful and selfish Socialism that seeks to enslave the people.
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