Rancid Cocktail
by digby
Gallup highlights what seems to be a contradiction in its polling on financial reform:
When Wall Street is not mentioned, net public support (percentage in favor minus percentage opposed) for banking reform legislation is +3 points, but when it is mentioned, net support is +14. […]
On both questions, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support banking reform. Seven in 10 Democrats favor the proposed new federal regulatory powers, regardless of the wording. By contrast, Republicans show greater support for reform when “Wall Street” is invoked than when it is not (35% vs. 22%).
Yglesias wonders what the cause of this strange difference could be and hypothesizes that it might be a hostility to New York. Krugman says:
I think what it really tells us is how little voters — and, I dare say, Republican voters in particular — understand the issues. My bet is that a lot of people really don’t realize that when we use the shorthand of referring to Wall Street, we’re actually talking about high finance in general. Scary — and it’s a lack of understanding that the likes of Mitch McConnell are happy to exploit.
I think there’s a simpler explanation: Republicans associate Wall Street with bailouts and bailouts with Democrats. That’s an effect of not understanding the issues, but I think it’s more a result of very powerful conservative propaganda which has succeeded in tying the Democrats to the unpopular Wall Street while keeping all those nice “other” big banks firmly in the Real American camp.
One of the consequences of letting this right wing populist swill ferment over the past year is that it’s now become an incomprehensible toxic cocktail of anti-socialism, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist cronyism all aimed at the left. It doesn’t make any sense, but they’ve managed to mix every evil symbol of the 20th century into their critique of the Democrats so that they no longer have to defend anything that’s unpopular.
Update: Uhm — I should note that packing the administration with Feddie Boyz and other Dear Friends of the Masters Of The Universe undoubtedly contributed to this perception. The Republicans are only half wrong — both parties are compromised.
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