The voiceless and the powerless rise up
by digby
Finally, FINALLY, someone is fighting for the disenfranchised elements of our unequal society:
Frustrated by a lack of political power and fed up with blindly donating to politicians who consistently vote against the industry’s interests, a handful of leaders are determined to shake things up.
They have formed the industry’s first SuperPAC — dubbed Friends of Traditional Banking — that is designed to target the industry’s enemies and support its friends in Congress.
That is not an April Fool’s joke:
“It comes back to the old philosophy of walking softly and carrying a big stick,” says Howard Headlee, the president and chief executive officer of the Utah Bankers Association. “But we’ve got no big stick. And we should. We have the capacity to have one, we just aren’t organized.”
“Congress isn’t afraid of bankers,” adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. “They don’t think we’ll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception.”
[…]
“BankPAC is much broader and covers lots of different candidates. This is much more surgical,” Packard says. “If someone says I am going to give your opponent $5,000 or $10,000, you might say, ‘Yea, okay.’ But if you say the bankers are going to put in $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million into your opponent’s campaign, that starts to draw some attention.“That’s why I think this is much more instrumental than BankPAC in a close race.”
[…]
“It would be nice to sit on the sidelines or sit on our hands and say, ‘Oh we don’t get involved in that stuff,’ but that just means you get run over,” says Don Childears, the president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association. “We need to get more deeply involved as an industry in supporting friends and trying to replace enemies.”
[…]
“I am for any PAC that is going to defeat our enemies,” Fine says. “I agree with Howard on this. More power to him. I hope he raises a lot of money and hammers these guys.”
[…]
“Clearly there are Members of Congress who have absolutely no reservations about kicking traditional banks in the teeth, and we are tired of it,” says Headlee. “We’ve got to be able to defend the folks who have the courage to stand up for us as well.
I have to assume that by “enemies” they mean people who want to regulate them? Who exactly are these people? The handful of progressive House Democrats to whom even progressives pay no attention? I can’t think of anyone else who gives a damn about regulating banks.
Here’s a wild guess. The “enemies” are people who haven’t signed on to the full blown Pete Peterson, Paul Ryan safety net destruction agenda. Because as we all know, trying to protect the old and the sick is tantamount to declaring war on capitalism, especially the hard working producer bankers.
On the other hand, you do have to feel sorry for them. After all, it’s not as if they’re pampered and privileged people who are already reaping the rewards offered by their membership in the top 1%. Why they’re downright losers compared to this guy:
[T]wo hours later, when the billionaire and I touch down in Sea Island, Ga., it’s hard to see the similarities. As we deplane, a classic Mercedes convertible is waiting. We jump in, and he ferries me around the resort, with its multimillion-dollar villas and perfectly manicured golf courses.
Everywhere he goes, he gets four-star service. Doors are opened, luggage is carried away wordlessly, and at one point, warm chocolate chip cookies magically appear. When his brakes sputter and his convertible starts spewing smoke, he picks up another Mercedes.
“Somebody’s got to live this life,” he says, gesturing to the pristine view from his penthouse villa. “God decided it should be me.”
Poor, poor bankers. Why has God forsaken them?
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