Scared streeters
by David Atkins
The New York Times frets:
As campaigns enter their final month, a number of candidates are flooding the airwaves with advertisements demonizing Wall Street. From the presidential race to local Congressional contests, from Montana to New Mexico, candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — are relentlessly attacking their opponents by linking them to bankers and bailouts, no matter how tenuous the connection.
“Candidates are bashing each other over the heads for being in Wall Street’s back pocket,” said Elizabeth Wilner of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. “Wall Street is this campaign season’s punching bag, and it’s bipartisan and it’s escalating.”
Yes, it’s true. People hate Wall Street–so much so that campaigns on both sides are stretching the truth to tie their opponents to Wall Street because it looks so bad.
That’s what happens when a small class of very, very wealthy people crashes the entire economy, gets bailed out at the expense of everyone else, roars back to greater riches than ever, and then has the audacity of sneer at the downtrodden for not being as “productive” as they are.
Yes, they’re insecure about both their wealth and their position in society, emotionally and morally.
Good. It’s called social guilt, and it’s a survival mechanism. The big question is who will be left surviving if they bring it all crashing down again.
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