All you need to know about the “Third Way”
by David Atkins
This from Daily Kos is priceless:
That’s pathetic. The big coordinated Wall Street Democrat pushbank against De Blasio, Warren and others is even sadder.
Just in case it wasn’t clear, it’s not that progressives hate Wall Street. Most of us understand that Wall Street and the financial industry have their place in a healthy economy. There’s an argument to be made that in a future of mass globalization, deskilling and mechanization we’ll need a dramatic reorientation of global economics. But that day isn’t here quite yet. So for now at least, Wall Street has a valuable role to play.
But right now Wall Street dominates absolutely everything and everyone. Stocks are at record highs, as are corporate profits, as is income inequality. The vast majority of the insanely rich are in the financial industry. There has been a huge brain drain from the rest of the productive economy into finance, as people who should have been scientists, teachers, engineers, authors, doctors and entrepreneurs instead help Wall Street firms figure out newer and cleverer ways to manipulate markets. Long term investment in real business productivity has been converted to a quarter-by-quarter obsession with “trimming fat” in the service of next quarter’s earnings report.
The Tea Party right wants to destroy government and go back to the 14th century on social issues. The progressive left doesn’t want to destroy Wall Street. We just want to put it back on even footing with Main Street again.
That’s not so much to ask. These corporate titans will still be rich; they just won’t be quite as rich even as the economy grows much more stable and most people are better off–which incidentally reduces the risk of violent revolution against them as well. It’s not a lot to ask, and not at all equivalent to the Tea Party right.
If the Wall Street Dems want to really push this fight, they’ll simply sow the seeds of their own destruction. Already the populist right is accusing Democrats of being crony capitalists in service to Wall Street. If the Third Way crowd insists on a war with the populist elements of both parties, it won’t end well for them.
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