We're going into uncharted territory here. Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling this morning every candidate in America is going to be offered huge, legal corporate bribes. And a lot of them will take them.
If you think the insurance lobby played hardball, wait until you see what the richer, more powerful, more tentacled banking/financial industry does as Obama tries to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act. It's going to be the most horrible legislative fight in my lifetime.
He's got to act like there's no re-election pending. He's got to put it ALL on the line. He's got to win this one , whatever the consequences politically. If he doesn't, he won't get a second term.
That's why he's got to put reelection out of his mind. He's going to have to say some true things that aren't pleasant. The roots of the worst part of the financial crisis didn't start under Bush, they started under Clinton, when he tore down the wall between banks and investing. Yes, that's the Secretary of State's husband, but he's going to have to explain, CLEARLY what his new banking laws are about.
He needs to explain
- After the depression we enacted laws to prevent such a big financial crisis from ever happening again.
- Those laws worked.
- We got rid of them, starting in 1999, and exactly as predicted...
- It happened again.
So now we need to bring those laws back.
The President has to the chips fall where they may, call out any legislator in Goldman's pocket. Make it public and hurt them. Act like it's 2014 and there's no reelection to worry about.
He's got to get it done, no matter where it leaves him.
And we, angry, miffed, hurt, exhausted, demoralized as many of us are, have to back him on this. As much as we can, any way that we can. Again.
This is the last, best chance.