Wall Street Demonizes Wall Street To Protect Wall Street
April 29th, 2010at 11:34am Posted by Eli
Of all the devious tricks practiced by the financial industry—hidden fees, usurious interest rates, and incomprehensible contracts that take advantage of consumers—the campaign strategy for 2010 has to rank right up there.
As the banks begin pouring cash into Congressional elections, they are targeting members of Congress who support consumer protections that could cut into their bottom line.
But here is the kicker: Opponents of financial reform are tarring members of Congress who want to regulate the banks as tools of Wall Street. This Orwellian tactic is designed to confuse voters. In effect, the banks are running against themselves. Look for lots of ads that tie reform legislation to “bailouts,” “fat cats,” “Wall Street,” and “lobbyists.”
As dishonest messaging goes, describing tougher financial regulation as a Wall Street “bailout” is quite an impressive achievement in pretzel logic, mostly predicated on deliberately confusing wind-down funds and spending caps with bailouts. It should be easy enough to counter, but messaging pushback has never exactly been the Democrats’ strong suit…
Entry Filed under: Corruption/Cronyism,Economy,Politics,Republicans