On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Shane Mage <[email protected]> wrote: me: > I'm with Marv here. ;-) I'm afraid that if Obama had instituted > financial reform (or anything else) by fiat without some sort of mass > support, it would have evoked even more popular antagonism than it > did...
Shane: > Have you forgotten that in January 2009 there was nobody more despised by > the mass public than the Wall Street swindlers? not at all. > ... He didn't want to. Bought > and paid for. Yes, but he suffers from conflicting pressures from different fractions of the capitalist class, so you might say that there are "conflicting claims" on him. He could try to represent the long-term interests of the capitalist class _as a whole_ (which would involve serious financial reform, backed by the non-financial interests and the farsighted financial ones). Alternatively, he could just give the more powerful interest groups within the capitalist class what they explicitly want, serving their short-term interests. He seems to have leaned toward the latter approach. It should be remembered, however, that if he wants to be useful to his "owners," he has to have _some_ popular support, including from the "Democratic Party base." -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
