Taibbi on Obama & Wall Street

Matt Taibbi's 7/6/11 blog post highlights Frank Rich's recent article in New York magazine. Therein Rich sternly criticizes the President for letting Wall Street off the hook for its crimes. Rich was once considered a die-hard Obama supporter and now he's complaining that the President is enamored of powerful, white financiers who sycophantically courts their favor while granting not just bailouts but immunity in return.



Taibbi, like most of us progressives, laments our high hopes that Obama was going to change the corrupt Washington system. And that we must now face the obvious fact that he too is bought and paid for by the criminal system that has been the true governor of the world government since time immemorial. To wit, despite the record number of small internet contributors to Obama's campaign by far the majority of those donations were dwarfed by Wall Street purchasing direct influence. Hence we get specious anti-corporation and people-supporting rhetoric that is merely for show, a means to manipulate the masses still clinging to their false hopes, while further enriching the corporate masters through retaining tax breaks.This is nowhere more evident in the lack of prosecution of the heinous criminal activity of those who brought the world economy to the brink of collapse.

Obama's latest concession to the rich is accepting their frame of austerity, that somehow this fiscal mess is a government spending problem, mostly on those nasty programs that actually help the less fortunate. Our situation is caused by giving too much to those in need instead of giving too much to those that have every need satiated with unprecedented wealth beyond all imagining? So the rest of us need to tighten our belts and accept austerity while the wealthiest among us have keep buying larger and larger sizes of stretch pants to accommodate their ever-increasing girth?

Yes, Obama talks a good game but most of us former supporters now realize it is just talk, that actions always speak louder than words. And given the same types of financial instruments that created the meltdown are still in play by those banks once considered too big to fail who are now even bigger than ever, things won't change with Obama in the White House. It is seriously time to consider a leader who will stand firm to enact true progressive reform. I guess this isn't feasible for 2012 so that gives us almost 5 years for the 2016 elections to pick right next time.