Huffington Post
Dylan Ratigan
Posted: May 7, 2010 12:46 PM
The one main benefit to the financial reform effort so far is
that it helps further do away with the false paradigms of "left" or
"right" and "Democrat" or "Republican" - fewer and fewer people are
falling for those lies anymore. Try to get an ideological conservative
to explain why Republicans love spending and so eagerly give welfare to banks.
Try to get your local liberal to explain why it was a good idea to make
backroom deals with abhorrent corporations and drill, baby, drill. Heck, even try to get a Tea
Partier to explain choosing bailout-lover Sarah Palin to keynote their convention,
especially when that movement once had at least some pre-astroturf roots in protesting
government giveaways.
What we have now is a group of politicians with shifting alliances on
a case-by-case basis to the special
interests who fund them. And currently, the most damaging one to
our nation is the rise of the Bankster Party. Thankfully, we can now
better identify its members.
Anyone who voted for the Kaufman-Brown SAFE amendment deserves to be
considered a member of the "People's Party", at least for today. And
while I may not agree, I am also OK with someone voting no on
Kaufman-Brown if they voted no on the bailout in the first place. That
at least shows a consistent ideology and we wouldn't need to break up
the banks into smaller parts if our leaders had the will to let them
fail.
But there is a special place for those who have the audacity to do
something as incredibly un-American as voting to provide unencumbered welfare for rich bankers and then subsequently do absolutely nothing to fix the problem. And
that special place (for now) is in what we should call from this point
forward the "Bankster Party". Allow me to present to you its current
members:
Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan
The one main benefit to the financial reform effort so far is
that it helps further do away with the false paradigms of "left" or
"right" and "Democrat" or "Republican" - fewer and fewer people are
falling for those lies anymore. Try to get an ideological conservative
to explain why Republicans love spending and so eagerly give welfare to banks.
Try to get your local liberal to explain why it was a good idea to make
backroom deals with abhorrent corporations and drill, baby, drill. Heck, even try to get a Tea
Partier to explain choosing bailout-lover Sarah Palin to keynote their convention,
especially when that movement once had at least some pre-astroturf roots in protesting
government giveaways.
What we have now is a group of politicians with shifting alliances on
a case-by-case basis to the special
interests who fund them. And currently, the most damaging one to
our nation is the rise of the Bankster Party. Thankfully, we can now
better identify its members.
Anyone who voted for the Kaufman-Brown SAFE amendment deserves to be
considered a member of the "People's Party", at least for today. And
while I may not agree, I am also OK with someone voting no on
Kaufman-Brown if they voted no on the bailout in the first place. That
at least shows a consistent ideology and we wouldn't need to break up
the banks into smaller parts if our leaders had the will to let them
fail.
But there is a special place for those who have the audacity to do
something as incredibly un-American as voting to provide unencumbered welfare for rich bankers and then subsequently do absolutely nothing to fix the problem. And
that special place (for now) is in what we should call from this point
forward the "Bankster Party". Allow me to present to you its current
members:
BANKSTER PARTY
Daniel Akaka (B-HI)
Lamar Alexander (B-TN)
Max Baucus (B-MT)
Evan Bayh (B-IN)
Michael F. Bennet (B-CO)
Christopher S. Bond (B-MO)
Richard Burr (B-NC)
Thomas R. Carper (B-DE)
Saxby Chambliss (B-GA)
Susan M. Collins (B-ME)
Kent Conrad (B-ND)
Bob Corker (B-TN)
John Cornyn (B-TX)
Christopher J. Dodd (B-CT)
Dianne Feinstein (B-CA)
Lindsey Graham (B-SC)
Chuck Grassley (B-IA)
Judd Gregg (B-NH)
Orrin G. Hatch (B-UT)
Kay Bailey Hutchinson (B-TX)
Daniel K. Inouye (B-HI)
Johnny Isakson (B-GA)
John F. Kerry (B-MA)
Amy Klobuchar (B-MN)
Herb Kohl (B-WI)
Jon Kyl (B-AZ)
Frank R. Lautenberg (B-NJ)
Joseph Lieberman (B-CT)
John McCain (B-AZ)
Claire McCaskill (B-MO)
Mitch McConnell (B-KY)
Robert Menendez (B-NJ)
Lisa Murkowski (B-AK)
Bill Nelson (B-FL)
Jack Reed (B-RI)
Charles Schumer (B-NY)
Olympia Snowe (B-ME)
John Thune (B-SD)
Mark Udall (B-CO)
George Voinovich (B-OH)
Mark Warner (B-VA)
PEOPLE'S PARTY
Mark Begich (P-AK)
Jeff Bingaman (P-NM)
Barbara Boxer (P-CA)
Sherrod Brown (P-OH)
Roland Burris (P-IL)
Maria Cantwell (P-WA)
Bejamin Cardin (P-MD)
Robert Casey Jr. (P-PA)
Tom Coburn (P-OK)
Byron Dorgan (P-ND)
Richard Durbin (P-IL)
John Ensign (P-NV)
Russell Feingold (P-WI)
Al Franken (P-MN)
Tom Harkin (P-IA)
Edward Kaufman (P-DE)
Patrick Leahy (P-VT)
Carl Levin (P-MI)
Blanche Lincoln (P-AR)
Jeff Merkley (P-OR)
Lisa Mikulski (P-MD)
Patty Murray (P-WA)
Mark Pryor (P-AR)
Harry Reid (P-NV)
John D. Rockefeller IV (P-WV)
Bernard Sanders (P-VT)
Richard Shelby (P-AL)
Arlen Specter (P-PA)
Debbie Stabenow (P-MI)
Tom Udall (P-NM)
Jim Webb (P-VA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (P-RI)
Ron Wyden (P-OR)
Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan
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