[Peace-discuss] We can hope

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Bailout Lesson: Capital Crisis Will Wreck Both Parties	
	Wednesday, 01 October 2008
	by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

In their role as mercenaries in service of finance capital, three-fifths of 
Democrats joined one-third of Republicans in a (temporarily) failed heist of 
$700 billion of the people's funds - a nest-egg the public needs to hold onto to 
weather the unfolding collapse of the Lords of Capital. In the aftermath of 
Monday's bloody siege, it was difficult to tell who Wall Street guns-for-hire 
John McCain and Barack Obama hated most: each other, or the citizens who despite 
their outraged confusion had the presence of mind to bar the doors to the 
national treasury.

Understandably disoriented from having had to charge backwards - pretending to 
lead the people while simultaneously assaulting them - Obama peered across the 
field at the hastily-erected barricades that had broken Hank Paulson's Charge. 
"I'm confident we're going to get there," said the frustrated thief-enabler, 
"but it's going to be rocky."

To paraphrase Oscar Brown, Jr., "What you mean WE, Obama-man?" The Illinois 
senator and his pretend-opponents in the other business party just had their 
colluding asses kicked by the most motley, disorganized crew imaginable: the 
American public, who bombarded their legislators with threats of retaliation in 
November if they bowed to Wall Street's extortionist demands.

Never has Republican-Democratic co-subservience to finance capital been on such 
naked display. But then, "We the People" have never before been witness to the 
terminal unraveling of late-stage global finance capital.  When the New York 
Times features no less than three articles declaring the nation's investment 
bankers ready for burial, as did last Sunday's paper, it is time for the 
Democrats, especially, to find another paymaster.

Black Caucus Split

Obama's party is wedded to Wall Street. At the local level the Democrats have 
long been the party of "developers" - the money bags who shape urban policy to 
fit the needs of corporations. These gentrifiers are the "Renaissance Men" that 
insist Black politicians earn their campaign and graft payments by helping to 
expel their own constituents from the cities, so as to make them more congenial 
to business. Betrayal starts at home.  So it's not surprising to find Rep. 
Charles Rangel (NY), the corporate-loving Chairman of the House Ways and Means 
Committee, among the 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to vote 
with the Bush-McCain-Obama Wall Street Axis. Edolphus Towns (NY), Gregory Meeks 
(NY), and Artur Davis (AL) are also in their element, reeking as they do of 
corporate excretions. However, it is strange - and sad - to see Maxine Waters 
(CA), Gwen Moore (WI) and other relatively progressive members aligned with the 
rump end of the Black Caucus.

Among the slim, 21-member majority of the CBC that defied Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 
edicts, one finds more curious company. Voting alongside usually reliable 
progressives such as Barbara Lee (CA), John Conyers (MI), Donna Edwards (MD) and 
Bobby Scott (VA), are some of the Caucus's most rightwing members: William 
"Dollar Bill" Jefferson (LA) and David Scott (GA), once described as the "Worst 
Black Congressman" in the House. Panic makes strange bedfellows.

Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott summed up the "No" position: "There's no point in 
spending all this money on worthless assets" such as toxic mortgages. Detroit's 
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said of the Obama-McCain-Bush-Paulson plan, "This 
helps the banks in their book of mortgages. It doesn't help the little person 
who needs it."

"It is strange - and sad - to see Maxine Waters (CA), Gwen Moore (WI) and other 
relatively progressive members aligned with the rump end of the Black Caucus."

These are eminently good reasons to resist the bipartisan, flag-waving, 
hyper-ventilating and increasingly ill-looking Wall Street mob, now regrouping 
for another bum-rush of the Congress. However, the anxious thieves are only a 
12-vote switch away from consummating the Greatest Theft Ever. Pelosi's wing of 
the Business Party is confident they can assemble the blandishments and threats 
to do the trick...

[See the rest at 
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=806&Itemid=1]

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford at BlackAgendaReport.com.