Reich: The real divide in America

[portlander23]

Robert Reich: The real divide in America

The antiestablishment backlash we’re witnessing in American politics — the surge of support for outsiders like Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson among Republicans, and for Bernie Sanders among Democrats — is connected to the view shared by many Americans that the current economic and political game is rigged against them.

Despite the recovery that began in 2009, confidence in economic institutions has fallen precipitously.

Polls show, for example, support among self-described Republicans as well as Democrats for cutting the biggest Wall Street banks down to a size where they are no longer too big to fail.

Similarly, rank-and-file Republicans as well as Democrats are in favor of resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act, which used to separate commercial and investment banking until it was repealed in 1999 by a coalition of congressional Republicans and the Clinton White House.

In 2013, when Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation to recreate such an act, Republican Senator John McCain cosponsored it. Tea Party Republicans expressed strong support of the measure, even criticizing establishment Republicans for not getting more fully behind it.

There is also growing bipartisan support for ending “corporate welfare,” including subsidies to big oil, big agribusiness, big pharma, Wall Street, and the Export-Import Bank.

Finally, grass-roots antipathy has grown toward trade agreements crafted by big corporations.

It is likely that in coming years the major fault line in American politics will shift from Democrat versus Republican to antiestablishment versus establishment.

That coming divide will pit much of the middle class, working class, and poor, all of whom see the game as rigged, against many of the executives of large corporations, the inhabitants of Wall Street, and the establishment billionaires, who are perceived as doing the rigging.

A lot of this reads like a Bernie Sanders speech.

Mr. Sanders has called for the break-up of too-big-to-fail banks:

His bill would require the breakup of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley within a year. It would also empower regulators to identify a list of other banks that should be broken up. Such banks would be barred from accessing favorable Federal Reserve discount rates and prohibited from essentially gambling with federally insured deposits.

The reinstatement of Glass-Steagall:

I strongly support Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bill to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.

Allowing commercial banks to merge with investment banks and insurance companies in 1999 was a huge mistake. It precipitated the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. It caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, life savings and ability to send their kids to college. It substantially increased wealth and income inequality and it led to the enormous concentration of economic power in this country.

Ending corporate welfare:

And ending free trade policies:

Let's be clear: one of the major reasons that the middle class in America is disappearing, poverty is increasing and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider is due to our disastrous unfettered free trade policy.

If the United States is to remain a major industrial power producing real products and creating good paying jobs we must develop a new set of trade policies which work for the American middle class and working class and not just for the CEOs of large corporations. In other words, we must rebuild our manufacturing sector and, once again, manufacture products that are made in the United States of America.

[840high]

1. kick

[Scuba]

2. Kickety kick kick.

[Armstead]

3. The date on that video says it all

While too many corporate Democrats (not all Democrats) were telling us "don;t worry, be happy" Sanders and Progressive Democrats were trying to stave off the growing disaster below the Emperor's New Clothes economy of the 90's.

If more had listened and acted then, we could have avoided a lot of the shit that followed.

Ought to listen and act now.

[appalachiablue]

4. K & R. Examination of the H1-B Visa program is essential.

[LWolf]

5. K & R

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Absolutely agree.

I see the identity politics niches on the left as basically the same counterproductive split-the-vote mechanism as the "values agenda" on the right.

And that's why quality of life for most people has been going the drain for decades. We, everyday people, have the numbers to counteract the 1%'s money, but they have been very effective at splitting those numbers up. It will stay like this, getting worse, until the 99% learns to smarten up.

Sanders is leading a move in that direction and I'm glad to see somebody finally doing it.