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Yarrow's avatar

We need to stop framing this as a "Democrat" thing. It is, of course, but.... you think there's nobody on the R team involved? Rebrand this sucker. It's not limited to one party. It's bigger than that, and it's a corruption and unearned privilege problem. "Elite" is overused and has become a thoughtstopper. "Oh, this must be a conspiracy nut thing" (potential ally wanders off). Every time it comes up, we need to talk about it as a problem of "well-connected" people. The "well-connected" don't suffer the same legal consequences as everybody else. The well-connected get good congressional committee seats. The well-connected make a bigger return on their stockmarket investments than everybody else... not because they're good at reading ledgers, but because they have advance notice and can't be prosecuted for it like Martha Stewart-- the well-connected get legal protection for insider trading, which is forbidden to the rest of us! The bottom 85% of Americans can no longer buy a house, because the well-connected get to stand first in line at the Fed spigot, and use that low-interest credit to buy the house for more than you could ever hope to offer. The well-connected buy bad artwork from the president's kid, and then when a bunch of Americans are taken hostage, their relative gets to be first on the negotiated-release list. Too bad for the rest of you suckers. Should've invested in art, right?

The well-connected aren't better than you. But they have very different privileges and priorities. If you think the old white/colored segregated water fountains were an outrage, wait'll you see the well-connected/average-joe segregated bank access lines.

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Jupplandia's avatar

Good article. It was entirely a Reichstag Fire event.

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