One need only look at senior Senate Democrat (and thankfully retiring) Kent Conrad and his bizarre defense of the TARP program to understand why Democrats are about to get their asses handed to them in Tuesday's elections.
Conrad, t
he WaPo reports, is crisscrossing North Dakota and even taking out newspaper ads defending TARP and the Wall Street bailout. Conrad's argument seems to be that TARP was necessary to avoid another Great Depression and that the federal bailouts helped stave off that calamity. As an aside, Conrad notes that TARP was proposed and supported by George W. Bush.
The argument is disingenuous at best, clueless at worst.
Progressives and the rest of the country aren't angry at TARP per se (though, ironically enough, conservative Republicans are). What middle class America is angry about are what came before and since TARP.
TARP may have been necessary. But it was necessary because Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke completely mistook the housing bubble, famously declaring that the subprime housing crisis was contained and would not effect the larger housing market or economy. TARP was necessary because a bipartisan group of policymakers allowed some banks to grow so big they were literally, too big to fail.
The electorate is angry because no bank executives lost their jobs - and no Washington policymaker even demanded such - even after nearly ruining the world economy and requiring a $700 billion bailout.
The electorate is angry because after getting $700 billion taxpayer funds and nearly ruining their institutions, bankers found a way to give themselves multimillion dollar "performance" bonuses.
The electorate is angry because after creating the housing bubble and being bailed out, banks are returning the favor to taxpayers for their help by foreclosing on them in record numbers, often with fraudulent documents and testimony. The electorate is angry because the Obama administration appears more interested in expediting these foreclosures than following legal rules...like evidence. Speaking of which, how ironic that Turbo Timmy Geithner defended AIG's executive bonuses under the banner of "rule of law' and the "sanctity of contracts" but has been curiously silent while accumulating evidence suggests that homeowners are being tossed out of their homes by banks that are not respecting the rule of law or following the particulars of contract language or well settled case law.
Democrats are demoralized cause "leaders" like Conrad have no balls. TARP was created by George W. Bush. So why is any Democrat defending it? If the roles were reversed and TARP had been created by Obama, Republicans would be attacking Obama and TARP relentlessly. Not defending it. It's one of the key differences between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats bring a spoon to a knife fight. Republicans bring an Uzi.
Democrats are angry because they thought electing a black man who grew up in a single parent home would understand and work harder to help the middle and lower classes. That hasn't happened. The rich keep getting richer, often with the support of Washington politicians. As Kent Conrad is showing, the country is run by a bipartisan oligarch of moneyed interests.
Since that's the case, why not allow Republicans control. At least they don't make a pretense of caring about the bottom 90%. Democrats have shown they either don't care or incapable of delivering.
