Donald Hank
Who owns the movement?
Anwer: Whoever wants it bad enough
By Donald Hank
I caught a lot of flack from my conservative readers over my article suggesting that left and right should come together on the issue of the banking oligarchy. I pointed out that the only president to break the power of the banking elites in America was Andrew Jackson, a democrat, and that ironically, the Tea Party — the antithesis of Democrat ideology — now sounded more like Jackson than any prominent Democrat politicians or writers.
But the elephant in the room was the Occupy Wall Street movement's apparent link to ACORN, and hence to our far left administration.
I knew about the ACORN link when I wrote the article. In fact, it seems Obama's favorite Maoist Van Jones also may well be linked to the movement.
All of this is very bad indeed, and there has never been a leftist-organized movement that has been successfully used to the advantage of the right or of constitutionally minded Americans before.
But if my hunch is correct, and if God is with us (or in other words, if we deserve a break in God's eyes), the Obama camp may be in for a surprise.
You see, there are two separate and opposite narratives going on in this same movement.
The narrative of the group that thought it was in charge is figuring prominently in New York City, blaming Wall Street and capitalism in general, never mind that Big Business is no longer governed by free market capitalist rules but by a series of machinations based on a government-business alliance, known as corporatism (or as fascism by the less charitable). A perfect example was Apple, headed by the recently deceased Steve Jobs. Around the last elections, about 91% of Jobs' political donations went to the Democrats, who openly oppose the free market, while the other 9% went to the GOP, which at least pays lip service to the free market. So what does that tell you?
A free market ideology is virtually absent from Big Business today, as though the captains of industry were in a hurry to see their own demise. It is nothing short of surreal.
However, the narrative of the group that is rapidly assuming control of the Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere does indeed support free market principles. Many of these people seem to be coming from Ron Paul's vast network, and they can be described as independents and libertarians, who, as you know, draw their intellectual sustenance from the free market enthusiasts of the Austrian School, and from Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand and the like, and, for whatever faults they may have, they loathe leftist Statism as much as Obama and fellow travelers love it.
According to Asia Times, far from calling for more government intervention to tax the rich, the new (and growing) narrative is a call "to end the banking cartel's hold on Washington."
This is a narrative not supported by either party. The GOP likes the corporatism behind the banking oligarchy's power, which it is desperately trying to continue passing off as "capitalism" and "free market principles." Likewise, the Democrats like corporatism because it brings money into their private and public coffers with generous donations from corporate fat cats who know that staying on the good side of the Dems will pay big dividends for them, and likewise, that failing to fawn all over these socialists will bring down a torrent of regulator interventions as it did on Gibson Guitar Corp., threatening to drive them out of business.
Probably the last best representatives of free market capitalism are to be found under H in the phone book: Handymen. These men are part of what used to be called the black market in the Soviet Union.
They pay little or no taxes, they hire no one and they are all but invisible to government.
We can only hope that our free market is soon restored to the point that the little guy, including the handyman, can at least dream of working his way into business ownership again, through hard work, creativity, intelligence and a benevolent, laissez-faire government that has no plans either to entangle him in an unholy alliance with it or to squash him like a bug simply for being independent and giving Americans — not Chinese or Mexicans or anyone else — jobs.
There's a movement out there that started out for the purpose of further destroying sound American economic principles. But in the right hands, this same movement, with a narrative change, could very well bring us back to the free market, over the protests of the hapless left.
It's ours for the taking.
© Donald Hank
October 7, 2011
I caught a lot of flack from my conservative readers over my article suggesting that left and right should come together on the issue of the banking oligarchy. I pointed out that the only president to break the power of the banking elites in America was Andrew Jackson, a democrat, and that ironically, the Tea Party — the antithesis of Democrat ideology — now sounded more like Jackson than any prominent Democrat politicians or writers.
But the elephant in the room was the Occupy Wall Street movement's apparent link to ACORN, and hence to our far left administration.
I knew about the ACORN link when I wrote the article. In fact, it seems Obama's favorite Maoist Van Jones also may well be linked to the movement.
All of this is very bad indeed, and there has never been a leftist-organized movement that has been successfully used to the advantage of the right or of constitutionally minded Americans before.
But if my hunch is correct, and if God is with us (or in other words, if we deserve a break in God's eyes), the Obama camp may be in for a surprise.
You see, there are two separate and opposite narratives going on in this same movement.
The narrative of the group that thought it was in charge is figuring prominently in New York City, blaming Wall Street and capitalism in general, never mind that Big Business is no longer governed by free market capitalist rules but by a series of machinations based on a government-business alliance, known as corporatism (or as fascism by the less charitable). A perfect example was Apple, headed by the recently deceased Steve Jobs. Around the last elections, about 91% of Jobs' political donations went to the Democrats, who openly oppose the free market, while the other 9% went to the GOP, which at least pays lip service to the free market. So what does that tell you?
A free market ideology is virtually absent from Big Business today, as though the captains of industry were in a hurry to see their own demise. It is nothing short of surreal.
However, the narrative of the group that is rapidly assuming control of the Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere does indeed support free market principles. Many of these people seem to be coming from Ron Paul's vast network, and they can be described as independents and libertarians, who, as you know, draw their intellectual sustenance from the free market enthusiasts of the Austrian School, and from Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand and the like, and, for whatever faults they may have, they loathe leftist Statism as much as Obama and fellow travelers love it.
According to Asia Times, far from calling for more government intervention to tax the rich, the new (and growing) narrative is a call "to end the banking cartel's hold on Washington."
This is a narrative not supported by either party. The GOP likes the corporatism behind the banking oligarchy's power, which it is desperately trying to continue passing off as "capitalism" and "free market principles." Likewise, the Democrats like corporatism because it brings money into their private and public coffers with generous donations from corporate fat cats who know that staying on the good side of the Dems will pay big dividends for them, and likewise, that failing to fawn all over these socialists will bring down a torrent of regulator interventions as it did on Gibson Guitar Corp., threatening to drive them out of business.
Probably the last best representatives of free market capitalism are to be found under H in the phone book: Handymen. These men are part of what used to be called the black market in the Soviet Union.
They pay little or no taxes, they hire no one and they are all but invisible to government.
We can only hope that our free market is soon restored to the point that the little guy, including the handyman, can at least dream of working his way into business ownership again, through hard work, creativity, intelligence and a benevolent, laissez-faire government that has no plans either to entangle him in an unholy alliance with it or to squash him like a bug simply for being independent and giving Americans — not Chinese or Mexicans or anyone else — jobs.
There's a movement out there that started out for the purpose of further destroying sound American economic principles. But in the right hands, this same movement, with a narrative change, could very well bring us back to the free market, over the protests of the hapless left.
It's ours for the taking.
© Donald Hank
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