Big-Bank Bad Guys Bully Democracy—and Blow It [View all]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/03/31/big-bank-bad-guys-bully-democracy-and-blow-it/

he last thing these bankers want is a debate within the Democratic Party about reforming Wall Street and breaking up their too-big-to-fail institutions – a debate that could energize the “Warren wing” and leave finance-friendlier Dems on the defensive.

For her part, Warren was unfazed, describing the threat as “warning shot … a showy way to tell Democrats across the country to be scared of speaking out, to be timid about standing up, and to stay away from fighting for what’s right.”

Added Warren: “Ok, they have taken their shot, but it will not work.”

Warren has it exactly right. Warren and her peers have started a conversation Wall Street doesn’t want us to have. She is to be commended for resisting the big banks’ undemocratic (and ungrateful) attack on the very system which saved them.

One thing is clear: This wasn’t just a threat against a few senators, or a Democratic Party faction. It was a naked attempt to crush public debate with campaign cash. That makes it an attack on democracy itself. If the big banks weren’t unpopular already, this undertaking would certainly help turn public opinion against them. They have made the case more convincingly than their critics ever could: We need to get money out of politics – and break up the big banks.

Warren and her allies clearly have public opinion on their side. 79 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of Wall Street. 80 percent of voters in last year’s battleground states agreed that politicians do too much to support Wall Street and not enough for the middle class. 60 percent favor stricter regulation of Wall Street.