Beware right-wingers denouncing ‘Wall Street’
By
Caleb T. Maupin
Published Sep 25, 2008 9:07 PM
As banks fail, jobs disappear and the economy sinks deeper into a horrific
crisis of poverty and misery, the television channels and political campaigns
have suddenly become full of the most unlikely people denouncing “big
business.”
Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck and even Sarah Palin and John McCain have suddenly become
“defenders of the working people” against “Wall Street
greed.”
Dobbs and Beck are broadcast nightly on CNN, a privately owned,
corporate-funded network. Their programs are paid for many times over with
advertising dollars from the biggest banks and corporations.
Dobbs and Beck often criticize big business—but in totally distorted ways
really meant to confuse workers and the middle class about the source of all
their pain.
Dobbs rails at big business for hiring immigrant workers. But he is silent
about the way U.S. corporations, through pushing for so-called “free
trade” agreements, have ruined the economies of Latin America, forcing
workers in those countries to come here just to survive. This is a crime of big
business he has clearly forgiven.
Beck’s way of being “anti-establishment” was to run an
hour-long interview with Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president.
Barr’s platform calls for complete deregulation of big business and the
abolition of every social program and protection won through progressive
struggle, from children’s services to college financial aid.
Beck has given no airtime to the campaigns of Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader,
although they are clearly much more anti-establishment than Barr and ahead of
him in some of the polls. How anti-establishment can Bob Barr be? He is author
of the “Defense of Marriage” Act, which makes it seem like same-sex
couples are the big problem confronting families in this country. Meanwhile,
families of all kinds are torn up by housing foreclosures and evictions,
unpayable debts and health crises because of lack of affordable health care.
What’s Barr doing about that?
Among these right-wing demagogues who preach against big business is Ron Paul,
who held his “Rally for the Republic” as a counter to the
Republican National Convention. In his speech to this seemingly
anti-establishment rally, Paul claimed that U.S. schools don’t teach
“free market economics” any longer. He also claimed that the U.S.
needs to stop following ideas like “corporatism and socialism.”
Is he at all in touch with reality?
Any youth who has attended school in the U.S. knows that “free market
economics,” not socialism, is shoved down your throat at every
opportunity. And anyone who has ever been unemployed should know that the U.S.
economy has nothing to do with socialism. Every socialist revolution has
immediately led to guaranteed jobs for all. Unlike capitalism, which is totally
built around providing profits for a few and needs a reserve of millions of
unemployed to keep down wages, a socialist economy is publicly owned and can
plan production to meet people’s needs.
While these voices that play on people’s frustration are now emphasizing
pseudo anti-corporate rhetoric, they haven’t let up on their attacks on
immigrants, calls for militarization of the border or hatred of affirmative
action.
Beck has defended the racist Philadelphia police and gave free publicity to the
hate book “Murdered by Mumia.” In his interview with the author,
Maureen Faulkner, she was never confronted or challenged on her claims, all of
which were made with the motive of having Mumia Abu-Jamal executed for a crime
he did not commit. How anti-establishment is it to side with racist cops in
their drive to kill an innocent man?
Lou Dobbs continues to spin John Birch-style fairy tales about the U.S. being
conquered by globalist conspiracies while ignoring the terrorism that the U.S.
government is committing against people in countries like Iraq and
Afghanistan—wars initiated by the Bush administration on behalf of the
huge oil and “defense” companies, the one sector of the U.S.
economy still turning in huge profits.
The Republican Party presidential candidate, John McCain, and his running mate,
Sarah Palin, have been pro-big business from day one and get their funding from
the same big banks and corporations as Barack Obama, but now they are attacking
the first African-American nominee of the Democratic Party as
“elitist.”
Are we to believe that these folks are the answer to big business?
If anything, this should prove that running your mouth off and saying
what’s popular, as all these forces do, doesn’t mean you are really
fighting against the powers that be.
If a Dobbs or a Beck or a McCain is being paid by big business to speak against
them, can he really be a threat to those footing the bills?
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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