Why did Occupy Wall St. help to reelect Wall St.’s #1 favorite politician of all time?

I’m against the cozy relationship between Wall St. and the government, which is one of the reasons why I voted for Ron Paul for President in 2008, and Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2012.

A very small percentage of Occupy Wall St. protestors voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2012, so the question posed by me in the title of this blog post is not directed at them.

Instead, my question is directed at those who claim to be against the close ties between Wall St. and the government, but who simultaneously helped to reelect President Obama, Wall St.’s #1 favorite politician of all time. Why did you do that?

As of October 2011, Obama had raised more money from Wall St. than any other candidate during the past 20 years.

In early 2012, Obama held a fundraiser where Wall St. investment bankers and hedge fund managers each paid $35,800 to attend.

In October 2011, Obama hired Broderick Johnson, a longtime Wall Street lobbyist, to be his new senior campaign adviser. Johnson had worked as a lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Comcast, Microsoft, and the oil industry.

While Senator, Obama voted for the $700 billion TARP Wall St. bailout bill. The bailout rewarded irresponsible and illegal behavior. It redirected resources from more productive uses to less productive uses. It punished the hard working taxpayers who had played by the rules and obeyed the law. It created horrible incentives, and sent the wrong message. The bailout was evil because it rewarded the bad people and punished the good people. No society that does this can expect to remain free or prosperous. Instead of bailing out these corrupt Wall St. corporations, we should have let them cease to exist, like we did with Enron.

Obama signed a bill that spent money on bonuses for AIG executives. Prior to signing this bill, Obama had said, “when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.” However, after reading “line by line” and signing the bill that protected the AIG bonuses, Obama pretended to be shocked and outraged at the bonuses, and said, “Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at A.I.G. warranted any bonuses at all, much less $165 million in extra pay… How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” and also said that he would “pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses.” Apparently, Obama does not think that “every single legal avenue” includes his Presidential veto power.

Obama went his entire first term without prosecuting any of the top Wall St. criminals. PBS has a brand new 54 minute documentary on Obama’s refusal to prosecute the top Wall St. criminals, which you can watch at this link.

So, again, my question is not directed at the small percentage of Occupy Wall St. protestors who voted for third party candidates. Instead, my question is directed at the Occupiers who helped to reelect President Obama, Wall St.’s #1 favorite politician of all time. Why did you do it?

January 23, 2013. Tags: Barack Obama, corporate welfare, Obama, Occupy Wall St., Politics. Barack Obama, Politics. 3 comments.