So, besides their racist hatred of our nation’s first black President, the supposed freedom loving Teabaggers got their start in opposition to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the bailouts of both the banks, AIG and the auto industry. They screamed “stop the bailouts!” They screamed that it was their money. A new moment of populist fervor was sweeping the country, and we were led to believe that the Republicans were the ones to lead this populist uprising.
It will be interesting to see how defending the banks will be seen as populist.
Democrats believe President Barack Obama’s proposed, $90 billion tax on big banks will box in Republicans, giving them the choice between siding with the bankers or breaking with the GOP’s antitax base. If so, Republican Massachusetts Senate candidate Scott Brown has taken the bait. His Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, embraced the bank tax and spent the day goading Brown to take a stand. […]
Responding to The Wall Street Journal, the Brown campaign said this evening, “Scott Brown is opposed to higher taxes, especially in the midst of a severe recession. Raising taxes will kill jobs. Martha Coakley’s tax-raising policies will make it harder to get our economy back on the right track.”
So Republicans will have us believe, that in a moment of populist fervor which they hope to lead back into power, that the politically smart thing to do, in a close election, is to defend the banking industry.