I don’t have strong feelings about Sarah Palin, but I like her anti-establishment attitude.
And, in a case of strange bedfellows, so does the New York Times. Or at least one columnist is honest enough to admit when she makes a compelling argument.
Here’s an excerpt from a column published yesterday, in which the author reports on how Gov. Palin perfectly captures the reprehensible corruption that defines business-as-usual in Washington.
Along with her familiar and predictable swipes at President Barack Obama and the “far left,” she delivered a devastating indictment of the entire U.S. political establishment — left, right and center — and pointed toward a way of transcending the presently unbridgeable political divide.
…She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).
In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties’ tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation’s capital.
…Ms. Palin’s third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs.
…“This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk,” she said of the crony variety. She added: “It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.”
Think about the recent controversy about Solyndra, the “green” company that got lots of handouts from the Obama Administration and recently filed for bankruptcy (and got raided by the FBI).
Not that anyone should be surprised, but the money people at the company were big financial backers of Obama.
Let’s be blunt about what happened. They bribed the White House (not in a way that violates the law, we must assume, but does anybody doubt that’s what was happening?). In exchange, the Obama Administration used the coercive power of government to steer undeserved money to the corrupt company.
And we’re not talking about a couple of million dollars. We’re talking about more than one-half of one billion dollars. That’s $535,000,000.00.
And this is presumably just one example of what probably happens dozens of times every day in Washington.
But let me make one thing clear. I don’t think the Obama Administration is an outlier. The same thing happened every day, in all likelihood, during the Bush Administration. And in previous administrations.
Heck, this is almost certainly what happens in state capitals and city governments, and I doubt that it makes much difference what party is in charge.
Indeed, Republicans are probably even worse than Democrats.
The only way to control the festering sleaze is to make government smaller, as I explain in this video.
As I’ve explained before, I hate when rich people use big government to screw poor people.
