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America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
The American Spectator ^ | The July 2010 - August 2010 issue | Angelo M. Codevilla

Posted on 01/16/2012 8:54:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The only serious opposition to this arrogant Ruling Party is coming not from feckless Republicans but from what might be called the Country Party -- and its vision is revolutionary. Our special Summer Issue cover story.

As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's understanding...

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush; economy; elites; obama
A bit old but interesting.
1 posted on 01/16/2012 8:55:03 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The reason the ruling class shifted from buying troubled assets to just buying up banks and autos was that they found out that 1 trillion wasn’t nearly enough..so those bad assets are still on the books of the banks and that is causing our hangover.


2 posted on 01/16/2012 8:58:08 PM PST by Oldexpat
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yeah, this article was discussed here on FreeRepublic extensively when Rush read it a couple of years ago. CODEVILLA actually wrote a small book surrounding this article and the attention it got from a broad base is conservative commentators.


3 posted on 01/16/2012 9:16:15 PM PST by Bigtigermike
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
A bit old but interesting.

In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

They're hoping we forget...That won't ever happen.

4 posted on 01/16/2012 9:16:21 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2

McCain is several notches below Dubya on the general scale of things, IMHO ... Presidentially speaking, and not saying anything against McCain personally, you understand.


5 posted on 01/16/2012 10:37:04 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is NOT about Revolution, but about Restoration of a Constitutional Republic.

The government established by the Constitution is the best ever devised by man. Problem is, the government (Federal and State) do not abide by the chains of the Constitution.


6 posted on 01/17/2012 4:45:59 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Angelo M. Codevilla’s rhetoric is all well and good, but he is a hypocrite. He believes that regardless of the wishes of Americans, America and Mexico are joined. http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/18/pro-mexico


7 posted on 01/17/2012 11:19:18 AM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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