| Oligarchy/Populism/Patronism Quotation/Excerpt Page 1 |
Charles Murray, Real Education (pg. 107):
"The proposition is not that America's future
should depend on an elite that is educated to
run the country, but that, whether we like it or
not, America's future does depend on an elite
that runs the country."
"The proposition is not that America's future
should depend on an elite that is educated to
run the country, but that, whether we like it or
not, America's future does depend on an elite
that runs the country."
Michael Reid, Forgotten Continent (Latin America)
"Like 'neoliberalism', 'populism' has become a loaded, normative term,
rather than an analytical one. So here is a definition. By 'populism' I
mean two things: first, a brand of politics in which a strong, charismatic
leader purports to be a saviour, blurring the distinction between leader,
government, party and state, and ignoring the need for the restraint of
executive power through checks and balances. Second, populism has
often involved redistribution of income and/or wealth in an
unsustainable fashion"...quoting Luis Rubio, Mexican political scientist:
'people remember the years of economic growth, not the years of
paying the bills.' (pg.12)
"Latin Americans see success as deriving not from individual merit but
from patronage and personal contact - know-who rather than
know-how." (pg. 42)
"Political scientists have often preferred to label corporatism as
populism...Populist movements opposed foreign domination and the
power of what they called the agro-export 'oligarchy'. These
movements were reformist - unlike parties of the Marxist left, they
aimed to mitigate class conflict rather than stimulate it." (pp 78-79
"Past experience showed that gradual reform tends to peter out in the
face of pressure from powerful local interest groups who benefited
from the subsidies and rents of the old model." (pg 154)
"The Latin American state suffered from two basic weaknesses. The
first was that a professional, technical approach to public
administration often lost out to 'patrimonialism' (the capture of public
resources, or award of public employment, to sustain a political
following)...The second, related weakness was the inability of these
states to command sufficient tax raising capability...Instead, states
came to rely on inflationary financing and debt." (pg 237)
"Fujimori's heavy-handed methods worked - but only for a while and at
a long-term cost to Peru's democracy. He crushed the Shining Path,
stabilized the economy, and built many schools and health clinics in
Andean villages. He legitimized his autogolpe ('self coup') with a new
constitution approved by referendum, which concentrated powers in the
presidency and, unprecedentedly, allowed him to stand for (and easily
win) a second term. But he was ever the elected autocrat." (pg 284)
"Clientelism, like populism, is far from dead. Politics everywhere
involves trading favors." (pg 292)
"Like 'neoliberalism', 'populism' has become a loaded, normative term,
rather than an analytical one. So here is a definition. By 'populism' I
mean two things: first, a brand of politics in which a strong, charismatic
leader purports to be a saviour, blurring the distinction between leader,
government, party and state, and ignoring the need for the restraint of
executive power through checks and balances. Second, populism has
often involved redistribution of income and/or wealth in an
unsustainable fashion"...quoting Luis Rubio, Mexican political scientist:
'people remember the years of economic growth, not the years of
paying the bills.' (pg.12)
"Latin Americans see success as deriving not from individual merit but
from patronage and personal contact - know-who rather than
know-how." (pg. 42)
"Political scientists have often preferred to label corporatism as
populism...Populist movements opposed foreign domination and the
power of what they called the agro-export 'oligarchy'. These
movements were reformist - unlike parties of the Marxist left, they
aimed to mitigate class conflict rather than stimulate it." (pp 78-79
"Past experience showed that gradual reform tends to peter out in the
face of pressure from powerful local interest groups who benefited
from the subsidies and rents of the old model." (pg 154)
"The Latin American state suffered from two basic weaknesses. The
first was that a professional, technical approach to public
administration often lost out to 'patrimonialism' (the capture of public
resources, or award of public employment, to sustain a political
following)...The second, related weakness was the inability of these
states to command sufficient tax raising capability...Instead, states
came to rely on inflationary financing and debt." (pg 237)
"Fujimori's heavy-handed methods worked - but only for a while and at
a long-term cost to Peru's democracy. He crushed the Shining Path,
stabilized the economy, and built many schools and health clinics in
Andean villages. He legitimized his autogolpe ('self coup') with a new
constitution approved by referendum, which concentrated powers in the
presidency and, unprecedentedly, allowed him to stand for (and easily
win) a second term. But he was ever the elected autocrat." (pg 284)
"Clientelism, like populism, is far from dead. Politics everywhere
involves trading favors." (pg 292)
Fareed Zacharia, The Future of Freedom
"In 1900 not a single country had what we would today
consider a democracy: a government created by elections
in which every adult citizen could vote. Today 119 do,
comprising 62 percent of all countries in the world..."
"Across the globe, democratically elected regimes, often
ones that have been re-elected, or reaffirmed through
referenda, are routinely ignoring constitutional limits on
their power and depriving their citizens of basic rights. This
disturbing phenomenon - visible from Peru to the
Palestinian territories, from Ghana to Venezuela - could be
called 'illiberal democracy..."
"The Western model of government is best symbolized not
by the mass plebiscite but by the impartial judge..."
"The philosophy behind the U.S. Constitution, a fear of
accumulated power, is as relevant today as it was in 1789..."
"In state and local legislatures all over the United States,
what is striking is not the power of the majority party but the
protections accorded to the minority party, often to an
individual legislator..."
"The forces that guided democracy are quickly being
eroded." (Chapter 1)
"Some poor countries have become democracies. But
when countries become democracies at low levels of
development, their democracy usually dies." (pg 69)
"Why is wealth good for liberty?...the process of economic
development usually produces the two elements that are
crucial to the success of liberal democracy. First, it allows
key segments of society - most important, private business
and the broader bourgeoisie - to gain power independent of
the state...Money in and of itself does not produce liberty. It
must be earned." (pp 72, 73)
"Consider Latin America...Local oligarchs allied with the
military and bureaucracy, protected their industries, creating
a Byzantine structure of tariffs and regulations that kept the
powerful fat and happy...The broader business class
remained weak and subservient to the state." (pg 74)
"The tendency for a democratic government to believe it has
absolute sovereignty (that is, power) can result in the
centralization of authority, often by extraconstitutional
means and with grim results." (pg 102)
"Founded as a republic that believed in a balance between
the will of the majority and the rights of the minority - or,
more broadly, between liberty and democracy - America is
increasingly embracing a simple-minded populism that
values popularity and openness as the key measures of
legitimacy." (pg 162)
"Most Americans have neither the time, nor the inclination to
monitor Congress on a day-to-day basis. But lobbyists and
activists do...In his important book Demosclerosis,
(Jonathan) Rauch applies and extends the insights of the
economist Mancur Olson to argue that the rise of interest
groups has made American government utterly
dysfunctional." (pp 171, 173)
"The parties reflect less of the ideas of their mainstream
policy-makers and officials and more of the views of their
strongest activist groups and organizers - the ones who
mobilize votes during the primary. In that sense the
"democratizing" reforms have not eliminated elites, just
replaced them, and not demonstrably for the better...The
democratization of campaign finance has changed the
nature of American politics, and not for the better...it has
produced a new group of power brokers: fundraisers...we
have created a new layer of enormously powerful elites."
(pp 184, 185, 196)
"Between party lines and patronage, the space for
genuinely independent evaluations of public policy has
almost vanished in Washington...A relatively small group of
people - perhaps 1 million or 0.5 percent of the country -
runs most of the major institutions in the United States or
has influence in other ways." (pp 230, 235)
"In 1900 not a single country had what we would today
consider a democracy: a government created by elections
in which every adult citizen could vote. Today 119 do,
comprising 62 percent of all countries in the world..."
"Across the globe, democratically elected regimes, often
ones that have been re-elected, or reaffirmed through
referenda, are routinely ignoring constitutional limits on
their power and depriving their citizens of basic rights. This
disturbing phenomenon - visible from Peru to the
Palestinian territories, from Ghana to Venezuela - could be
called 'illiberal democracy..."
"The Western model of government is best symbolized not
by the mass plebiscite but by the impartial judge..."
"The philosophy behind the U.S. Constitution, a fear of
accumulated power, is as relevant today as it was in 1789..."
"In state and local legislatures all over the United States,
what is striking is not the power of the majority party but the
protections accorded to the minority party, often to an
individual legislator..."
"The forces that guided democracy are quickly being
eroded." (Chapter 1)
"Some poor countries have become democracies. But
when countries become democracies at low levels of
development, their democracy usually dies." (pg 69)
"Why is wealth good for liberty?...the process of economic
development usually produces the two elements that are
crucial to the success of liberal democracy. First, it allows
key segments of society - most important, private business
and the broader bourgeoisie - to gain power independent of
the state...Money in and of itself does not produce liberty. It
must be earned." (pp 72, 73)
"Consider Latin America...Local oligarchs allied with the
military and bureaucracy, protected their industries, creating
a Byzantine structure of tariffs and regulations that kept the
powerful fat and happy...The broader business class
remained weak and subservient to the state." (pg 74)
"The tendency for a democratic government to believe it has
absolute sovereignty (that is, power) can result in the
centralization of authority, often by extraconstitutional
means and with grim results." (pg 102)
"Founded as a republic that believed in a balance between
the will of the majority and the rights of the minority - or,
more broadly, between liberty and democracy - America is
increasingly embracing a simple-minded populism that
values popularity and openness as the key measures of
legitimacy." (pg 162)
"Most Americans have neither the time, nor the inclination to
monitor Congress on a day-to-day basis. But lobbyists and
activists do...In his important book Demosclerosis,
(Jonathan) Rauch applies and extends the insights of the
economist Mancur Olson to argue that the rise of interest
groups has made American government utterly
dysfunctional." (pp 171, 173)
"The parties reflect less of the ideas of their mainstream
policy-makers and officials and more of the views of their
strongest activist groups and organizers - the ones who
mobilize votes during the primary. In that sense the
"democratizing" reforms have not eliminated elites, just
replaced them, and not demonstrably for the better...The
democratization of campaign finance has changed the
nature of American politics, and not for the better...it has
produced a new group of power brokers: fundraisers...we
have created a new layer of enormously powerful elites."
(pp 184, 185, 196)
"Between party lines and patronage, the space for
genuinely independent evaluations of public policy has
almost vanished in Washington...A relatively small group of
people - perhaps 1 million or 0.5 percent of the country -
runs most of the major institutions in the United States or
has influence in other ways." (pp 230, 235)
Robert D. Kaplan
The Coming Anarchy
"The real message here is not the failure of democracy - but the
emergence of quasi-democratic "hybrid" regimes, where parliamentary
practices are officially adhered to, while behind the scenes the military
and security services play dominant roles. Venezuela seems to be the
latest example of this trend...to categorize accurately the political
system of a given society, one must define the significant elements of
power within it." (pp xiv,83)
"The last thing America needs is more voters - particularly badly
educated and alienated ones - with a passion for politics." (pp 89-90)
"The willingness to give up self and responsibility is the sine qua non
for tyranny." (pg 92)
"Trouble awaits us , if only because the 'triumph' of democracy in the
developing world will cause great upheavals before many places settle
into more practical - an, it is to be hoped, benign - hybrid regimes." (pg
94)
"According to Aristotle, 'whether the few or the many rule is accidental to
oligarchy and democracy - the rich are few everywhere, the poor many.'
The real difference, he wrote is that 'oligarchy is to the advantage of the
rich, democracy to the advantage of the poor.'" (pg 95)
"James Madison in The Federalist was convinced that a state or an
empire can endure only if it generally limits itself to adjudicating
disputes among its peoples, and in so doing becomes an exemplar of
patriotic virtue." (pg 116)
"All of them (Kissinger, Kennan, Reinhold Neibuhr, Hans Morgenthaw)
doubted that America, however overarching its power, would ever be
able to affect the internal evolution of many other societies at once; the
world is too vast, and the expense and stamina required are prohibitive,
at least with regard to winning public acceptance (Morganthau) that
because the resources of even a superpower are limited, morality
alone can never be a basis for foreign policy. These men saw the
missionary idealism of America's ruling elite as naive." (pg 137)
"Realists almost always run foreign policy; idealists I have found, attend
academic conferences and write books and articles from the
sidelines." (pg 139) (Published in 2000)
"Corruption, infidelity, and stupidity in moderate doses are, like
occasional wars, evidence of humanity." (pg 174)
The Coming Anarchy
"The real message here is not the failure of democracy - but the
emergence of quasi-democratic "hybrid" regimes, where parliamentary
practices are officially adhered to, while behind the scenes the military
and security services play dominant roles. Venezuela seems to be the
latest example of this trend...to categorize accurately the political
system of a given society, one must define the significant elements of
power within it." (pp xiv,83)
"The last thing America needs is more voters - particularly badly
educated and alienated ones - with a passion for politics." (pp 89-90)
"The willingness to give up self and responsibility is the sine qua non
for tyranny." (pg 92)
"Trouble awaits us , if only because the 'triumph' of democracy in the
developing world will cause great upheavals before many places settle
into more practical - an, it is to be hoped, benign - hybrid regimes." (pg
94)
"According to Aristotle, 'whether the few or the many rule is accidental to
oligarchy and democracy - the rich are few everywhere, the poor many.'
The real difference, he wrote is that 'oligarchy is to the advantage of the
rich, democracy to the advantage of the poor.'" (pg 95)
"James Madison in The Federalist was convinced that a state or an
empire can endure only if it generally limits itself to adjudicating
disputes among its peoples, and in so doing becomes an exemplar of
patriotic virtue." (pg 116)
"All of them (Kissinger, Kennan, Reinhold Neibuhr, Hans Morgenthaw)
doubted that America, however overarching its power, would ever be
able to affect the internal evolution of many other societies at once; the
world is too vast, and the expense and stamina required are prohibitive,
at least with regard to winning public acceptance (Morganthau) that
because the resources of even a superpower are limited, morality
alone can never be a basis for foreign policy. These men saw the
missionary idealism of America's ruling elite as naive." (pg 137)
"Realists almost always run foreign policy; idealists I have found, attend
academic conferences and write books and articles from the
sidelines." (pg 139) (Published in 2000)
"Corruption, infidelity, and stupidity in moderate doses are, like
occasional wars, evidence of humanity." (pg 174)
Empire Wilderness (Kaplan)
"Europeans, with their intimate experience of occupation, annihilation, and the passing of one
political order after another - monarchy, fascism, communism - know intuitively about historical
change. They know how frighteningly adaptive human behavior can be and how some of
society's most cherished assumptions can shift - cruelly, if necessary - to accommodate new
circumstances. They know that no society is permanent and, as D.H. Lawrence put it, that 'Men
live by lies.'" (pg 19)
"In North America, unlike in Europe, each new layer of civilization and development erases
rather than builds upon the previous ones." (pg 29)
Quoting Dennis Judd, and urban affairs professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis
campus. "Deep down, we are a nation of herd animals: mouselike conformists who will lay at
the doorstep all our rights - if you tell us that we won't have to worry about crime and that our
property values will be protected." (pg 34)
"As the income gap widens, the American middle class continues to split into an increasingly
rarefied upper middle class and an increasingly downtrodden middle class, as the middle
slowly fades into one or the other." (pg 35)
Quoting Major Gregory Hawkins, St. Louis Police Department. "The people who live here
(northern part of the city that is primarily black) have absolutely no perspective on how the
outside world behaves. For them, these streets are the entire earth. So how can they have
anything resembling ambition?" (pg 41)
"As political power fragments - as one city becomes ninety-two municipalities - civic decisions
reached behind closed doors of corporate boardrooms become increasingly possible. (pg 44)
"The collapse of distances and the increasing interconnectedness of the world economy argue
against the permanence of Washington...The future (if there is to be one) will depend on the
transformation of the federal government into an as-yet-undiscovered alloy - a far more flexible,
lightweight version itself - so as to appear almost invisible, even as it retains the power to
oversee not only nuclear weapons but, for example, ever-scarce water resources. Whether this
is likely, who can say?" (pg 240) AND PATRONAGE?
Quoting Sam Nelson, associate professor, Oklahoma State Panhandle University. "We are in
the beginning stages of a formidable social revolution, and people are scared. When they get
scared, they try to refuel old value systems. That's what all these Evangelical churches are all
about - go back to the 'good old days' when the worst problems in school was kids chewing
gum. When society is in a state of upheaval, everything changes, including religion. We're
edging toward a new, post-industrial brand of religion that may ultimately bear no relationship
to how we worship now." (pp 247-248) "Economic uncertainty for many and increasing
reliance on television and computers have enormous implications for religion."
Kaplan observation of the West and Southwest: "I found an archipelago of separate nations,
including third world Indian settlements, a bus-riding underclass, a global elite in Santa Fe that
was closer to New York and Paris than to Aqua Fria (south of Santa Fe), an Oklahoma town
more affected by markets in South America and the Far East than by the East Coast, and a
government fortress with more destructive power than history has ever before seen, even
though the government might no longer control the future of anything except those weapons,
and perhaps in the long run not that future either." (pg 263) Published in 1999; one might
wonder how Kaplan would see things ten years later.
Presenting the other side with an interview with Jerome Warner, Nebraska Republican state
representative of thirty-four years. "The idea of political power reverting to the states is
nonsense. The Feds have so narrowed our options that local control is a myth; this is
particularly true of urban areas, which require more regulations...(Kaplan: there are other, more
subtle forms of centralizing tyranny, according to Warner. Local political races are now
influenced by out-of-state money to an unprecidented degree, so that many a local race is
increasingly a national race) Because of the growth of television more money is needed for
campaign advertising, so candidates have to look beyond the community for help...When I first
started here in the early 1960s, most of the mail was positive. Now it's overwhelmingly
negative. People are upset with government in principle. By that I mean that they want more
and more from government but expect to pay less...It's funny, but the communications revolution
has actually hindered the crucial sorts of communications that a healthy democracy requires."
(pp 268-269)
"As the size of our population and the complexity of our lives challenge the traditional national
community - creating a wilderness of region-states and suburban oases linked to a global
marketplace - will the gulf widen still further between the citizens of these new entities and the
bureaucratic overseers in Washington, who must manage an elite, volunteer military and
information age weapons in an unstoppable world?" (pg 270)
"Anger plus media power equals waves of public irrationality just at the moment when a
specific issue is up for legislative decision. Everyone is angry about something, yet nobody
knows anymore who his legislator is or, perhaps, whom he voted for at the last statewide
election. Meanwhile, in addition to the corporations, we have public pressure groups and
citizen's lobbies, which have taken on the attributes of corporate beasts, even as the average
citizen is both more dissatisfied and more passive." (pg 282)
"Perhaps only after democracy slips away, silently replaced by the power of corporations and
other great concentrations of wealth in a society whose basic instincts are tranquilized by
pharmaceuticals, masturbatory gambling, and the voyeurism of colosseum sports, will the true
destiny of America reveal itself." (pg 352)
"Europeans, with their intimate experience of occupation, annihilation, and the passing of one
political order after another - monarchy, fascism, communism - know intuitively about historical
change. They know how frighteningly adaptive human behavior can be and how some of
society's most cherished assumptions can shift - cruelly, if necessary - to accommodate new
circumstances. They know that no society is permanent and, as D.H. Lawrence put it, that 'Men
live by lies.'" (pg 19)
"In North America, unlike in Europe, each new layer of civilization and development erases
rather than builds upon the previous ones." (pg 29)
Quoting Dennis Judd, and urban affairs professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis
campus. "Deep down, we are a nation of herd animals: mouselike conformists who will lay at
the doorstep all our rights - if you tell us that we won't have to worry about crime and that our
property values will be protected." (pg 34)
"As the income gap widens, the American middle class continues to split into an increasingly
rarefied upper middle class and an increasingly downtrodden middle class, as the middle
slowly fades into one or the other." (pg 35)
Quoting Major Gregory Hawkins, St. Louis Police Department. "The people who live here
(northern part of the city that is primarily black) have absolutely no perspective on how the
outside world behaves. For them, these streets are the entire earth. So how can they have
anything resembling ambition?" (pg 41)
"As political power fragments - as one city becomes ninety-two municipalities - civic decisions
reached behind closed doors of corporate boardrooms become increasingly possible. (pg 44)
"The collapse of distances and the increasing interconnectedness of the world economy argue
against the permanence of Washington...The future (if there is to be one) will depend on the
transformation of the federal government into an as-yet-undiscovered alloy - a far more flexible,
lightweight version itself - so as to appear almost invisible, even as it retains the power to
oversee not only nuclear weapons but, for example, ever-scarce water resources. Whether this
is likely, who can say?" (pg 240) AND PATRONAGE?
Quoting Sam Nelson, associate professor, Oklahoma State Panhandle University. "We are in
the beginning stages of a formidable social revolution, and people are scared. When they get
scared, they try to refuel old value systems. That's what all these Evangelical churches are all
about - go back to the 'good old days' when the worst problems in school was kids chewing
gum. When society is in a state of upheaval, everything changes, including religion. We're
edging toward a new, post-industrial brand of religion that may ultimately bear no relationship
to how we worship now." (pp 247-248) "Economic uncertainty for many and increasing
reliance on television and computers have enormous implications for religion."
Kaplan observation of the West and Southwest: "I found an archipelago of separate nations,
including third world Indian settlements, a bus-riding underclass, a global elite in Santa Fe that
was closer to New York and Paris than to Aqua Fria (south of Santa Fe), an Oklahoma town
more affected by markets in South America and the Far East than by the East Coast, and a
government fortress with more destructive power than history has ever before seen, even
though the government might no longer control the future of anything except those weapons,
and perhaps in the long run not that future either." (pg 263) Published in 1999; one might
wonder how Kaplan would see things ten years later.
Presenting the other side with an interview with Jerome Warner, Nebraska Republican state
representative of thirty-four years. "The idea of political power reverting to the states is
nonsense. The Feds have so narrowed our options that local control is a myth; this is
particularly true of urban areas, which require more regulations...(Kaplan: there are other, more
subtle forms of centralizing tyranny, according to Warner. Local political races are now
influenced by out-of-state money to an unprecidented degree, so that many a local race is
increasingly a national race) Because of the growth of television more money is needed for
campaign advertising, so candidates have to look beyond the community for help...When I first
started here in the early 1960s, most of the mail was positive. Now it's overwhelmingly
negative. People are upset with government in principle. By that I mean that they want more
and more from government but expect to pay less...It's funny, but the communications revolution
has actually hindered the crucial sorts of communications that a healthy democracy requires."
(pp 268-269)
"As the size of our population and the complexity of our lives challenge the traditional national
community - creating a wilderness of region-states and suburban oases linked to a global
marketplace - will the gulf widen still further between the citizens of these new entities and the
bureaucratic overseers in Washington, who must manage an elite, volunteer military and
information age weapons in an unstoppable world?" (pg 270)
"Anger plus media power equals waves of public irrationality just at the moment when a
specific issue is up for legislative decision. Everyone is angry about something, yet nobody
knows anymore who his legislator is or, perhaps, whom he voted for at the last statewide
election. Meanwhile, in addition to the corporations, we have public pressure groups and
citizen's lobbies, which have taken on the attributes of corporate beasts, even as the average
citizen is both more dissatisfied and more passive." (pg 282)
"Perhaps only after democracy slips away, silently replaced by the power of corporations and
other great concentrations of wealth in a society whose basic instincts are tranquilized by
pharmaceuticals, masturbatory gambling, and the voyeurism of colosseum sports, will the true
destiny of America reveal itself." (pg 352)
Kaplan has a different view of what future oligarchy might look
like in the US and in the world. It includes regional
fragmentation focusing on elite enclaves in the United States,
but with a flair of anarchy, particularly outside the United States,
anarchy perhaps in the guise of tribalism. Perhaps oligarchy is
not the right word; if not, what is?
As with democracy certainly oligarchy looks different dressed in
different cultural garb.
like in the US and in the world. It includes regional
fragmentation focusing on elite enclaves in the United States,
but with a flair of anarchy, particularly outside the United States,
anarchy perhaps in the guise of tribalism. Perhaps oligarchy is
not the right word; if not, what is?
As with democracy certainly oligarchy looks different dressed in
different cultural garb.
Heritage Foundation
"This Saturday (12 September 2009), tens of thousands of Americans marched on Washington to protest the unprecedented amount of
power being concentrated in Washington, DC under the Obama administration. And even the New York Times admits they have a
point: 'The government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small.
Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the
nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II.' And on the Sunday New York Times op-ed page, George
Mason University professor of economics Tyler Cowen writes: 'For years now, many businesses and individuals in the United States
have been relying on the power of government, rather than competition in the marketplace, to increase their wealth. This is politicization
of the economy. It made the financial crisis much worse, and the trend is accelerating. … President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of
the birth of a military-industrial complex. Today we have a financial-regulatory complex, and it has meant a consolidation of power and
privilege. We’ve created a class of politically protected 'too big to fail' institutions, and the current proposals for regulatory reform further
cement this notion.'"
"This Saturday (12 September 2009), tens of thousands of Americans marched on Washington to protest the unprecedented amount of
power being concentrated in Washington, DC under the Obama administration. And even the New York Times admits they have a
point: 'The government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small.
Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the
nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II.' And on the Sunday New York Times op-ed page, George
Mason University professor of economics Tyler Cowen writes: 'For years now, many businesses and individuals in the United States
have been relying on the power of government, rather than competition in the marketplace, to increase their wealth. This is politicization
of the economy. It made the financial crisis much worse, and the trend is accelerating. … President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of
the birth of a military-industrial complex. Today we have a financial-regulatory complex, and it has meant a consolidation of power and
privilege. We’ve created a class of politically protected 'too big to fail' institutions, and the current proposals for regulatory reform further
cement this notion.'"