What's Behind The Bank Protests?

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Investors Business Daily:

Socialism: The mob assaults against our banking system by unemployed leftists and their political allies are part of a larger strategy to control the commanding heights of our economy. And we'll all be much poorer for it.

The White House has thrown in with the anticapitalism crowd, and banks had better watch out. You only had to hear President Obama's cynical, politicized expressions of sympathy for the unwashed legions "occupying" Wall Street this week to be worried.

"Not only did the financial sector, with the Republican Party in Congress, fight us every step of the way," Obama said at his news conference Thursday. "But now you've got these same folks arguing we should roll back all those reforms and go back to the way it was."

But no criticism of the demonstrators.

In fact, added Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, "We are going to push back harder," making what sounds like a fairly explicit threat against the banks.

Welcome to class warfare, 2011-style. Obama's ratings have never been lower, and administration policies leading to a dead-in-the-water economy with 9%-plus unemployment are incredibly unpopular.

So he must think his only hope for re-election is to somehow tie the GOP to fat-cat bankers on Wall Street and then convince voters that the banks are to blame for all their ills.

Sound cynical? It is. But this is what Obama and the Democrats are doing. They've even put out a video: "Republicans: On the Side of Wall Street, not Consumers."

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Too bad for them it's all false. Obama and his party repeatedly opposed meaningful financial reforms in the 1990s and 2000s until it was too late. This, and not bank "greed," is what caused the system to melt down.

And for the record, Obama received three times as much cash from Goldman Sachs — now the whipping boy for the anti-Wall Street protestors — as John McCain.

Obama was also the No. 2 recipient of campaign largesse from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the government-run mortgage companies that are the main reasons for the meltdown and current ills. Yet, they remain untouched under financial "reform."

The ignorant children of privilege now throwing a leftist hissy fit on Wall Street apparently don't know this.

But we see something more than just campaign strategy here. So-called progressives like Obama have always sought to control the economy — to make it impossible for entrepreneurs and businesspeople to operate without government permission or guidance.