A Message for Trump Supporters
You were right, the system is rigged.
Many of you are middle-class folk who lost houses, income and jobs in the 2008 housing crash through no fault of your own. You’re angry for good reason. So you expected Trump to “drain the swamp” of Washington insiders and corporations that protected the Wall Street “geniuses” who caused the crash. They had placed reckless bets with other people’s money using investment tools they invented solely to profit from speculation rather than hard work and real assets. When housing prices dipped in 2008, it all collapsed taking family homes and jobs with it. Then we were forced to fund the losses with our tax dollars because the government simply could not allow the entire banking system to fold.
But oddly, these bankers, mortgage lenders and bond rating agencies who caused the crash also supported Trump with their money. What did they get from doing so? As soon as Trump and a Republican Congress were elected, they got rid of key provisions in the Dodd/Frank Act passed in 2009 to prevent them from crashing the economy again. Back to business as usual.
They really appreciated your support for Trump. And they are pleased that you blame the “deep state”, “globalists”, Mexicans and the other imaginary villains conjured by Team Trump. Their wealth is safe as long as you think someone else is responsible for corruption, ineffective government, over-taxing you and wrecking the economy. So they supported Trump just like you.
Meanwhile, other people who rig the system profited from the misery suffered after the crash. With guaranteed federal subsidies, “vulture capitalists” scooped-up defaulting mortgages and took ownership of houses at rock bottom prices. These subsidies, paid from your taxes, were supposed to help people save their homes while keeping banks afloat. But it was more profitable to collect the subsidies by foreclosing on devalued property and then getting rent checks from former homeowners. Thousands of family homes became the property of the richest Americans.
Who were these vultures? Some examples…
Steven Mnuchin who became Trump’s Treasury Secretary, was the CEO and Chairman of OneWest Bank, a notorious forecloser and collector of federal subsidies.
Wilber Ross who later became Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, was described as a “foreclosure kingpin”, in the same business as Mnuchin.
Tom Barrack, CEO of another notorious foreclosure profiteer, Colony Capital, was a huge donor to Trump.
Even Sean Hannity set-up 20 dark shell companies buying residential homes after foreclosures. He was exposed after Michael Cohen named him as a client in court, in what later was revealed as a scheme to establish these anonymous Limited Liability Corporations.
Speculators, predatory lenders and vulture capitalists own the politicians who are supposed to hold them accountable. That is how the system is rigged, and it’s not new. Funding candidates then writing the laws they pass is a tried-and-true formula of developers, oil companies, pharmaceuticals, tobacco companies, etc. Rigging the system means the rich get richer, not by talent and hard work, but by using their money to guarantee they get more, while you get screwed.
And they are really good at it now. One of the billionaires supporting Trump (Robert Mercer) invested millions in a company specializing in “micro-targeting” ads. Using Facebook data about your preferences, beliefs and characteristics, Cambridge Analytica automatically targeted you with messages precisely designed to persuade or mislead you. And you didn’t even know where the messages came from. You don’t know who QAnon is either, which lied to you again and again. But for sure, this “deep state” source is well funded and benefits from fostering fantasies.
Americans have been trying to stop this ever since the 1907 Tillman Act. It has been mostly a losing battle until the final blow in the 2010 Citizens United Case declaring that the First Amendment means wealthy individuals and corporations can spend unlimited money helping candidates get elected. So their messaging won’t stop and it will become increasingly sophisticated. Corruption is now built-in to our democracy unless we change the Constitution.
We can do this with CFR28. And by separating political speech from money, this amendment will not only protect free speech, but will also allow the rest of us to be heard above the relentless noise from special interests who will no longer own the megaphone.
Michael J. Kyvik