CRIME STOPPERS

LAISSEZ FAIRE IS NOT FAIR

It French, laissez faire means “let do” or “let it be,” which has been translated into the mantra of western capitalism: “Keep government's hands off!” The result, as we now see, is that those who plunder win over those who produce, those who cheat beat out those who create, and those who steal do better than those who save. Imagine if laissez faire were imposed more broadly on our society. There would be no traffic lights, no police to arrest bank robbers, no FDA to keep poison out of baby formula, and nothing to prevent counterfeiting. Surely we all now recognize that if government kept its hands off capitalism chaos would follow – as it has.

Government has managed to put a few Bernie Madoffs in prison, but most of the slime bags have been allowed to go free without having to admit their crimes or even say, “Sorry. Won't do it again.” The lackeys of Wall Street even managed to prevent the Consumer Protection Agency from saving us from investment pollution as the FDA protects us from poison in our food.

To save capitalism from today's capitalists we need to invoke a different French word: Arrêt! - Stop! And our only hope of doing that is to keep today's Republican party from gaining even greater control of our government. To achieve that, the Democratic party has no choice but to campaign against Wall Street. Harry S Truman defeated Thomas Dewey by running not against him but against a “Do nothing” Congress when Dewey led in all the polls. Obama can defeat the GOP candidate (assuming the eventually settle on one) by labeling him as the “Tool of Wall Street,” which he (or she?) surely will be. And the party must fight to control congress by running Main Street candidates against the Wall Street candidates. The Occupy movement has pointed the way, now it's time for the Democratic party to join the movement.