A Brief Rant

I work in the financial industry, but I'm not rich. Truthfully, I'm not even sure I'm middle class anymore. I long ago realized that I don't have the ability to pick the next great thing in the stock market and I don't have the temperament to cold call all day and hard sell investors on the great idea my research department has come up with. Consequently, I work for an online discount brokerage.

I'm essentially a foot soldier on the front lines of the financial markets. And what I've seen has convinced me that this country is heading for a worse recession than I've ever seen in my lifetime. Consider: The Federal Reserve has bailed out a major brokerage firm and is allowing the nation's 20 largest securities dealers to borrow directly from its coffers. Not commercial banks, folks. Brokerage firms. Bear Stearns was only one of many.

Sadly, you have to be a major brokerage firm to merit a rescue. Our beleaguered commander-in-chief has announced no such plan to bail out the homeowners facing foreclosure. That would mean the government intervening in the economy and that's bad. The free market has to work these things out on its own.

Now, normally this would be a great year to be the democratic nominee for the presidency, especially running against a cranky septuagenarian like the presumed GOP choice. Sadly, however, the republican party has always been adept at using diversionary issues to persuade people to vote against their economic interests---who can forget George Bush sr. using Dukakis' objection to a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning against him in the rust belt or W. raising the specter of legalized gay marriages to scare up votes in impoverished areas in the south. All the while the corporations that donate to their campaigns have no compunction about moving their factories overseas to the third world where they don't have to worry about unions or paying decent wages to American workers. I guess patriotism is how you define it.

We've all seen the youtube video of Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright. It's become a campaign issue that Obama had to address, and he did. It would have been simple to denounce Pastor Wright in a soundbite, but he didn't---instead, he delivered a nuanced speech about the nature of race relations that appealed to uncommon sense and intelligence. It's probably the greatest speech I've heard a presidential candidate deliver in my lifetime---and the riskiest. And it displayed something you almost never hear in a political speech: wisdom. It's a rare quality in our political leaders and Barack Obama has it. Wisdom.

However, it doesn't appear to be helping him in the polls right now. I'm afraid the Hillary faction will use the Pastor Wright connection to try to block Obama's path to the nomination. And if he prevails, I'm afraid that the republicans will use it in the fall and that it will be very effective.

It's funny---the republicans can openly court ministers who believe that AIDS is God's judgment against homosexuals, that women should stay at home, that the Islamic faith should be wiped off the face of the earth and that the universe was created six thousand years ago. I guess you can get away with it if you flatter your countrymen and tell them that they are the greatest, wisest, bravest people who ever walked the face of the earth.

No wonder they stoned the prophets in the old testament.

I sincerely hope that Barack Obama is our next president. Beware of those who preach sacrifice and patriotism while giving tax breaks to companies that move their operations off-shore and bail out the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the less fortunate.

And thank you so much for indulging my rant. It felt good to get this off my chest.