Wall Street vs Main Street

This is the simplistic formulation Obama uses when discussing the financial crisis and the bailout. By talking about these issues in these terms, Obama is making it awfully hard for regular folks to rally behind the bailout. The frame is too restrictive, making it seem as though the crisis is a Wall Street problem and that Main Street is only affected when the government throws $700 billion their way. Of course this is not the case. Average Americans are as responsible for the financial crisis as any other group and the bailout proposal is supposed to protect them. I've yet to hear any Democrat make a cogent argument for why regular folks should support the bailout. Of course, distilling complex issues has never been a Democratic strength.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008