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In a week where the “Occupy Wall Street” movement really began to buzz in both the mainstream and social media universes, I feel compelled to say a few words.

As usual conservative pundits, politicians, and web trolls immediately jumped to the defense of corporations, millionaires, and the supposed “free market” that is apparently the source of all things holy, good, and patriotic. Millionaire Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the protests while millionaire Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain asserted that instead of blaming Wall Street, suffering American’s should for not being rich.

It is absolutely mind-blowing that we have reached that point in this country that politicians can actually run for nationwide office (and have a good chance of winning) on a platform of defending a tiny minority of super-rich millionaires and ”too big to fail” financial corporations. Look how far we have come even from the days of , the conservative icon:

The sickening and ironic part of it all is that if America actually had anything even close to resembling a free market, those banks would have crashed and burned during the crisis due to their greed and excessive speculation. Instead we have corporate socialism/crony capitalism– a system where profit is privatized while risk is socialized. Instead of letting these corporations fail like good free market capitalists, we used billions of dollars of the people’s money to save them–and in the process made them even larger and even more “too big to fail”!!

This is crony capitalism, plain and simple. Just look at this chart from  on how the banking industry consolidated after their lobbyists bought the deregulatory Riegle-Neal Banking Act in 1994.

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement may not be ultimately successful, but it is clear that on both the left and right populist anger is boiling at a stagnated and decaying political and economic system that is threatening the future of America.

This guy is a perfect example:

While in the short-term balancing the budget would require massive spending cuts that would result in increased job losses and a further decline in revenues (and then more cuts), ideally the government should easily be able to balance its budget (and preserve the social safety net) by increasing revenues by taxing the super-rich and closing corporate tax loopholes, as well as ending costly military adventurism overseas and cutting the defense budget. However, the underlying sentiment of this video is dead on. There are two standards in America. One for the rich and corporations, and one for the rest of society. This graphic just about sums it up:

There is a name for a place where a small minority control the vast majority of income and wealth, wield disproportionate political power, and live by a separate set of rules and laws. It is called a Banana Republic.

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