Beaver County Reds – 12/27/11

This page was last updated on January 17, 2012.

Tale of Two Cities: GOP Tries to Convert America’s ‘Bedford Falls’ Into ‘Pottersville’; Leo W. Gerard – USW CEO; Progressive Democrats of America – PA 4th CD Chapter; December 27, 2011.

Carl Davidson posted this under the title “The Banksters vs. the Rest of Us.”

You can learn more about BCR’s leftster management here.

Since Mr. Gerard is not a U.S. citizen (He’s a Canadian.), why should any of us care about his position on U.S. issues? Here’s why. Mr. Gerard is a foreign national running a political-advocacy business with over 600,000 members, 2010 revenue of $277 million, and that spent over $6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying.” The citizenship issue is not important because of what Mr. Gerard preaches; it’s important because of his position and the power of that position to affect local, state, and federal policies. You can find more about this at the bottom of a previous critique. It’s also necessary to note truth in advertising would require USW management to change its business’ name. According to “Steelworkers a minority within their own union,” as of 2005 less than one-third (about 180,000 out of about 600,000) of USW “members [are] employed in the primary and fabricated metals industries.”

The most recent Gerard piece I critiqued was “Banksters: You Made the Mess? Pay Up!” A previous critique is here.

Other than the ridiculous assertions throughout, I found this piece to be entertaining if for no other reason than CEO Gerard (a caricature of the stereotypical lefty) and Mr. Davidson appeared to send a couple of unintended messages. First, CEO Gerard wrote, “The film’s happy ending is the people of Bedford Falls banding together to rescue George Bailey and the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan that had given so many of them a leg up over the years.” That is, some citizens of Bedford Falls used their individual liberty to band together voluntarily and address their predicament on their own without the “help” of big government or labor union management. I doubt that’s the message CEO Gerard intended to convey.

Second, Mr. Davidson seemed to miss that as head of the Bailey Building & Loan, George Bailey himself was a “bankster,” just like his father who founded the bank and the despicable Henry Potter. Aren’t all “banksters” supposed to be evil? Oops. Before lefties claim I should not have used the term “bankster” (combination of banker and gangster) to describe George Bailey and his father, I’ve rarely (if ever) seen any of them distinguish between “bankster” and banker when bashing the financial industry. That’s because it’s simpler to fire up activists/protesters to demonize a group if you can portray everyone in the group as bad. Conceding a group has both bad and good actors makes it tougher to “fan the flames,” deploy “street heat,” et cetera.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g>

Update – 1/16/12: Shortly after I posted this critique, Mr. Davidson posted the following comment: “Big difference between Wall St ‘Banksters’ and ordinary Main St bankers. They used to be separated by Glass-Steagall. Even bigger difference with credit unions and public banks, like the Bank of North Dakota. The ‘bankster’ label was invented to deal with the ‘non-bank banks’ that were ‘too big to fail’.” Perhaps I read too much into this comment, but I read it to say “ordinary Main St bankers” are OK.

Just over two weeks later, on Beaver County Reds Mr. Davidson posted a piece entitled “Structural Reform: The Case for Public State Banks.” The piece leads off, “Try to find a bank president that’s beloved by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s not impossible. You’ll just have to travel to North Dakota. Meet Eric Hardmeyer, who bears the unlikely distinction of being perhaps the only banker in America who, in addition to being embraced by Wall Street protesters, has been exalted by the likes of Michael Moore, Mother Jones magazine, and the Progressive States Network, among other progressive stalwarts. That’s because Hardmeyer heads the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the country’s only publicly-owned state bank. The institution, located ironically enough in a solidly red state, has become the darling of progressives who have become frustrated with corporate banks they say helped cause the financial crisis and resulting credit crunch.” This article appears to conflict with Mr. Davidson’s apparent claim that “ordinary Main St bankers” are OK. According to this piece, only government-owned-and-operated banks are OK, not “ordinary Main St bankers.” It’s possible Mr. Davidson’s position on banks differs from that of the “Structural Reform” piece. On the other hand, Mr. Davidson could have been tailoring his message to his audience.