Once again, the puppets on Capitol Hill are about to slam the Muppets on Main Street. The country still hasn't recovered from the Wall Street-induced financial cataclysm of 2008, yet Congress is preparing to enact the Orwellian 'JOBS Act' - a bill that should in fact be called the 'Return Fraud to Wall Street in One Easy Step Act.'
Interpretation
The quote criticizes government actions that favor big financial entities over the general public, using satire and irony.
Eliot Spitzer articulates a critical perspective on how political decisions often serve the interests of powerful financial institutions at the expense of everyday citizens. By referencing the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and labeling the 'JOBS Act' with a satirical title, Spitzer highlights the concern that such legislation disguises harmful policies as beneficial reforms, thereby mocking the political landscape and its impact on the economy and society.
In practice
This quote would resonate in a speech addressing financial reform and the need for accountability in politics.
Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty.
Every provisional political set-up following a revolution requires a dictatorship, and an energetic dictatorship at that.
Thomas Jefferson once said: 'Of course the people don't want war. But the people can be brought to the bidding of their leader. All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for somehow a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.' I think that was Jefferson. Oh wait. That was Hermann Goering. Shoot." [Hosting the Peabody Awards for broadcasting excellence at the New York Waldorf-Astoria, June 6, 2006]
Politics abhors a vacuum, and Asian countries will gravitate towards China if U.S. influence is perceived as declining.
Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.
In 1988, when democracy was restored, the military establishment was still very powerful. The extremist groups were still there. And when the aid and assistance to Pakistan was cut, we had to adopt harsh economic policies. So in a way, it showed that democracy doesn't pay, and the military was able to reassert itself.
We are now vibrating between too much and too little government, and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.
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