Here Come the Peasants With Pitchforks

Meltdown, bailout provoke populist fury against Wall St., DC

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Sep 29, 2008 10:19 AM CDT

(Newser) – The financial meltdown may have brought simmering economic resentments to a boil and prompted a populist backlash, writes Nina Easton in Fortune. Public opinion indicators—polls, calls to Congress—show widespread fury at the bailout. Long-building anger over growing economic inequality may have combined with disgust at the current crisis and the behind-closed-doors style of addressing it, forming a general anti-elite sentiment.

Seeing Henry Paulson seemingly throwing money at Wall Street, Americans have been reluctant to come around to the idea that their economic fate is connected to that of the bailed-out fat cats, and calls for executive pay caps reflect broad unease with the plan. Newt Gingrich describes the popular perception as “big guys bailing out their friends.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Protesters march outside of the U.S Treasury building in protest of the proposed Wall Street bailouts, Friday Sept. 26, 2008, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, center, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., left, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., right, announce a tentative deal on legislation regarding... (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Protestors march past the New York Stock Exchange during a rally against the Wall Street bailouts, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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What we're seeing is an environment where people are being asked to shoulder enormous costs with uncertain benefits. - Doug Schoen, pollster

Unfortunately, politicians have seized on the politics of envy, and they are stoking it this election year like I've never seen in my lifetime. - Mitt Romney

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Here Come the Peasants With Pitchforks