All of my conservative FB friends "liked" the Elizabeth Warren meme about prosecuting banks

[Recursion]

Just throwing that in for political data (in the sense of "plural of anecdote&quot here. When I asked them about it in the comments, they said they agreed about that, but they also thought that the government was the only reason banks could get that big and powerful in the first place.

I think there's a political common ground here, if we can forge it.

[chervilant]

1. Like the guy

who came in yesterday to see my boss, who'd gone to measure a kitchen for cabinets. This guy started ranting about welfare fraud and I countered that the banking crooks have cost taxpayers far more, and might be much more deserving of our ire. He went off on Bill Clinton, and when I asked for details (re his erroneous claim about the affordable housing act and who passed it), he reverted back to the bankers and tried to aver that it was "government's fault." He did seem to get that banks have played a big role in our economic crisis.

[Mopar151]

2. Ask any merchant who deals with lines of credit

Like an auto dealer's "floorplan". And then stand back, 'cuz it's gonna get ugly.....

[Yo_Mama]

3. there is a lot of potential political common ground

If you look at surveys on SS and Medicare, and at surveys on the seeming immunity that large corps have to taxes, and that large banks have to any kind of sanctions. there is TREMENDOUS common ground.

[Recursion]

4. It is. We need to find a rhetoric that doesn't polarize this

Stop focusing on whether it's the government's fault or the corporations' fault: it's a problem. Any ideas?

[raouldukelives]

6. On climate issues as well. I've met many rurally as of late who have had a change of opinion on it.

They have a hard time not believing their own lying eyes and they truly do love the areas they live in. The only thing keeping Americans from improving America is multinational corporations and the power they wield. Power far exceeding our own. Or I should say, power many Americans relinquish to them.

[truebluegreen]

8. When the idea finally breaks through

that the big corporations and their political lackeys have been using the divide-and-conquer technique against everyone else, to control them and take all their money and destroy their children's future...boy hey howdy Look OUT.

And, as is mentioned elsewhere on this thread, undeniable climate change--it is obvious enough now to just about anybody who spends time outside--and the continuing bankster depredations might just do it.

Edited to add: WARREN/GRAYSON 2016

[Le Taz Hot]

5. This woman is a powerhouse.

She's getting HUGE backing and not from just bleeding-heart leftists like myself. Once she gets more exposure, she's going to get right wing support. Her plane-spoken approach is a HUGE draw. She's not a bullshit artist and people can see that. I'm convinced she IS our 21st Century FDR. Democrats need to forget Hillary. Democrats could save this country again by grooming Senator Warren for the presidency. They won't, of course, as she's not pliable enough for their purposes. So it will take a grassroots effort and that's where we come in.

[jollyreaper2112]

7. Agreed

Hillary love is cult of personality. She's running to be in power; Warren appears to want the power because it's the only way to make things happen.

[woo me with science]

9. K&R

[progressoid]

10. Unfortunately she's part of a minority.

Most of DC has far too cozy of a relationship with banks and Wallstreet and aren't interested in prosecution.

[ljm2002]

11. Back when they first started talking about bailouts...

...when Bush was still in office, Congress members (both Senators and Representatives) got lots of mail, email and phone calls from their constituents. Opinion was running very, very strongly against the bailouts. Some of them who voted for the bailout, later admitted their feedback was running 100-to-1 against doing the bailout. Now that is a consensus! You know that the people voicing their opinions had to be of all political stripes.

So yes. There is common ground on what is wrong in this area. There is no common ground, however, on who is to blame. And that's where they (the 1%) get us gnawing at each other's ankles rather than turning on them.