Reform will come and reform will go, but the only secure way to power is by negotiating with the money power.
In the years around a genuine political crisis, and that’s what we’ve been in since 2005, this can be hard to see, hard to fathom. There is great fervor on both sides. The question for money is always, who will set the rules.
Each generational turn of the wheel in American history has been followed by just such a negotiation.
Money lost the struggle only once, as Andrew Jackson closed the Bank of the United States. This was followed by economic collapse driven by the states’ uncontrolled issuance of bonds. Money won’t make that mistake again, especially since Europe is playing the 1837 Game right now.
Republicans put the money power in charge after the Civil War. The progressive era was a continued effort to negotiate with, and struggle against, the money power. The liberal era forced the money power to accept a new normal of regulation in exchange for profit. And the Nixon era overturned the compromise.
During the Bush Excess money set the rules alone. It was the only force at the table. That’s why the ambulance crashed.
Money has no principles, no limits. The ideology of money, put in place by Reagan, was always self-defeating. Money must always compete, it must be challenged and channeled, or its raging water is just a flood, destroying everything before it.