Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has raised eyebrows among conservatives by stating that he is an unapologetic Democratic Socialist. Sanders is also unapologetic in his contempt of Wall Street criminals who screw hard working Americans for a living. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Sanders explained that he intends to take action against Wall Street the moment he become president.
Going after Wall Street criminals puts Sanders at odds with not just Republicans but other Democrats as well. To date, not a single Wall Street executive has faced criminal liability for the lawlessness that led to the global financial collapse in 2008.
In the interview with Rolling Stone, Sanders also explained how he feels President Obama dropped the ball regarding Wall Street:
About a half-dozen of us went to visit the president, I’m guessing six months into his [first] term. And we went into the White House, and Larry Summers was there and [Tim] Geithner was there. We had all their money people, all their financial people. That was the issue.
I like the president very much, and I have supported him. We’ve worked together. But these are some of the disagreements we have. The American people were crushed by the greed and illegal behavior on Wall Street, right? And the American people wanted justice.
And we said to the president – I wasn’t alone on this – we said, “Mr. President, you gotta do something. You gotta be tough on this issue.” The end result was seven years have come and gone and there are still no high-ranking CEOs who are in jail. There are kids who smoke marijuana who have criminal records, but not CEOs of large corporations. No matter what kind of crimes and illegal activity, these guys [Wall Street CEOs] are too big to jail?
That is one of the reasons why people became alienated from the political process. They just don’t see justice. From a public-policy point of view, in terms of holding people accountable for serious crimes, the Obama administration blew it. From a political point of view, in giving people confidence that we have a criminal-justice system that works for all, regardless of their wealth or power, it blew it.
For more on this, read the article from Salon titled: “Bernie Sanders puts Wall Street on notice: ‘On day one, I am appointing a special committee to investigate the crimes on Wall Street‘”
