Monday, July 02, 2018

It's a Cookbook: Time Once Again for the Annual Rebranding of the Worst Idea in American Politics


From Bloomberg, with emphasis added:
A Morgan Stanley Star Wants You to Back His Political Movement
Will Americans embrace a new party founded by bankers?

Eric Grossman doesn’t look like he would want to do anything drastic. The top lawyer at Morgan Stanley is a 51-year-old homeowner in the New York suburbs with twin sons and a seat on the firm’s management committee. He’s another man in a power suit in a midtown Manhattan bank.

He also wants to topple America’s two-party system.

Grossman is trying to build a new party—called the Serve America Movement, or SAM...
Another day, another boutique, Third Party vanity project by another cloistered plutocrat hitting up his fellow entitled plutocrats for money because Both Sides!
“Perhaps it’s a fear of arrogance that people are like, ‘Wow you can’t say that, you can’t say you’re going to be a party,’” said Richard Bennett, a partner at investment firm B-FORE Capital who contributed $140,000 to SAM. “I’m like, why not? What else are we going to do? That’s the only thing that’s going to fix it.”
And what exactly does the Banker's Cookbook Party stand against?

Divisiveness!
SAM  stands against divisiveness...
And what exactly does the Banker's Cookbook Party stand for?

All kinds of really, really good shit!
SAM’s upbeat website, with no specifics on immigration, reproductive rights, or the health-care system, can’t clear up big questions. The principles are so broad and cheerful—“applying America’s innovative spirit,” “a strong, clear-eyed, values-based leader,” and “the vitality of local communities”—that they have the ring of taglines for a Silicon Valley startup that hasn’t put out a product yet.
And if this all sounds incredibly familiar, it should.  It is the crutch on which every Beltway Both Siderist hack from No Labels' own ambassador from the Acela Corridor, David Brooks --
David Brooks: A New American Movement

By No Labels
November 12, 2010 | Blog

David Brooks’ New York Times article “National Greatness Agenda” hints at a movement that’s brewing, one that will change the future of America.  Composed of a widespread group of citizens, full of “revived patriotism”, this movement will encourage leaders to rid our politics of partisan gridlock.  While so many outside factors make it seem that we are spiraling towards economic disaster, this desire for change, beyond the prescription of labels like Democrat or Republican, can gives us hope. 

 -- to ABC News' chief political analyst, Matthew Dowd --
Matthew Dowd And The Bro-Mide Party

...
The Bro-Mide Party believes in good stuff and not bad stuff.

The Bro-Mide Party believes in Country over Party.

The Bro-Mide Party believes that the Murrican People stand with them in being in favor of positive things and against negative things.

The Bro-Mide Party believes in Civility n' shit.

The Bro-Mide Party believes the K'rupt Duopoly is behind all of our problems.

The Bro-Mide Party believes in compromise, except, of course, with the K'rupt Duopoly.

The Bro-Mide Party believes that since Both Sides Are Equally Awful, the Bro-Mide Party will inevitably sweep to power and enact lots of good stuff and no bad stuff...

The Bro-Mide Party believes that once they sweep to power they can swiftly and directly translate the sentiments found on vapid motivational posters fading away on the walls of middle management offices across America into concrete economic policy, climate change policy, foreign policy, health care regulatory policy, education policy, housing policy, public lands policy, energy policy, judicial policy, etc...

-- leans and leans hard.

And since this latest reboot of the fairy tale about creating a "McCain/Lieberman" party (as one wealthy snake oil distributor once called this scam several iterations ago) to cater to a nonexistent center that believes in nothing more tangible than "a strong, clear-eyed, values-based leader" is obviously every bit as ludicrous and doomed as every previous version of this scam, what, exactly is the point of it?

I'm glad you asked.

The point is, that our great and prosperous nation has produced an abundant surplus of these rich, entitled idiots that they will casually throw more money than I will see in the next decade at anyone within their social circle who will feed them the happy Centrist horseshit they desperately wish to believe.  Over and over and over again,

Back to Bloomberg:
...
One Morgan Stanley executive who donated admitted he doesn’t know anything about it, he just wanted to help a friend’s pet cause....

This inoffensive flavor makes sense for a political project backed by executives from Morgan Stanley, a big bank with a particularly understated political style...

The financial types backing SAM have taken stock of the American landscape and decided the overarching crisis isn’t guns, opioids, climate change or the treatment of immigrants—it’s divisiveness.

...Grossman and his professional peers have sent more than $1.3 million to SAM, according to filings. Donations so far include $50,000 from investment-management head Dan Simkowitz and $10,000 each from Mack, director Tom Glocer, and former litigation co-head Jim Cusick.

That’s pocket change compared with the cash corporations can unleash but a remarkable sum for a political project with no track record. And contributions have popped up from outside Morgan Stanley. The biggest amount, more than $900,000, came from former tobacco executive Charles Wall.

...
He decided to do something on the day after Trump won the White House, according to SAM’s website. Grossman started by rallying friends including Scott Muller, once general counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency and now SAM’s chairman. Deep-pocketed people were ready to give it a try. “They told me all of the things they thought it was going to cost,” said Wall, who was vice chairman of Philip Morris International Inc. until 2010. “And I said, ‘I’m in. And here’s the amount I’m in for.’”

He had an even better message for them: “Come back to me when you need some more.”

It's nothing but The Human Fund, kids.

The Human Fund for politics:


And it is precisely because our nation has such limitless reserves of rich, credulous "Serve America With Some Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti" dolts that the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It will never die.



Behold, a Tip Jar!

5 comments:

Robt said...

I got to ask where this new SAM party position stands on a couple of issues.

To get a better view on their perception of divisiveness:

* what is SAM's position on public nose picking with the bare finger? What do the thing should be done with and finger finding accomplishments?

*When and if the Sam party adopts or finds itself in agreement with either the GOP or DNC position(s). When both the GOP and Dems. both "DO IT" as both sides do it..
Would this mean ALL three sides, (GOP, Dems and now SAM), all three do it?

* Is it SAM's position that labor associating to form a union is unlawful and harmful but Bankers can form such a union as long as they call it an "Association"?

There will be great stories of myth written for future generations of the Gods of the Uiverse and the new realms of divinity they rule.

joejimtree said...


I don't see a damn bit of difference between these jerks and MAGA.

Andrew Johnston said...

I think you put in the wrong link. It seems like this is the one you wanted:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-02/a-morgan-stanley-star-wants-you-to-back-his-political-movement

Andrew Johnston said...

And apropos of your statement on past centrist vanity campaigns, guess who showed up at a SAM event?

On February 22, we hosted an event with New York Times op-ed columnist, author, renowned speaker, and political thinker, David Brooks. He delivered a new talk, remarking on taking a more human approach to politics—a topic the audience could tell was a subject close to his heart.

Sometimes, I swear that people keep starting these dead-end "movements" just so Brooks can get out of the house and meet some people.

Robt said...

The re branding and Alternative ALT Right offerings have been clear by the FDA to use this new drug in its experimental stage. To use on paying customers (to fund) the new re branding drug's experimental research . A market based lab rat consumer research.