The Emperor Has No Clothes

Editor's Note : This Op-Ed by Jennifer Brunner appears from the Forums section of OhioDaily

“Call me the underdog,” I said, in response to a reporter’s question about fundraising seven months before the primary election contest for the open U.S. Senate seat in Ohio.

Polls show me competitive in a race with Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a four-time candidate for statewide office who last won an election in his own right 19 years ago in a 1,234-vote squeaker (out of more than three million votes cast).

A recent news story called me an “outsider” when the four other statewide Democrats—all men—made an appeal to Congress to pass consumer protection legislation to create an oversight agency, but they didn’t include the only female officeholder of their party—me. They must have overlooked the press release from May 29, where I called for that very thing more than 4 months ago.

Another reporter took the opportunity to point out that if I had more money, my message may have had more impact at the time I offered it—for an idea long overdue in light of the bank bailout mess of the last year.

I’m finishing my first term as Ohio’s Secretary of State. I won my seat with a 15-point lead in a 4-way race, winning in 52 of Ohio’s diverse 88 counties. I’m running against a candidate who’s been running for office over the last 30 years and is best known for his prolific fund raising record—a record that shows he has raised more than a million dollars more than any candidate to whom he has ever lost.

Republicans say quietly that I would be the toughest candidate to beat in next year’s fall election, and they’d rather have my opponent as their opponent. Early polls have shown that I have garnered the best independent support of any Democratic candidate in the country of the 16 statewide races studied—even better than some sitting U.S. Senators! But I am not the institutional candidate, because my opponent is supported by the establishment.

I recall the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes. In that tale, the emperor had been duped by swindlers who claimed to make clothes from cloth that was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or unfit for his position. Wearing these invisible clothes, the emperor led a procession through town, accompanied by his ministers who also bought into this farce. It was only when a child cried out, “the emperor has no clothes!” that the crowd realized the child was telling the truth, and they began to trust their own judgment.

So much of what we, the American public, put up with—from the election of our leaders to the grudging tolerance of their actions—is a misguided sense that because they are in leadership, because they tell us that it is so, it must be right. And even if we don’t believe it, many believe there is nothing we can do about it. An alarming number of Americans have simply stopped caring—until it has hurt so much they have to pay attention, and for some Americans, the voice they eventually pay attention to is only out for the money, not the truth.

Real underdogs are often the children in the crowd who shout out the truth. With enough traction—when heard by enough people—their voices can transform a situation that seems hopelessly one-sided to one that is supported by our common sense and gives us hope.

Right now, big banks and other financial institutions that have benefited from our country’s unprecedented financial bailout (that has mushroomed our national deficit), are getting ready to pay out tens of billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. Goldman Sachs, after repaying its $10 billion in bailout money, announced that it is setting aside roughly $16 billion (that’s right—billion) to pay out 2009 year-end bonuses. J.P. Morgan Chase, having received $25 billion in bailout money, has set aside $2.78 billion in compensation for its investment bankers for the third quarter, up 28% from the same period last year. The emperor has no clothes.

Kenneth Feinberg, who is Washington’s special paymaster for the bank bailouts, has said that he doubts compensation practices in the banking and financial industry will change, citing the perception gaps between Wall Street and Main Street. Small banks, the ones that help everyday Americans on Main Street, are just today getting help to provide relief to small businesses and homeowners. The emperor has no clothes.

News broke yesterday that the Obama administration has ordered the slashing of incomes of the financial industry’s 25 most highly paid executives at seven firms who have collectively received about $250 billion in bailout funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But institutions like Goldman Sachs have escaped the screws of accountability and fairness, further eroding Americans’ confidence in them and our government.

To make matters worse, Goldman Sachs and four other Wall Street behemoths are reportedly on track to earn more than $35 billion this year trading unregulated derivatives contracts. Derivatives and other complex financial transactions continue to be unregulated, even though the lack of such regulation is widely blamed for contributing to the meltdown in the financial sector. Nevertheless, proposals to impose transparency and oversight on the derivatives and similar high-risk exotic transactions face massive opposition from the powerful banking industry and are believed unlikely to be passed anytime soon. The emperor has no clothes.

It should come as no surprise that the root problems that caused the near collapse of our financial sector continue unabated. For too long we have relied on a political system the sends people to Congress based on their skill in sitting in a room making telephone calls to the wealthy and powerful to raise campaign money. Some candidates will not make a personal phone call for “as little as” $250. It is a terrible way to choose who represents us in Congress, leading to policies tainted by a lack of courage to stand up for middle class Americans who live on Main Street and are the mainstay of our economic well being.

Still ailing from the last recession and having been brought down even further by the mortgage crisis and credit crunch that launched this latest recession, Ohio is among those states that can least afford to continue to select members of Congress in the same old way. This Democratic primary presents us with an opportunity to change the old ways that were clearly demonstrated in last year’s Presidential election to be outmoded and dysfunctional to encouraging full participation in a robust democracy.

Campaign fundraising today, by conventional measure, is based on skill at gaining the support of principals and interest groups who have a lot at stake because of large corporate and financial interests. That is the establishment, and the establishment has too much invested to turn its sights toward the collective body politic‹the American people‹the real hope for a lasting economic and social recovery for this nation.

Like the voice of that small child watching the emperor’s procession, I have been calling out the obvious, whether it’s an oversight body for consumer protection, a cap on consumer credit card interest rates, supporting the elimination of costly privatized student loan programs, pushing for a public option in health care reform, or calling for the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Americans need to come together and shout out the truth to our institutions that have been swindling us.

Underdogs often end up leading, and that’s what I intend to do. I intend to prevent the establishment from silencing the voices of truth and common sense. I will fight to stop the senseless waste of money that’s depriving everyday Americans of the relief they need to work hard, make a decent and honest living, take care of their families, and have real hope for our country’s future.

Cross-posted at DailyKos, Buckeye State Blog, and the Brunner Blog