Dylan Ratigan calls bankers “Greedy Bastards”

MSNBC pundit Dylan Ratigan has made no secret of his views on how corporate money is ruining America's democracy. The title of his new book, “Greedy Bastards,” says it all.

Ratigan believes that during the past 30 years, the US banking system has become so out of control, it is the cause of the world wide monetary crisis currently threatening Greece, Italy, the UK, and of course, the United States.

Part of the problem is in the lobbying efforts of the banking industry to roll back or block regulatory changes that would force them to play by a more responsible set of rules.

However, rules are not conducive to making the obscene amount of profits big banks have been collecting for nearly a generation. So what do they do? They fund political campaigns so they can install in office the candidate most likely to pass the laws that their own lobbyists write.

"The Candidate With More Money Wins: From the 2008 elections: "In 93 percent of House of Representatives races and 94 percent of Senate races that had been decided by mid-day Nov. 5, 2008, the candidate who spent the most money ended up winning," according to the Huffington Post.

That is not opinion; it is a statistical fact. It is also a bad sign of the decay of democracy through the very means that the founding fathers feared.

The US Constitution divided the government into three branches, Executive, Legislative and Judicial, so that no single body would have too much power.

The 2010 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court changed the fundamentals of democracy. Instead of sparking the power of free and open elections, America was bought in 2010 by the conservative SuperPacs of the Tea Party.

What has happened since is legislation in more than 30 states to block Americans from voting. How does that promote democracy? Well, it doesn't.

Ratigan said, “If something about this election feels wrong to you, you're not alone.”

Watch Ratigan's famous "Rant" video here.

More on Dylan Ratigan's book "Greedy Bastards" from the San Francisco Chronicle