Americans United For Change, a progressive advocacy group, thinks that it has found a perfect running mate for former Bain Capital CEO and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney: fictional “Wall Street” corporate raider Gordon Gekko, the Michael Douglas character who enshrined himself in America’s popular imagination by eagerly adapting the mantra “Greed is Good.”
The group has launced a satirical “Romney-Gekko 2012 campaign,” complete with a website, campaign signs, and a commercial: “It’s Morning on Wall Street,” a play on Ronald Reagan’s famous “It’s morning again in America” ad.
Americans United For Change said in a press release that “Romney-Gekko 2012” is a
“campaign to warn the middle-class about the consequences of Romney’s Bush-era, trickle-down economic proposals – proposals to give millionaires and big oil companies even more tax breaks and subsidies that never did and never will create jobs; to let his friends on Wall Street get their hands on seniors’ and veterans’ benefits by privatizing Social Security, Medicare and the VA health system; and to repeal Wall Street reform so the real Gordon Gekkos of the world can go back to the same reckless behavior with the middle-class’ money that wiped out trillions in saving and cost millions of Americans their jobs. With Romney’s proposals written so clearly by and for Wall Street and so clearly at the expense of the middle-class, it’s only appropriate that “Greed Is Good” be the official “Romney-Gekko 2012” campaign slogan. “
While Gordon Gekko may be fictional, real life Wall Street executives are indeed lining up behind Romney. According to the Center for Responsive Politics — a non-ideological research organization which tracks political giving — Romney has already raised $3.6 million from securities and investment industry employees and their families, more than double the $1.6 million that President Obama has brought in from Wall Street.
