This one from Tiffany Reynolds Richardson, a functionary for NC Democrat Elaine Marshall.

Ms Richardson writes:

Dear Jeff,

There are a lot of politicians trying to cozy up to Occupy Wall Street – but very few are actually hitting the streets to stand with them. That's why I'm proud to be working for Secretary of State Elaine Marshall – someone who hasn't just embraced the OWS protests, but has actually joined with them on the streets of Raleigh!

Watch the incredible video of Elaine Marshall firing up the #OccupyRaleigh crowd last weekend here:

But it's more than just Elaine Marshall showing up for one rally – it's about her showing up and fighting for us her entire career. As North Carolina's Secretary of State, she has fought to reform our lobbying laws, cracked down on scam artists, and took the fight directly to financial institutions that misled investors and consumers.

In fact, in the last few years alone Elaine has helped recover nearly one billion dollars from Wall Street banks and financial institutions. It's just one of the many accomplishments the people of North Carolina should be proud of!

Watch Elaine speak truth to power at #OccupyRaleigh last week and help our re-election campaign start off with a BANG by chipping in $5 or more! We're only $3,987 away from our $10,000 goal for the month:

http://elainemarshall.com/occupyraleigh

Thank you for being a part of our campaign,

Tiffany Reynolds Richardson
Elaine Marshall for Secretary of State

Yes, that’s right. She actually used the phrase “speak truth to power” without irony. Which likely could cause a ghostly stir in Pete Seeger’s mothballed trousers, but for the rest of us, it just sounds forced and ridiculous.

Anyway, because Tiffany Reynolds Richardson was kind enough to email me, I figured she might like a reply:

Dear Tiffany Reynolds Richardson,

Do yourself a favor. Read Gretchen Morganson's Reckless Endangerment. Banks are heavily regulated. Monetary policy is manipulated by those with working ties to the federal government. And when the government makes demands that are anathema to the way the market system works, the fallout is going to predictable. Sub-prime lending -- directed and demanded by government (Democrats, mostly) and based on a faulty, politically-driven 1992 report from the Boston Fed that has since been thoroughly rebuked -- forced banks to lend to people who were serious default risks. The banks, in turn, looked for ways to make back the money they were sure to lose as a result of government interference in lending.

If you want to keep scapegoating private industry while pretending that the government is the moral center of the universe, that's fine. If your candidate wants to align herself with people who agitate openly for Marxism, socialism, anarchy, etc., more power to her. If she wants to be tethered to people desecrating the flag, or blaming the Jews for all the ills of society, or calling for violence to be visited upon a particular group of Americans, that too is her choice. But you and she needn't bother sending me emails that not only reveal your dangerous ignorance, but worse still, that do so with pride, and with what is frankly a stunning lack of both self-awareness and historical perspective.

It would be humorous were it no so disastrous for the rapidly receding "middle class" in this country -- those people government continues to squeeze to death once they've bled them dry, even as that same government works to shift blame elsewhere and claim for themselves the mantle of champions for social justice.

With contempt and sadness,

Jeff Goldstein

Enough “truth to power” for you, there, Tiffany?