Ben Cohen: Swamp the Whitehouse
on Thursday, May 4, 2017Ben Cohen Money Quote saying Trump campaign slogan seems to have meant move swamp monsters out of the swamp and into the cabinet. Ben Cohen said:
“It’s clear now that ‘Drain the Swamp’ really meant ‘Suck up all the morally bankrupt billionaires, Wall Street executives, and special-interest pond scum, and then pump them into the White House with a fire hose” — Ben Cohen
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In this quote, Ben Cohen is sharply criticizing how the “Drain the Swamp” campaign slogan has been implemented under the current administration. By stating it has really meant “Suck up all the morally bankrupt billionaires, Wall Street executives, and special-interest pond scum, and then pump them into the White House with a fire hose”, Cohen implies the administration has filled its ranks with representatives from the very industries and moneyed interests the slogan ostensibly railed against as corruptive influences.
Cohen’s use of terms like “morally bankrupt”, “pond scum” and comparing the transfer of such figures into government to a “fire hose” conveys his perspective that lobbyists and donors from Wall Street, corporations and other monied special interests have essentially taken over the administration in a brazen, forceful manner counter to the slogan’s original populist messaging.
The overall interpretation is that Cohen views the “Drain the Swamp” rhetoric as cynically co-opted and redefined in practice to instead concentrate influence within the administration from the very forces the slogan ostensibly aimed to curb. His strong language portrays this outcome as a betrayal of voters who saw the slogan as targeting corruption, not enabling more of it according to Cohen’s assessment.