GOP Platform Hopes To Put Hillary In Bind By Supporting Reinstatement Of Glass-Steagall

In what the Trump campaign probably thinks is a clever move to attract Bernie Sanders’ voters and perhaps put a wedge between Hillary Clinton and Wall Street donors, the Republican Party platform includes a call to reinstate the Glass-Steagall law that would separate commercial banks and securities firms. The law was actually repealed by Congress in the waning days of Bill Clinton’s administration. Apparently the Trump campaign believes that they could attack Hillary from the left on this issue, possibly attracting Sanders’ voters. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party platform also calls for passing a “modernized and updated” version of Glass-Steagall as well, so it won’t take much for Hillary to deflect this attack. But Trump then hopes that Wall Street will sour on Hillary because she would be supporting a law that the big banks hate. It’s possible that might have some effect, but when Trump has the same position, it is hard to see what advantage he actually gets.