Lester, are you familiar with the term "regulatory capture"? It is used to describe the current state and operational model of the US government.

Here is an example:

The Affordable Care Act did NOT make healthcare in the US more "affordable". In fact, it did just the opposite. It was a giant gift to the private, for-profit health insurance industry. It mandated that every American had to buy a private health insurance policy, but it did not put in any price controls. So the health insurance companies (and indirectly, Big Pharma) were given a huge new crop of customers, and simultaneously the right to increase their prices and profits as they saw fit. The result: health insurance premiums DOUBLED from 2013 to 2020.

Now, you may say that there was a mitigating factor in that low income families could avail of a government subsidy to help them pay their steadily rising insurance premiums, but that just means that Obama engineered a giant transfer of wealth from the US taxpayers to the private health insurance industry.

Now - why would Obama do that? Simple: the health insurance industry contributed $2 MILLION to Obama's 2008 campaign (much more than they gave to his opponent). He also received $37 million individual donations from "healthcare professionals".

Consequently, he gave them value for their money and made them all extremely rich.

Likewise with Barney Frank. He was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and was instrumental in drafting the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law, which shares his name. In that position, he served not the people, but the banking industry. He saw the financial service companies (banks and Wall Street) as his TRUE constituency, because THEY were the ones that financed his electoral campaigns.

It is no wonder, then, that when he left office he got a sinecure seat on the board of New York-based Signature Bank, which has $28.6 billion in assets.

IOW, Frank was not a "watchdog" or a "crusader". He did not "take on" the banks. He has ALWAYS worked FOR the banks - both in and out of office.

That is American "democracy" at work.