Fat cat (term)

Fat cat is a political term originally describing a rich political donor, also called an angel or big money man.cite news | url = http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,877421,00.html | title = Of Fat Cats and Other Angels | date = November 29 1971 | work = Time | accessdate = 2008-03-31 ]

The "New York Times" has described fat cats as symbols of "a deeply corrupt campaign finance system riddled with loopholes", with Americans seeing them as recipients of the "perks of power", but able to "buy access, influence policy and even veto appointments."cite news | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3DF103FF934A25751C0A9649C8B63 | title = Money Talks; Don't Discount the Fat Cats | author = Richard L. Berke | date = February 17 2002 | publisher = The New York Times | accessdate = 2008-03-31 ]

It is also commonly used to describe a rich, greedy person who, due to ownership of large amounts of capital, is able to "live easy" off the work of others. [ [http://economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2119378 Executive pay | Fat cats feeding | Economist.com ] ]

History

The word was first used in the 1920s in the United States to describe rich political donors. ["Fat Cat", in Ayto, John (2006). "Movers and Shakers: A Chronology of Words that Shaped Our Age", Oxford University Press] [ [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fat+cat Merriam Webster Online] , "fat cat" ]

The term's coinage for political purposes has been attributed to Frank Kent, a writer for the "Baltimore Sun" [cite web
url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED268584
title=Scratching the First Teflon Presidency: Frank Kent vs. Franklin Roosevelt
publisher=United States Department of Education
accessdate=2008-04-06] whose essay "Fat Cats and Free Rides" appeared in the "American Mercury", a magazine of commentary run by H. L. Mencken.cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=CysLGUDseQAC
title=Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors
author=David G. Farber
year=2002
publisher=University of Chicago Press
isbn=0226238040] Kent wrote:

The 1960 campaign for the Democratic nomination to the presidency was marked by competition between fellow Senators Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy. Their first meeting was in the Wisconsin primary, where Kennedy's well-organized and well-funded campaign defeated Humphrey's energetic but poorly-funded effort. Humphrey objected to the media, "The Kennedy forces are waging a psychological blitz that I cannot match. I'm not the candidate of the fat cats....". [cite news
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826112,00.html
title=Plenty of Jack
date=March 28, 1960
publisher=TIME
accessdate=2008-04-06]

A 1972 book by sociologist G. William Domhoff, titled "Fat Cats and Democrats", contrasted the Democratic Party's perceived populism with its funding structure. In Domhoff's view, "Short of a nationwide system of public financing for candidates ... it seems likely that wealthy fat cats will find one way or another to finance the candidates of their choice." [cite web
url=http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/change/science_egalitarians.html
title=Third Parties Don't Work: Why and How Egalitarians Should Transform the Democratic Party
author=G. William Domhoff
date=March 2005
accessdate=2008-04-05]

The campaign finance reforms following the Watergate scandal greatly reduced the amount of money that individuals could contribute to a political campaign. [cite book | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=e_HhCKcXx8UC | title = Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers | author = Jean Hardisty | others = Wilma P. Mankiller | year = 1999 | publisher = Beacon Press | isbn = 0807043176 ] In the words of Ben J. Wattenberg, "The fat cats were driven from the temple...." [cite book | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=9jho2dEhwh0C | title = The Good News is the Bad News is Wrong | author = Ben J. Wattenberg | year = 1984 | publisher = Simon & Schuster | isbn = 0671606417 ]

During a 1997 $1,000-per-plate dinner at the Hilton Washington for the Republican Party, which the "New York Times" dubbed "a lucrative display of the resilience of big-money campaign fund-raising", street protesters calling for further reform dressed in "fat cat" costumes and chanted "Hey, hey, ho, ho! Corporate fat cats have to go!" [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E0DF1638F937A25756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
title=A Dining-for-Dollars Gala Fattens the G.O.P.'s Coffers
author=Francis X. Clines
date=May 14 1997
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-04-06] In the 2008 Democratic race, a group of wealthy backers of Sen. Hillary Clinton wrote to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, warning her they might withdraw financial support for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee if Pelosi did not change her position on whether the party's superdelegates "should support the party's pledged delegate leader".cite news
url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/27/obama.moveon/
title=MoveOn takes on Clinton's moneyed supporters
author=Rebecca Sinderbrand
date=March 27 2008
publisher=CNN.com
accessdate=2008-04-06] According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the signers included donors such as Haim Saban and Robert L. Johnson, and had given the party nearly $24 million since 2000. [cite web
url=http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=341
title=Democratic Donors Send $24 Million Letter to Pelosi
author=Lindsay Renick Mayer
date=March 27 2008
work=Public Eye
publisher=Center for Responsive Politics
accessdate=2008-04-06] In response, the grassroots liberal political action committee MoveOn called the move "the worst kind of insider politics -- billionaires bullying our elected leaders into ignoring the will of the voters," but reassured members that "when we all pool our resources, together we're stronger than the fat cats."

Use in culture

The word has since acquired a meaning of a rich, powerful person of possibly 'undeserved' wealth. It is now commonly used in editorial cartoons. [http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/cartoons/2002/07/23/bell2307.jpg] [http://www.news-press.com/multimedia/galleries/dougstatetoons/images/019MacGregor%20723%20%20Fat%20Cats.jpg] [http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200304/df20030404.jpg]

References