Beware: Big Business is Targeting Moderate Dems with Campaign Dollars and Crying Wolf Arguments

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/12-15

Beware: Big Business is Targeting Moderate Dems with Campaign Dollars and Crying Wolf Arguments

by Peter Dreier


Don't confuse the Republican Party's right-wing lunatic fringe with corporate America. When it comes to key legislation that challenges corporate priorities and moves America in a more progressive direction -- on health care, global warming, labor law reform, tax reform, and banking and housing reform -- the business community knows it can't just ally with the lunatic Limbaugh wing of the GOP. It has to persuade moderate Democrats in Congress to resist supporting a liberal agenda.

The right-wing lunatic fringe (Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Cheney, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and the GOP leadership in the Senate, like Sen. Mitch McConnell, and in the House, like Rep. John Boehner) are becoming increasingly isolated from mainstream America. Because they have nothing positive to propose, they resort to demonizing Obama, unions, ACORN, environmentalists, and anything else that is vaguely liberal.

It isn't working. This explains why polls show a decline in the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans. And it explains why, according to an article in the New York Times last Sunday, "Gaps Appear in GOP Solidarity," a growing number of Republicans in Congress are bolting the leadership to vote for middle-of-the-road legislation.

snip//

Business groups are "crying wolf" that any effort to bring about reform will kill jobs, hurt the economy, and destroy the American way of life. They've been doing this for over 100 years, on issues like child labor, auto safety, consumer protections, workplace safety, clean air legislation, and the minimum wage. Business is usually lying about this, but they keep repeating the same mantra, with the aid of corporate-backed think tanks and some hired academics. Unfortunately, lots of politicians and journalists believe them and repeat their arguments. So one important task for progressives, including academics, is to keep challenging business's misleading "crying wolf" warnings.

snip//

Since November, the political center-of-gravity has changed. The right-wing lunatics are still a political force, but they are increasingly isolated. The alliance between big business, the Religious Right, and the gun lobby was defeated in November, but big business isn't sitting around waiting to rebuild that coalition. It is now targeting the growing number of moderate Democrats, many from "swing" districts. Corporate America is fiercely fighting, with campaign contributions (shouldn't Congress limit companies who get federal bail-outs from making campaign donations?) and "crying wolf" arguments that progressive reforms will destroy the economy, kill jobs, and thwart prosperity.

We need to be ready to fight the biggest battles of the past 50 years -- battles that will shape the direction of our country for next generation or two -- over the environment, workers' rights, health care, and the economy. Liberals and progressives need to play the 'inside" game (lobbying and compromising on legislation) and the "outside" game (protesting and mobilizing) simultaneously. That's the lessons from the successes of the New Deal and the Great Society. Public opinion is on our side, but it can only be effective if it shows itself in the halls of Congress and in the streets of our communities.

[Touchdown]

1. K&R.

It's all related. Single Payer, EFCA, Wall Street Regulations, Credit Card rules.

Prying away the corporate stranglehold on our necks is job 1.

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, thanks. We need everyone to be aware of what's happening.

The rethugs are deballed, but the corporations aren't.