The two parties are actually and amalgam of groups and beliefs. Just as there are “Country Club Republicans” there are what I will call “Junior Chamber of Commerce” Democrats. They came up through the ranks doing business with business and are not hostile to business. They helped put together real estate deals and regulatory wavers at the state and local level. Their tendencies may be interventionist but they are not intrinsically hostile to the Market Economy.
I think Bill Clinton is such a Democrat. The “Nationalize Health Care” fiasco may seem to disprove that assertion. However, he put Hillary and the Left wing of the party in charge and let them fail spectacularly. In the process he more or less humbled the left wing and neutralized Hillary (until, of course, he needed them both). Probably the biggest problem he caused our economy is the subprime mortgage mess — regulatory changes that amounted to a huge national vote buying (and money raising) real estate scam. But he also did much that was good for the economy.
There are many Democrats who do not want Market Capitalism to function well because they want to institute sweeping change. They actually believe that Capitalism is causing the oceans to rise. So if you argue for policy choices because it will improve the operation of the Market Economy they may feign interest but really, they’re not impressed. To them you are trying to alleviate a bit of the pain rather than cure the disease (of course they are quacks — a relevant point, by the way). They think if the economy is flourishing and people are confident in the future, the message of “change you can believe in” will not be believed in.
Every association in Obama’s past says he comes from the second group. Many of his proposals display an astounding ignorance of how the economy functions. Recently he suggested a rebate “gift” of $1,000, paid for by raising taxes on American oil companies. Where does the money come from for the oil companies to pay those taxes? The same consumers who would get the rebate. It would be better to have those taxpayers write themselves out a check for one thousand dollars and cash it on their own account (cut out the middlemen, so to speak). If DC sends it to them, they will pay $3,000 in higher energy cost (seizing the profits of energy companies will greatly increase the moral hazards of investing in that sector, thus raising the cost of capital in a capital intensive industry and hence the cost of energy — and may well sour investors on investing in the US in general).
When Sen. Obama is president we will have 8.7 percent unemployment and the media will say “Americans now have more time to spend with their families.” If the economy should really tank and three generations are sharing a comforter in the cold, dank dark, they will say “Families are coming closer together.”
Oh, and they will say that the oceans have stopped rising for a time.
