Land of Emails
I get lots of emails, hundreds a day. I’m responsible for most of it, when you give money to one Democratic candidate; somehow you get mail from them all (full disclosure – that only gets worse when you give to several candidates, as I have.) I delete most, read a few, and actually respond to a couple a week. But somehow I’ve also mistakenly ended up on a few conservative email lists too.
I get emails from Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (but I donated to Jamie Harrison his Democratic opponent) and Rob Portman of Ohio. I also get letters from the “Response Action Network,” and from “Conservative HQ.” Conservative HQ is:
“…The online news source for conservatives and tea partiers committed to bringing limited government constitutional conservatives to power.”
Tea Partiers Live
Richard Viguerie, the famous conservative direct mail “king” who changed campaigning back in the 1980’s, is chairman of the site. It represents the small remainder of the conservative movement “BT” (before Trump.) They were willing to accept this current President to get some of their agenda, even though he wasn’t “one of them.” Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is the best-known swallower in this group.
In the latest edition there’s an article by George Rasley, the editor of HQ, making a philosophical case for their brand of conservatism. He harkens back to Atlas Shrugged, the seminal conservative novel by Ayn Rand published in 1957. In Atlas Shrugged (as well as her previous novel, The Fountainhead) Rand makes the case for unbridled capitalism with little or no government involvement or regulation.
Business Republicans
Mr. Rasley laments that the prescient Rand was right, and that current America is losing its way in a decline to socialism. His latest example is a statement made by the Business Roundtable, a grouping of 200 of the top corporate chief executives in the United States, led by Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan/Chase.
The Business Roundtable:
“…(Is) committing to delivering value to customers, investing in employees in ways that go beyond financial compensation to include training and education to ensure their skills are kept up to date, and embracing diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect…”
Sounds pretty reasonable, and in fact, pretty “business Republican,” right? Value to customers, training and updating employees, diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect; how can these be bad?
Here’s Mr. Rasley’s answer:
“The fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder value has been a fundamental tenet of American corporate and securities law for going on 85 years. It is also a fundamental premise undergirding the system of trust that enables the world financial markets that power modern wealth creation.”
In plain language, companies are supposed to make money for their owners; full stop. That’s their job, and when they start “caring” about other things, including employees, diversity, or the environment; they are undermining the conservative view of AMERICA.
When they start doing something else, like “corporate responsibility” or “pursuing diversity” they are ignoring their “fiduciary responsibility.” Put simply, it gets in the way of making money.
Ayn Rand’s World
This is the world they want, a world where competition is unlimited, and regulation is unacceptable. Government should do the minimum to police, put out fires, and wage wars. Maybe they can print money too, but public education, and the Post Office, and heaven forbid, government sponsored health care, are all areas where someone should be making a profit. Unbridled Capitalism can do it better, in every situation.
In fact, the idea of corporate leaders in the Business Roundtable having some sort of social conscience is anathema to their extreme conservative view. Mr. Rasley calls on their shareholders to “…go on strike,” sell out of corporations who have more than a profitmaking goal, and invest only in wealth creation.
When is Capitalism Right
I found myself in a similar discussion with a friend the other day. He was trying to apply capitalism to health care, using Internet streaming services as an example of how capitalism would take care health care pricing. And he was right, at least, that the competition among Hulu, You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sling and the rest probably is keeping the prices down.
But if you have slow or erratic Internet, they don’t work. And in the same way, if you are really sick, unable to afford health care, or (at least until the ACA) had pre-existing conditions, the health insurance industry only wanted your business at an outlandish price. In Ayn Rand’s world, I guess that’s too bad, charity might help, but there is no obligation of our capitalist society to take care of you. Just like there’s no obligation to provide streaming to those who don’t get the Internet.
I can miss the next series on Netflix; I can even miss the college football games on Sling. But that’s certainly not the model we should be using for the health of Americans. In capitalism there are winners and losers, and that’s all good when we’re watching TV, but not when it’s about America’s health care.
But that’s what Mr. Viguerie and his editor, Mr. Rasley, would have us do. They would say strike until we get it. And Tea Partier former Congressman Joe Walsh just declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination. It’s all a good reminder for the rest of us: it’s not just about Donald Trump.
