Newsweek: "Why Can't Corporate America End Its Perverse Love Affair With Republican Politicians"

Newsweek:

Three articles from the Wall Street Journalshow the strange myopia of businesses and business groups when it comes to politics. One article detailed how big retailers (Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Target) are warning employees about the possibility that a Democratic sweep could give unions the upper hand (translation: vote Republican!). A second describes how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is mounting a huge $35 million campaign--twice the amount it spent in 2006 Congressional races--to support "almost exclusively Republicans in contested Senate races." And Federal Express CEO Fred Smith gave an interview to the editorial page in which he endorsed Sen. John McCain: "Because I agree with him on trade, taxes, energy and health care."

Let's take each in turn. Big retailers such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target, the Journal reports, are freaked out that Obama and a Democratic Congress would pass the Employee Free Choice Act, "which would do away with secret balloting and allow unions to form if a majority of employees sign cards favoring unionization." Now, don't get me wrong. EFCA may be a disaster for retailers. But of all the woes facing companies--the credit crunch, crappy growth, a disastrous job market, a lost decade in the stock market--unions are the least of their problems. So far this year, legions of retailers have gone bankrupt--Steve & Barrys, Linens'n'Things, the Ponderosa and Bonanza restaurant chains--victims of excessively optimistic projections, poor expansion choices, mismanagement, and horrific capital structures. Unions had nothing to do with their failure.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Comments

[Keith52]

Gee wiz... No kidding? Wow. Is it because the GOP is socializing Corporate America's losses? Ya think?

[JenMI]

GREED, SELFISHNESS and FEAR.

[darthdarcy]

The GOP has it's lips permanently sutured to Big Business's collective butt..!

Simple as that...

Get the republicans out of Washington if you want to save America..

And End Corporate "Personhoo­d..!"

[newshawk14]

You're dead right on "corporate personhood", one of the worst decisions the supreme
court ever made, and they have been expanding their "rights" ever since that decision.
Corporations should not be allowed to make political donations any more than they
should be allowed to make bribes, and trying to make employees do it should be a
crime. The people are the ones with the right to vote as individuals.

[TrooAmerican]

What a Stupid Headline.

If you were a business owner, Exec, or Manager, why WOULDNT you support a party that Guarantees that you will get more Bottomline profits from them, and you dont have to do anything to earn it?


Why do you think they spend so much money on Lobbyists to politicians for favorable legislation?
They are talking about No-bid contracts, reduction of taxation, reduction of barriers such as environmental regulations and rules to protect the environment as much as possible from profit seeking anything goes business practices.

If you were a millionaire investor, and the GOP says its going to make your Millionaire capital gains tax drop, so your profits become bigger and bigger why wouldnt you vote for that party?
If the consequence is budget cutting somewhere else, why would rich people care? it doesnt affect them to have low quality or dangerous public schools, they send their kids to private.
It doesnt affect them to have subsidized rent go away, or subsidized daycare or HeadStart programs go away, they can pay for all of that themselves. It dosnt affect them to have elderly people and injured people's health care taken away.. they can afford to buy their own. It doesnt affect them that the roads are in bad shape cuz of federal funding going down... they have expensive cars with premo suspensions and often fly or are driven by limo.

[hark]

We are dependent upon trickle-down corporate largesse because we have followed Reagan's edict to cast government out of our lives. We believe with all our hearts that government is always the problem, never the solution. There is simply no alternative. Nobody looks out for the people. Nobody except ourselves, as individuals. And as individuals we are pathetic and powerless.

And that's the way those at the top want it. And it will remain that way for as long as the red staters hate our guts and blame us for their problems.

It's so perverse it makes your head spin.

[ProfessorDuh]

Exactly.

[PinkyBear]

Time to end that toxic relationship and make Wall Street shape up.

[Rescisco]

Perverse? Corporate America rules and both parties sing their tune. The Republican voice is obviously more in harmony with the board room, but do not for a minute believe that the Democrats are not reading from the same sheet music. Now that's perverse.

[Poboy]

You know what I see in these posts, a spinning of wheels.

The faster you spin, the deeper you bury yourselves and the more fustrated you become.

It's time to put your thinking caps on.

Why have these corporations been so successful in their agenda? Especially over the past 30 years?

Because they have been able to convince poor Whites to vote against their interests.

Why would poor Whites gleefully vote against their interests?

Because they think their votes are harming Black people and maintaining a system of white supremacy.

Get at the white supremacy and you get at the fundamental problem that divides us as Americans and the thing that these unscrupolous wealthy people use to keep all of us in our places.

Will White people examine the false concepts of white supremacy?

Probably not. They are too prideful.

[ProfessorDuh]

Actually, I think many of us here are already aware of that. It's an old fascist trick, after all. Jews, blacks, gays, women — any target will serve.

[Poboy]

I wasn't talking about any trick.

I was talking about white supremacy.

It is not about, Jews, blacks, gays, women or any target.

Repeat after me.

White Supremacy!

[wolf58]

Not to hard to figure this out. The GOP have been pretty much in charge or controlled the purse strings in the past 12 years, they have low standards and are easy to bribe so when they are not going after small children they are found lining their pockets with the best corporate cash the can be paid. Just look who gave oil compaines a tax break and who has blocked all attempts to repeal it. Thats right boys and girls it was those in the GOP wonder who made out on that deal. And McCain is worried about total Dem control this after the GOP raped the American public and didn't even have the decency to use some KY.

[bluecatz]

We keep buying into the idea that good things come from the top down, and as long as we continue to be a lazy citizenry we'll get the short end of everything.
Don't get mad...get involved beyond this exciting time ...

[patianneb]

Perverse is right.
The other perversity is that a huge number of citizens think "trickle down" is a good thing ...
Hard to blame the G 0 P when it is the voting public (for the most part anyway) who puts these people in power to start with.
What's really been wrong with US? Lack of interest or involvement.
Put another way: We need to take out our mirrors and take a good long look.

[Bluebayou101]

I'm sure that the executives at those companies love the GOP. But what about the rank and file at those companies? How do they feel about it? Especially if they get laid off while the CEOs give themselves a big bonus for saving their companies' money by laying off those people. Then the CEOs tell the rank and file who remain at the company that they can't get any salary increases because the company is doing so poorly; then for holding down labor costs, the CEOs get their boards to give them even bigger bonuses.

[McJeff]

The posts here are very articulate and cogent. Kudos.
Let me be a bit more blunt:
F*ck the US Chamber of Commerce
F*ck WalMart, Lowe's, Home Depot
F*ck all these large coporations

Shopping locally more than ever. Local hardware store. Local farmers market

Eat the rich. They are a pestilence.

[wolf58]

I hear they taste like chicken...­LOL

[koyak23]

because pubs support concentrating the wealth in the hands of the few ?

just spit balling here...

[BabsfromKansas]

United States Economy Contracted by 0.3% in Third Quarter

The Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product, which measures the output of goods and services, fell 0.3 percent in the third quarter, the weakest quarterly reading in seven years. Economists expected an even steeper fall of 0.5 percent. Personal consumption spending fell at a 3.1 percent annual rate, the first time spending has contracted since the recession of 1991.

http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na