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

[Chavez08]

....Maybe because Republicans ARE Corporate America?

[rockyb26]

they can support the repubs all they want, but if the average american consumer doesn't have the money to buy their products, their businesses will fail. that's why they should be supporting Obama, but they're too greedy to open their eyes. what's the point in having a business if you don't have any patrons?

[ProfessorDuh]

It may be "perverse," but it's hardly arcane. The GOP has enabled corporations to steal trillions from the American taxpayers.
TRILLIONS.

[mervr1]

If these corporate CEOs an Board of Directors weren't so concerned about their own pockets and planning for Golden parachutes we wouldn't be in the position we are. Be more concerned about the welfare of the employees who are the backbone of the company.

Without the 9-5 employee what company would there be. Yes these stores are convenient for everyone, but they also need to be advantageous beyond a paycheck for it's employees.

[arvay]

The answer to the question posed in the headline is simple: because the Republicans give corporations carte blanche to sell ineffective drugs, outsource American jobs, pollute here and abroad, evade taxes, get subsidies (those to the oil industry are particularly egregious) and operate as though they are sovereign nations in their own right.

Many of these corporations present themselves as "transnational" and above national constrictions, except, of course, when they need American financial, political and military power to defend their interests. Then they suddenly have a country.

The Republicans, up to and until the current financial debacle, have been able to fool many Americans by cloaking this corrupt and degenerate system as representing "freedom" and "market-driven" values. And by issuing credit so they can finance an increasingly untenable lifestyle and live with the illusion that they're part of the ownership class.

Right now, it's being reported that half of our money donated to save the big banks is being issued to shareholders.

Time to nationalize many of America's top companies, re-structure them and issue them new priorities, and return them to the marketplace with new executive leadership that understands its social responsibility.

[geobushono]

STOP dumb f*ckin us.
The Congress favor the repugs because the repugs give them money.....­......and the reason they get money is because the repugs give them our money.
Not to be left in the cold however, Pelosi & Reid PUSHED this corporate bailout for, not 700bn, but added 150bn in PORK, just to ensure a place at the corporate trough .

[thebanana]

Nice try. The pork was added later by the Republicans. Thanks for playing , though.

[geobushono]

you describe a distinction without a difference­..........­.If we can't see that OUR side has dirty hands, how are we going to force change we can believe in?
This shameful chapter s a month old and some people are alreay rewriting the timeline/history.
You're welcome, I've been watching, playing ,and voting since 1964...gla­d to have you on the team.

[1differentdrummer]

Either Fred Smith is a liar or he hasn't looked at McCain realistically. John's health care non-plan would be a disaster that can't work because millions couldn't qualify because of health. We'd have more uninsured than we do today. The Iraq debacle John would continue is a sink hole. It is a matter of class and the wannabes. It pains some people to hear that Christian "I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper" stuff because that would require them to admit they are their workers' brothers. The straw bosses and kisser employees ape their behavior through some sense of rising to superiority, missing the point that when we all succeed it is better for everybody.

[nirek]

These big companies that are being bailed out are spending 70 billion on bonuses for the execs. That is our money and it should not be given as bonuses to them that drove the co. into bankruptcey .

[geobushono]

Cindy Sheehan for Congress..­.......Thi­s sh*t must stop.
Power to the People.

[frappe]

And it's these same corporations that are moving our middle class jobs overseas and not thinking twice about you and me in the process. And it is these same corporate "leaders" (?) who end up with multi-million dollar bonuses irrespective of the results that they achieve, apparently as payment for selling their souls to the highest bidders.

It's time that we assign our corporations their proper constitutional role. They have exerted far too much influence in our political sphere and we are witnessing the results -- a shrinking middle class, globalization, outsourcing, tax cuts for the wealthy, job cuts for the rest of us.

The Chamber of Commerce can kiss my .....

[whatsthatsound]

Corporations are always seeking bigger profits, and they think long term. To them, the American Middle Class has been a resource to be exploited, for the only purpose they really care about, that of increasing markets. They have just about milked us dry, so our usefulness to them is declining. They're all too happy to move their headquarters to the glitzy skyscrapers of Dubhai and Shanghai, and watch us fade into another Argentina.

[BlackbirdHighway]

Newsweek COMPLETELY missed the boat here. Incomes for people at the top of the economy are up big time. The number of billionaires has increased dramatically. The gap between the rich and poor has widened to historic proportions. People like Warren Buffet, with over 40 billion, pay a lower tax rate than the lady who cleans his office for a so-called living.

This is all about class warfare, and the rich class is winning. Whenever someone tries to do anything, or even point it out, we hear all their favorite talking points about re-distribution of wealth and class warfare against the rich. The fact is, the rich have practiced class warfare against the poor for decades.

We have many policies and laws in this country that favor the rich. For instance, the bankruptcy law was recently revised. Unlike before, you can no longer keep you primary residence. Now, poor people who go bankrupt can become homeless. Bad for everybody right? Nope, not at all, because if you have several houses, you can loose only one. Does that help the guy who only has one house, or the rich guy who has seven?

[frappe]

Well said. I couldn't agree with you more. There is and has been a class war being waged. And like you say, it is being waged by the wealthy against the interests of the middle class. Globalization and outsourcing are prime examples.

Corporate power has exceeded its constitutional limits. Many of our politicians are bought, sold, and delivered by corporate and special interests, and often at the expense of average Americans. It's truly a sad time in America. I only hope that it isn't too late to change the direction. Because right now, we are headed towards a very bleak future where you have power concentrated in an ultra wealthy class ruling over a huge lower class.

This is NOT the American Way. It is fundamentally antithetical to everything we've been taught to believe and trust. And it is the Republican party that seems to have embraced its new corporate identity without so much as a second thought.

Reject unrestrained corporate power. Restore balance and fairness to our political system!

Obama/Biden '08

[XME]

Because the GOP gives them permission to run amok!

[Vinca]

YOU'RE SOOO RIGHT

[DMcD]

Just like the financial "wizards" that brought is this depression, corporate America seems hell-bent on destroying their own interest by bankrupting their customers. How smart do you have to be to realize that if your customers don't have any money, you're business is doomed. Genius's,the bunch of them --- not.

[whatsthatsound]

Not so. "Corporate America" has played American consumers like a fiddle. They have got us to send all our money overseas, buying Japanese cars that run on Saudi oil, while Indian customer service reps take our calls, and we cover our buns in Chinese underwear. The result? A strong and ever growing Middle Class in many parts of the most populous continent, Asia. How about one and a half BILLION middle class consumers buying your stuff, instead of 150 million in the U.S.? That's a deal no true corporatist could possibly resist, and they haven't. We've been "seed capital", and all has gone according to plan. They may not be geniuses, but they were able to outsmart us just the same.

[jcorrington]

Well of course they do, why wouldnt they?? Its a free buffet for them.

[vincefango]

Exactly...­it's been made too easy for truly unsuccessful business people make millions for themselves and just walk away, leaving lives and job creating companies in ruins. Accountability and regulation will be the only thing that can level the playing field....a­fter we sweat to pay off our personal and national debts.

[totalliberal]

Just wondering what kind of business model shows that cutting the wages of the middle/working people allows them to consume more. Never having studied at Harvard, it remains a mystery to me.

[PT6]

Republicans love REDISTRIBUTION of money if it is to the RICH!

But it is Bad if the Middle Class benefits!

"BUSH Republican Redistribution of Wealth" to the TOP 2% Richest People in AMERICA is fine with Corporations and Wall Street!

NOW the Rich are fighting with EVERYTHING they can dig up to save their TAX PRIVILEGES!

But Redistribution IS BAD if it benefits the MIDDLE CLASS!

For the RICH it has been a "ONE WAY STREET" and the RICH want to "KEEP IT that WAY!"