The Chamber of Commerce Party

I had dinner with four Republicans last night. They wonder where their party went. It was a chamber of commerce gala, so I probably had dinner with a couple hundred Republicans and a lot of pro-growth Democrats, but I talked politics with four in particular. The current and former state representatives would still publicly identify themselves as Moderate Republicans. The nonpartisan elected official and business executive would probably introduce themselves as pro-growth independents. They all feel abandoned by party politics.

David Brooks' column on independents suggested there is big unaligned and unrepresented third of voters in the middle. I don't think the middle is quite as mushy as Brooks suggested--the biggest share is the disenfranchised chamber crowd. They belong to Rotary or Kiwanis, they run small businesses, they are pro-growth fiscal conservatives, and they are social moderates. To a starting assumption of limited government, the Chamber of Commerce Party adds key ingredients for growth: education, infrastructure, and safety. They don't want tax credits for adding back jobs, they just want government to stop being a barrier to growth.

The gala was held in suburban Seattle. Washington State is a strange (and wonderful) place. Labor is still fighting a 1950s battle for back-loaded lifetime employment and owns the Democrats. The values-voting Rush & Rove Republicans have rendered themselves irrelevant. The world passed Washington by and Olympia didn't notice. The legislature is shocked that South Carolina will get some Boeing jobs and oblivious to the flat free-trade China-is-going-to-kick-our-ass education-is-everything global economy.

The Chamber of Commerce Party crowd feels abandoned by primaries that weed out pro-growth moderates. Many of them voted for Obama in hopes of a new era of bipartisanship in Congress; the health care food fight dashed any hope for pragmatism. So, what's the Chamber of Commerce Party to do?

Washington has a top two primary, so it's conceivable that a pro-growth candidate for governor could make a runoff in two years. Tuesday's election suggests they won't be alone. It's quite likely that Republicans will gain gubernatorial market share next time around given the disastrous state of state budgets.

One of my dinner colleagues suggested that we will see a Republican controlled congress in 2011 and that, like Clinton, it's possible that we'll see Obama's best work under divided government. Maybe so, but only if the Republicans (and Democrats) pay more attention to the Chamber of Commerce Party.

 

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Comments

[MThomasNC]

This 'chamber of commerce' crowd got what they wanted for the past 30 years. Where were they when all the goods from the government went to them. They sucked it all in, and now they are crying. Where were they when Bush43 gave them big tax cuts in 2001, adding it all to the country's deficit. Where were they when Bush43 conducted two wars and put that tab on the deficit. They were all grabbing and laughing all the way to the bank.
Now that their greed have brought about an economic meltdown, they are crying about what about them, that they are the ones who create jobs. They got their tax breaks, cuts, etc but still didn't create jobs. What crying babies....­.

[Snowball]

There was a time and place when a Chamber of Commerce Party controlled a government. It was during the reign of Benito Mussolini when he replaced the Italian parliament with what was at the time, essentially the Italian Chamber of Commerce. While today's corporatists may not be explicitly chauvinist or belligerent nationalists, the idea that corporate interests should control government is still by definition, Fascism.

[iridium53]

I think your view of small business and the middle is incorrect. Few real small business people can afford to go to such meetings. The people at those meetings are representatives of the new Republican (and Obama Admin) small business definition - smaller subsidiaries of huge corporations. It's not the same as the small business employing 5 - 20 employees - where the real growth and innovation occurs.

Since Reagan, Republicans have worked hard to facilitate rules that encourage big American companies to reap accounting profits for their executives' personal benefit and outsource American jobs to other countries.

Every small business owner I've spoken with would like to have the United States government change rules to be on American business' side. Let's restore Americas competitiveness.

Rules designed to provide the same level of protection that European and Asian companies enjoy would be a start. Tax codes that protect smaller companies by extending low corporate rates to a highter point, but progressively raise taxes on those big companies that are exporting jobs (GM took taxpayer money and is going to build a plant in China!) while giving incentive tax shields for investment in America would help a lot.

Tax deductability of greater amounts for employee education expenses would help.

The U.S. economy has been fairly flat for small business and the middle class since Reagan and the Republicans have changed the game to fit the big companies. Time to revive American competitiveness.

[Tom Vander Ark - Huffpost Blogger]

The folks I talked to included a lawyer (2 person firm), a realtor (hasn't made money in 2 years), a guy with a small trade consulting company, a nursing home manager, an insurance broker--small business America, folks just trying to survive the recession. No corporate titans here, just suburban soccer parents that feel alienated by partisanship and want to see pragmatic small business friendly government.

[Catfish1968]

I have no desire to see any of the views of the Chamber implemented as law in the US.

[BLBass]

That's a bit extreme, but I think you're right. This line points to what's wrong with their theory: "They don't want tax credits for adding back jobs, they just want government to stop being a barrier to growth." If that were actually true, then they would have been adding new jobs during all this time spent without tax credits for it. They're just as much hostage to the credit sink as consumers, but it's ridiculous to impute such pure motives to the Chamber crowd.

[feliznavidad]

The US Chamber of Commerce represents primarily big banking interests. Of note is the recent credit protection law -- most small businesses rely on credit -- and they are just as victimized by changing due dates, slight of hand interest rate schemes, and usury. But the US Chamber -- and the big banks -- signed a public petition against it. I wonder how many small businesses the Chamber polled before opposing credit reform. Not a one! The US Chamber hides behind the skirts of small businesses -- to achieve what it needs for big banks and multi -nationals. Call me crazy, but to me there's a huge difference between a closely held company with 50 employees not having a labor union, and the union-busting activities of huge national companies -- the same is true of many issues. So small business owners may seem more "right" leaning than they are -- but none of their owners are making 50,000 K an hour like some big execs.

[tompoe]

If a Republican wants to know where their party went, remind them that the GOP formally proclaimed, on September 19, 2008, when Paulson demanded entitlement for Bush's $1 trillion dollar going away present for his cronies, that henceforth the GOP will be known as the Party of Corporate Welfare. America does not tolerate corporate welfare.