Business leaders signal they are okay with Trump's attack on Democracy.
When they say things will be fine if Donald Trump is elected, they don’t mean things will be fine for you or for me, they mean their companies will be protected, maybe even advantaged.
A few weeks ago, I asked journalist A.B. Stoddard whether any Republicans would have the courage to stand with Joe Biden in the general election. She said she thought there would be a few. Then I asked if she though American business leaders would stand up for our democracy as well. She couldn’t think of any who might. This week, on cue, at the gathering of the rich and mighty at Davos in the Swiss Alps, the great men opined that Donald Trump would be the next President and that everything will be fine.
The atmosphere must be very thin up there. Jamie Dimon is a great banker. Stephen Schwarzman is a superb investor. Guys like them are really good at making money. But that does not make them deep thinkers about our democracy or our politics. In fact, their success depends on their ability to privatize gains and socialize losses. If money is to be made, they want to keep it. If money is being lost, they want taxpayers to bail them out. So, when they say things will be fine if Donald Trump is elected, they don’t mean things will be fine for you or for me, they mean their companies will be protected, maybe even advantaged.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently wrote that these are the same guys who spent the last few years “fighting unions and suppressing wages, monopolizing their markets and price-gouging consumers, and siphoning off almost all gains to shareholders.” They’ve also been funneling campaign cash to election deniers, after initially promising Americans they would never do that again.
It is important that American business remain strong and healthy. But it is equally important that it operates within a system where ordinary Americans benefit from the enormous economic growth our society produces. The bigs up in the mountains need a reminder that their companies rely on workers educated in our schools. They move products on roads we build. They jet around in airspace we keep safe. Their basic research is paid for by public sector grants to universities. Their disputes are settled in courts we pay for. Citizenship isn’t such a complicated idea. I’m confident that with a little work, even the folks in Davos can understand it.