{"id":12631,"date":"2012-01-11T14:20:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=12631"},"modified":"2012-01-11T14:20:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:20:10","slug":"can-romney-defend-democratic-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/12631\/can-romney-defend-democratic-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Romney Defend Democratic Capitalism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m glad to see the Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s editorial page<\/a> echoing Troy\u2019s advice to Mitt Romney<\/a> to get out in front of the Bain-bashing and make a full-throated defense of free market capitalism.\u00a0 But as both Troy and the Journal<\/em> seem to allude to, Romney doesn\u2019t appear capable or willing to make the case for democratic<\/em> capitalism; the kind of market economy that emphasizes equal access and opportunities instead of guaranteed outcomes.<\/p>\n

The way I\u2019m using the term, democratic capitalism disdains the unfairness many perceive in the crony capitalism of Obama\u2019s Solyndra deal, and in the bailouts of companies deemed too big to fail.\u00a0 Americans don\u2019t like it when public employee unions get tenure protections and better benefits than the private sector.\u00a0 People feel cheated when General Electric pays no federal income taxes thanks to loopholes only the wealthy like Warren Buffet can exploit.\u00a0 For the free market to work, people have to trust it, and right now Wall Street, the White House, and many other entrenched special interests from unions to rent-seeking businesses are making everyday Americans think the capitalistic system they\u2019ve been sold is far from democratic.<\/p>\n

In a sense, democratic capitalism is at the heart of Sarah Palin\u2019s appeal.\u00a0 Her entire career in Alaska was built around taking down entrenched interests enriching themselves at the expense of a fair system.\u00a0 She exposed a corrupt state oil and gas commission; disrupted the state GOP\u2019s patrician good old boys club by defeating an incumbent governor; and won a fight with a major oil company over its ability to exploit Alaska\u2019s natural wealth without sharing some of it with residents.\u00a0 These were the accomplishments that made her a maverick and put her on John McCain\u2019s vice presidential radar.\u00a0 When Palin was toying with a presidential run this time around, she gave a major speech blasting distortions of the economy<\/a> that make the market less fair, and ultimately, less free.\u00a0 Better than anyone to date, Palin communicates the Tea Party\u2019s angst over Big Government into a larger narrative about the dangers posed by any segments of society that threaten the democratic element in America\u2019s form of capitalism.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not saying that Mitt Romney is a foe of democratic capitalism.\u00a0 What I\u2019m saying is that he doesn\u2019t appear comfortable articulating his understanding of the free market in a message that applies equally to executives and frontline workers.\u00a0 That\u2019s probably because he\u2019s never been a frontline worker.\u00a0 Of course, he\u2019s worked hard \u2013 graduating with honors from Harvard law and business schools demands it \u2013 but as the son of an auto executive and governor whose first job out of graduate school was telling CEO\u2019s how to fix their companies, Mitt Romney has never experienced capitalism from the factory floor.\u00a0 That means he will have a hard time explaining the virtues of capitalism to people near the destructive end of capitalism\u2019s creativity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fairly or not, if Romney is the nominee liberals will savage him as a member of the 1% who made millions replacing people with technology and exporting many of the remaining jobs overseas.\u00a0 Conservatives who favor the free market should hope that Romney discovers how to articulate the democratic element of capitalism soon and well.\u00a0 He could start by reading Troy\u2019s excellent remarks<\/a> as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m glad to see the Wall Street Journal\u2019s editorial page echoing Troy\u2019s advice to Mitt Romney to get out in front of the Bain-bashing and make a full-throated defense of free market capitalism.\u00a0 But as both Troy and the Journal seem to allude to, Romney doesn\u2019t appear capable or willing to make the case for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2033,143,1193,55,1751,19,2026,160,365],"class_list":["post-12631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-2033","tag-barack-obama","tag-campaign","tag-capitalism","tag-democracy","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-mitt-romney","tag-sarah-palin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12631"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12642,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631\/revisions\/12642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}