The Democrats: Wall Street’s new darlings

The Democrats: Wall Street’s new darlings

Throughout the entire 20th century, said Daniel Gross in Slate.com, the relationship between business and politics could be summed up in a simple phrase: “Businesspeople like Republicans and don’t like Democrats.” It was nothing personal; Wall Street just shared the GOP’s fondness for lower taxes, limited government, and the free market, while Democrats were the party of big government, regulation, and labor unions. For decades, business’ unwavering support meant that the Republicans always went into national campaigns with far more money. Not anymore. In this presidential election cycle, Democrats “are kicking the tar out of their rivals,’’ raising $388 million to the GOP’s $287 million. Democrats used to be the party of the have-nots. Now they’re becoming the party of the “have-mores.’’

That turnaround is not hard to explain, said John Fout in TheStreet.com. Businesspeople are pragmatic, and the facts suggest that “a Democratic administration might be better for business than a Republican administration.” Given the keys to the federal government, Republicans ran up huge deficits, gave away billions to the energy industry and other favored industries, and undermined the dollar, whose value has plunged. Hillary Clinton’s husband, on the other hand, was a paragon of fiscal responsibility, with a “pay-as-you-go budget philosophy” that led to one of the most impressive economic upswings in our history. Even in Congress, many key Democrats are now business-friendly, said John Farmer in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, for example, has used his position on the banking and finance committees to block tax increases on the hedge-fund industry. Democrats no longer seem like the party that once would have “sacked the wealthy and plundered corporate profits to finance the welfare state.”

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If business thinks it can buy the Democrats’ favor by writing fat checks to Hillary, said Stephen Moore in The Wall Street Journal, it will soon be proved wrong. Democrats are sure to raise taxes, impose a host of onerous new workplace and environmental regulations, and give labor whatever it demands—in short, adopt an “anti-growth agenda.’’ When that happens, no Democratic donor should complain. “When you sell the rope to the hangman, you deserve to have a noose around your neck.’’ If only that were so, said Paul Krugman in The New York Times. As a progressive, I find business’ newfound enthusiasm for the Democrats troubling—but for the opposite reason. If the Democrats win in 2008, it’s entirely possible that they will have become “too dependent on lobbyists’ money to seriously confront the excesses of our new Gilded Age.”