For too long, conservatives have blindly supported corporations. While trying to support “free markets” we might inadvertently be supporting corporatism, a form of economic totalitarianism where government and corporations collude to destroy individual rights.
When I moved to Washington DC in 2002 to accept a position in the Bush Administration, I thought that corporations might be allies of conservatives who were promoting free markets. I was wrong. Over many years working in public policy, I have been disgusted by corporate attempts to utilize the government to destroy fair competition by any means necessary.
Am I a conservative Pollyanna? No. I came from the business world, have a master’s degree in business and public administration, and taught business and ethics at a private college for many years. I understand business.
It is bad enough when companies lobby to get public policy favors from politicians to crush their rivals, but when the private sector colludes with the government to limit the freedoms of individual Americans it is time to fight back with every legal method we can find.
America was founded on the concept that individuals have natural rights that come from God, not government…and certainly not from corporations. This is why Americans were not as likely to fall into economic fascism as Italians were in the early 1900’s. Yet, it gained a foothold. And in the last couple of years, it seems to have taken that foothold and marched right into every facet of our lives.