CA's Chamber of Gutlessness
I was pleasantly surprised to see the California Chamber of Commerce launch a hard-hitting TV ad targeting Jerry Brown. The Left always depicts California’s business community as a counterbalance to the power of the state’s well-funded and surly public employee unions, but the reality is that the Chamber has rather liberal leadership and is most interested in cutting deals with whomever is in power. The Chamber, for instance, has been good about battling job-killer bills that threaten its members, but has been AWOL or actively on the wrong side on property rights and other core freedom and limited-government issues. During the Gray Davis administration, the Chamber gave 90 percent of its money to Democrats. And it always goes for those soft-left proposals such as open primaries, etc.
Sure enough, the Chamber backed down in the face of pressure and, according to the Meg Whitman campaign, threats from the AG’s office (as opposed to the campaign). Brown will be an absolute horror for the state’s business community based on his actions and long-held leftist viewpoint, yet the Chamber backs down on its first big fight. Sadly that’s not surprising. What’s the chance the AG’s office will be livid when unions do the same thing on Brown’s behalf?
Given that Brown apparently believes that corporations and capitalism (at least what’s left of it in California) are basically evil, it might be a good time for some courage by the business community. There’s none at the Chamber, so it might be time for independent-minded businesses to look somewhere else for help — either that, or start scouting locations in Nevada, Texas or Arizona.
–Steven Greenhut
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