Peggy Noonan, Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, the folks at Fox & Friends ... there were plenty of losers in this presidential election besides Governor Romney.
Count Big Business among them.
No, not because the business community put the bulk of its money on the
losing horse. And not because an “anti-business” Obama administration will
raise corporate taxes.
But because
the losing argument in this election tied the economic well-being of the Middle
Class to the health of the business sector.
At
the beginning of the presidential campaign, all the pundits were singing a
common theme song: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Voters, we were told, always
punish or reward the incumbent according to the economic vapors. When the
economy is sweet, whoever’s in the Oval Office gets a pass; if it’s sour, he’s
freed to concentrate on planning his new library.
On that score, none of the traditional metrics supported
President Obama’s re-election, whether it was the unemployment rate, consumer
confidence, or the proportion of voters who thought the country was going in
the right direction. Even his job approval seldom wandered over 50%.
The
two candidates’ political philosophies reflected their respective backgrounds –
the community organizer who saw government as a lever for change and the
businessman who considered it a drag on the economy.
Somewhere along the line, the
election became a referendum on those two worldviews.
As it turns out, most voters didn't buy the Romney camp’s argunent that the secret to growing the Middle Class is to improve the business climate for “job creators” by cutting corporate taxes and reducing regulation.that debate
For example, as David Brooks pointed out in a recent column, surveys show that Asian- and
Hispanic-Americans value industriousness and entrepreneurship even more than
whites, but they also think government plays an important role in enhancing
opportunity and improving the business climate. They don’t see government and
business as Hatfields and McCoys.
And when the question was
put directly to voters in one national survey, nearly two in three said building
a strong middle class was more important to economic recovery than creating a
“healthy climate for business.” They
didn’t see the link.
Americans believe in private enterprise, but they no
longer believe corporate success has much to do with their own security — only
18% strongly agree that “the middle class always does well when big
corporations do well.”
Voters in Michigan and Ohio apparently rewarded
President Obama – and arguably punished Governor Romney – for rescuing the auto
industry. But that may be the exception that proves the rule. When employees
see a direct connection between their well-being and their employer’s, they
respond accordingly. And when they see a disconnect between rewards at the top
of the company and further down in the ranks, they do the same.
Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk
in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and lost much of its faith in
the future. For more than a decade, a majority of Americans have told
pollsters they don’t expect today’s kids to be better off than their parents. They
can’t fix it, so it’s only natural for them to fix blame. About half point the
finger at large corporations.
There’s a strong message here for American
business leaders. So strong, it amounts to a warning. Any
company that doesn’t factor those attitudes into its business risk assessments
is asking for trouble.
