This week’s
Economist has a good article about the Republicans' waning support among the wealthy. The Rich Republican stereotype, which hasn’t always been accurate anyway, is apparently no more:
“A YouGov/Polimetrix poll for The Economist finds that only 44% of those earning more than $150,000 plan to vote Republican."
For people living in wealthy and very Democrat San Francisco, this won’t be particularly surprising. And the Republican’s poor fiscal management in the past 8 years is enough to turn any businessperson off. But it’s hard to imagine them turning to the Democrats if money is their top priority – for 2008, Democrats are banking on a protectionist, anti-globalization ideology. Obama has
promised to fight the trade-pact with South Korea (in defense of the American worker), and Hillary wants to
review all free-trade agreements every five years.
There has been a revival of animosity toward globalization recently. One of their top pundits (and #11 on the list of world’s
top public intellectuals (which I would argue is slightly contradictory – what does “popular” have to do with “intellectual”, and aren't they inherently antithetical?)), Naomi Klein, has a new book about the devious nature of global capitalism. Sure to be a rallying cry for G8 and World Bank protestor types, this polemic is a follow-up to her seminal text
No Logo, and seems to exist not to convince, but to preach to the converted.
The Shock Doctrine is basically the book equivalent of a Michael Moore film – stretching facts to suit pseudo-conspiracies (this time in the form of Milton Friedman’s students). The
FT has a good
review.
There is not enough space here to explain why globalization is good, but I would refer you to a
Forbes article on the subject. Globalization has improved the quality of life of many people across the world, and not just because you can get a Frappachino in the Forbidden City (actually, apparently you can’t anymore. But you could this summer.) But the anti-globalization rhetoric we are starting to see on the campaign trail is one of the worst forms of populism to infiltrate US politics in some time. Never mind that we are currently in our 50th consecutive month of
job growth, and that since August 2003 the US has created 8.1 million new jobs. Obama and Hillary talk about the evils of outsourcing and free trade.
And what are the Republicans doing about it? While our candidates couldn’t be bothered to attend CA’s Republican convention in Palm Springs last month (we’re only the world’s 7th largest economy…), they all found time to pay homage to the Family-Values crowd at this weekend’s
Value Voter Summit. Why Giuliani bothered to show up at all is a surprise. In a straw poll, he only got 107 votes out of 5,776. As the only pro-choice candidate on the roster, this was not his audience, and perhaps he missed an opportunity to snub the minority that for too long has hijacked the Republican agenda away from its tried-and-true business roots.
The Economist cogently writes:
“The shrill voices of religious conservatives have driven away many pragmatic Republicans who feel that banning abortion and gay marriage are not the most pressing issues confronting America… Rather than building a pragmatic centre-right alternative to Hillary Clinton, the conservative movement is stuck with God, gays and guns… As long as the business of the Republican Party seems not to be business, it can hardly complain if businesspeople look elsewhere.”
