Mike Huckabee on Economics

I found this quote from GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee fascinating, and absolutely perfect for summing up the Republicans’ blind ideology regarding economics.

“Some of the toughest competition your company faces is from its own government, whose tax policies, whose regulatory policies, the threat of litigation, makes it real tough to stay in business," he told employees at a Demmer Corp. plant near Lansing that makes armored personnel carriers for the military. (Clinton, Obama Step Back from Race Flap, AP, Jan. 14, 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22657327/)

Huh? So the single customer who buys all your products is one of your toughest competitors?

If only all businesses could have it so easy.

Economics is not rocket science – more like tightrope walking – and the relationship between politics and economics is a delicate one. The role of government in ensuring everyone has enough, and no one gains disproportionate power, the environment is protected, and opportunity blossoms, is vital, but it can be easily swayed to damage, coercion, or lack. It requires constant vigilance, and frequent correction; sometimes more regulation or taxation, sometimes less. It is dynamic, a dance. For too long, the GOP’s been leading, and the dance card they hold is fascism – the melding of corporate and government power, for the advantage of a single economic constituency.

I’ll defend that statement in future posts, but for now, I’ll just say I’m making no allusion to specific fascist leaders of the past, only to the political-economic system they presided over.

That said, I find it fascinating that the media and the Republican Party is so successful at perpetrating the myth of Republicans as the party of small government and less regulation. Most of the regulation written since the Reagan administration has been written by large corporations, for their benefit, and has been voted in and signed by Republicans, who, judging from their policies, enjoy the ultra-rich as their one true constituent class. That regulation provides large corporations with huge advantages over small business, yet small business owners mostly seem to support the Republicans who undermine them.

I just wish I could have more confidence that the Democrats have some commitment to undoing fascist policies, and restoring a more balanced system.