Chamber of Commerce/politics

Steve Grube grube at ix.netcom.com
Wed Oct 27 23:04:14 PDT 1999


Doug / Peter:

I think the one-sentence quote below is explained well

by G. William Domhoff in _The Powers That Be_ and

in another of his books: _The Power Elite and the State_.

In "Power Elite" he describes four segments in the

American ruling class: The internationalist segment,

a nationalist manufacturing segment, a southern segment,

and the localized segment (typically developers and real

estate types). The "large companies" quoted below are

mostly represented in the internationalist segment and are

more moderate than the manufacturing segment which is

mostly aligned with ultra-conservative groups such as

The Nat. Association of Manufacturers, The American

Enterprise Institute, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

The former is aligned with the more moderate groups

such as Council on Foreign Relations.

Now as much as I like to see the conservatives battle it

out, the real difference may not be much more than that joke

about two bulls standing atop a hill looking down on a

herd of young cows. One bull says "Hey, lets run down there

a get us a cow!" The other says "Let's *walk* down and get

us a whole herd..." -Steve Grube

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Peter Kilander wrote:
>
> >I like this line: "Large companies tend
> >to be less ideological than small business owners..."
>
> If "ideological" is the way Times reporters say "rabidly right-wing,"
> it's probably right. Wall Street is full of Democrats, and the
> Fortune 500 can live happily with the business wings of both parties.
> Support for the loony right comes from smaller businesspeople and
> lone wolf/arriviste Wall Streeters (e.g. hedge fund hotshots rather
> than Goldman Sachs execs).
>
> Doug



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