Hillary Clinton (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
When presumed presidential candidate and presumptive 2016 Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton stepped in a pile of poop of her own making last Friday, enterprise personnel at both small and large companies could only roll their eyes. It was merely business as usual on the current political scene.
The fact that Clinton quickly “walked back” her comments on Monday in reaction to groans by business leaders and much of the general public was small comfort. It was, at best, a disheartening disparagement.
Clinton, appearing at a campaign event in Boston attempting to help salvage the struggling Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign of Martha Coakley, instructed supporters assembled at the Park Plaza Hotel, “Don’t let anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.”
It was easy to imagine hotel workers, television camera operators and anyone else within earshot employed by a, well, business scratching their heads in bewilderment.
While politicians are prone to uttering strategically calculated platitudes for which commonsense recommends disregard, Clinton’s attempt at faking a philosophical tenor only made her appear foolish. It was a misstep she may learn to avoid while continuing to placate leftists in the party, but is unlikely to be soon forgotten by friend or easily forgiven by foe.
For business operators, who by necessity organize their lives around accurately defining issues and discerning effective solutions, it was both discouraging and dismaying. The purveyors of progress toiling at the engines of employment were sucker-punched yet again – by someone permanently ensconced within the rarified artificial confines of the public sector bubble.
The irony, of course, is that Clinton is more circumspect than many of her party colleagues when it comes to business issues and economic policy. Her awkward, albeit revealing, unscripted commentary was widely viewed as a failed attempt to blunt displeasure among far-left party activists regarding what they consider her too-temperate tone. That Clinton seemed to think a weirdly contrived statement would provide sufficient solace for those waging combat with commerce and vilifying business was the most puzzling aspect of her blunder.
The net effect was to tarnish her popular moderation while only further angering detractors by appearing transparently disingenuous. She was simply trying too hard to strike a pose. It’s a burden borne by contemporary politicians within both parties and across a broad ideological spectrum.
Demonization of contrived devils by politicians on both the right and the left may be what substitutes for thoughtful discourse these days, but it is merely the snake-oil elixir of modern-era political practitioners.
The damage to Clinton’s image was in echoing President Obama’s infamously condescending and dismissive 2012 campaign rally exhortation disrespecting entrepreneurs and business owners. It was in Roanoke, Va., that he brandished the claim that, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Although bandied while suggesting that businesses are dependent on government for an entrepreneur’s education, the military’s origination of the Internet and federal financing of roads and bridges – or something like that, his words still stung. The paternalistic rhetoric exposed a philosophical mindset belying a seduction of the notion that government is the preferred creator of jobs and source of economic prosperity.
For business owners, actually paying their bills and balancing their budgets, the inherent disconnect from reality was startling.
These two high-profile problematic pronouncements are emblematic of serious symptoms of wrongheadedness among Democrats. Perhaps public reaction will force some internal soul-searching regarding the party’s relationship with the business sector. If not, an opportunity to stem the tide of business professionals increasingly alienated and estranged from the party will be lost.
It has become fashionable to declare everything a “war” on this-or-that. What the country needs is a little less battling against business and a lot more willingness to seek collaborative solutions that engage the actual creators of jobs and builders of businesses.
Otherwise, Hillary, you might need to pursue a different line of work.
Mark Lee is a long-time entrepreneur and community business advocate. Follow on Twitter: @MarkLeeDC. Reach him at OurBusinessMatters@gmail.com.