Rick Klein makes an observation:
“The culture wars are raging again, bringing the predictable splits. Democrats say one thing; Republicans – including all of the potential 2016ers — say another, reflecting real divisions among voters. But there’s something missing on the GOP side: some of the biggest voices in the business community. Leading the way in criticizing the new Indiana law and its cousins in other states are titans of the corporate world: Apple, Walmart, Marriott, Eli Lilly, even Indiana’s Chamber of Commerce.”
“There are few signs that corporate leaders’ splits with the political right will last permanently, or matter for things like campaign contributions. But it’s instructive to see how things are lining up in this fight. It’s as if big slices of corporate America are glimpsing a demographic and ideological future ahead of their political counterparts.”
I think we’re in danger of being too simplistic when we assign certain Democrats to the “Wall Street” camp, including Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and cast them as enemies of the more populist camp represented currently by Senator Elizabeth Warren. But there isn’t much doubt that the Clintons (both Hillary and Bill) have decent relationships with corporate America. If corporate America feels like Hillary is probably going to be the next president, they’ll be more interested in influencing her and mollifying the populist impulses in the party than in attacking and alienating her.
To be sure, there will be some ideologues and hard-right business/culture warriors and Fox News addicts in the corporate world who will spend many millions of dollars trying to elect the Republican nominee, but these things are a matter or proportion and percentages. Clinton should have a wide driving lane with plenty of space to give a wink and a nod to Wall Street when she feels the need to speak in Warrenesque tones.
Probably the main attraction of Jeb as a Republican champion is that he will blunt this potential for Clinton to divide the business community from the holy rollers.
