Capitalism is Slapping Down the Right
Add “free markets” to the far-right’s long list of enemies
There’s a growing disconnect between the more academic definitions of “Left” and “Right,” and what these labels are commonly understood to mean. If you ever attended a university and took an intro-level Poli-Sci class, you were probably taught that the political Right supports things like free markets, fiscal restraint, and property rights, while the Left tends to support more government intervention in the economy. But as is often the case, academia may be a bit out of touch with the real world here.
Even before last week’s armed insurrection on Capitol Hill, the American Right’s relationship with the free market was already on the rocks. Sure, the Republican Party passed some massive tax cuts for the wealthy, but they were also turning sharply against free trade, and taking a much more aggressive, interventionist tone towards companies that dared to stand in the way of their agenda. For a group that claims to hate socialism, it sure feels pretty socialist.
Remember when Planet Fitness defended their policy of respecting trans people’s right to use whichever bathroom corresponds to their gender? Obviously, conservatives respected a private company’s right to make their own rules. Just kidding, they only do that when companies are trying to harm or exclude people. When market forces are at odds with retrograde social conservatism, the pro-market Right ceases to exist.
The trend continues today, as some big companies have announced that they’ll be halting donations to the members of Congress who attempted to overturn the election. Meanwhile, Trumpworld is once again outraged over the fact that some private companies have finally chosen to ban content that violates their terms and conditions, including the most notorious offender, Trump’s Twitter account.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The economic stability ensured by the rule of law is what allows companies to grow and prosper. Sowing chaos and undermining democracy, it turns out, isn’t great for business.
Are big businesses doing this out of principled concern for democratic institutions? Of course not, but the outcome is pretty much the same. For Trump’s staunchest supporters, there may not be a line he can’t cross. But for companies concerned about their long-term profitability, calls to violently overthrow the government don’t sit too well.
It seems, then, that it might be time to stop simplistically associating the Right with the private sector and the Left with the public sector. In modern usage, Right and Left have much more to do with one’s cultural identity and values. Do you believe that social change is happening too fast, or not fast enough? Do you want to wall off the country from the rest of the world, or live in an open society that aspires towards global cooperation? These are the questions that seem to animate the modern Right.
This could also be an important lesson for those of us on the center-left. Markets, while not infallible, do respond to the incentives of popular demand, oftentimes faster than governments can. When public sentiment increasingly calls for more tolerance and inclusion, companies tend to respond accordingly.
While a dynamic market-based economy should certainly be augmented by safety nets and basic regulations in the public interest, the skepticism of markets writ large on the Left may be misguided. Markets are a bit like rivers. Unconstrained, they can sweep us away in a flood of unconscious consumption and corporate cronyism. But this doesn’t mean we’d be better off without them. When we choose to harness their energy for the common good, everyone benefits. Everyone, that is, except the authoritarians.
