alternet.org
As Vox’s Ezra Klein notes, the disagreement between Clinton and Sanders has much to do with the role they envision for big business. Sanders’ politics are largely (but not exclusively) defined by “a deep and abiding skepticism of the role large corporations play in American life.” He “believes their most crucial innovations often simply free-ride on publicly funded research” and he “worries that their massive profits allow them to buy off politicians and rig the system.” Individuals within corporations may mean well, but corporations themselves are, to democracy, an inherent threat.
Clinton, on the other hand, is less inclined to generalize about big business. She’s fond of so-called public/private partnerships, served on the board of the über-corporation Walmart, and raised tens of millions of dollars from corporate CEOs and Wall Street executives. As her resistance to reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act has shown, she sees no problem with bigness, in itself. Quite the opposite, in fact, since large corporations tend to reap the largest profits — which, in theory, leads to better funding for the safety net. |
