Masking interest-group politics with ideological rhetoric

Masking interest-group politics with ideological rhetoric July 30, 2015

Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., discusses how New York City mayor Bill de Blasio tried, unsuccessfully, to block the online taxi service Uber from the Big Apple.  He points out how the Democratic mayor used “progressive” rhetoric–to the point of comparing Uber to the hated Wall Mart–as a cover for old-fashioned interest group politics, namely, advancing the agenda of the current New York City taxi industry, which has strong ties to the Democratic Party establishment.

What interests me especially in that column, excerpted after the jump, is his point about how ideological rhetoric is used to mask interest group politics.  The author says Hillary Clinton is doing this, though I’m sure both sides are guilty of doing so.   Can you think of other examples of this sort of thing?

From Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.,  How Uber Won the Big Apple – WSJ:

In a naked favor to taxi operators, who’ve been funding city Democrats for generations but aren’t popular with anybody else, he backed an ordinance to tightly limit growth of all livery, or “black car,” operators—obviously aimed at fast-growing Uber. In effect, the bill was taxi operators’ attempt to manhandle Uber into their long-established cartel to the detriment of consumers. To forestall any ideological doubts, Mr. de Blasio threw in some rhetoric comparing Uber to Exxon and Wal-Mart.

This formula has now rung up a complete blowout—for the other side. On Thursday, the livery bill was hastily withdrawn amid a torrent of criticism from fellow city Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, city comptroller Scott Stringer, the Bronx and Brooklyn borough presidents, and, most devastatingly, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Mr. Cuomo, in a radio interview throwing the mayor under a bus, called Uber “one of these great inventions, startups, of this new economy. It’s offering a great service for people, and it’s giving people jobs. I don’t think government should be in the business of trying to restrict job growth.”

Lesson one: Thinly pasting “progressive” rhetoric over the same old interest-group politics is shaping up as an early Hillary Clinton theme; many Democrats are even testing out the idea of painting Silicon Valley an enemy of the middle class. They may want to rethink.

 

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