A crucial part of the Democratic Party's self-identity is that it is the champion of the little guy and the Republicans are the party of corporate America. This dogma has always been somewhere between a falsehood and an exaggeration, and a new paper suggests corporations are shifting hard toward Democrats these days.
In the end, the first elections under this new law resulted in record turnout, record early turnout, and record black turnout. It was a good law, and Democrats likely knew that, but they also knew that crying “disenfranchisement” is the most effective way to mobilize supporters. Corporate America joined the Democrats in this.
This creates an awkward dynamic for economic liberals, who see their side as the side of the little guy, arrayed against the economically powerful.All over the major media, you will hear dismissals of the notion that big business is aligned with the Democratic Party and is a battalion in the culture wars.
Hersh and Shah polled the public and found that Democrats believed corporate America was tacking right while Republicans believed corporate America was tacking left. Again, the standard explanation is that Republicans are just being fed conspiracy theories by a right-populist media.