But if the financial sector split the difference between the two parties in 2008, it will probably skew toward the Democrats in succeeding elections, as Obama becomes the chief advocate of the Wall Street bailout. Such a development would be shocking considering the animosity between Big Business and the Democratic Party that began during the New Deal of the 1930s, which drove up taxation and slapped new regulations across many industries. That animosity continued throughout the Reagan era, when businesspeople craved the lower tax rates and deregulation of Reaganite Republicans.
What might have been true in the 1930s, is hardly true now. Big Business long ago, not only made peace with the idea of regulation, but recognized the competitive advantage for them in it. Regulation, to the degree it is costly and complicated, increases the barriers to entry of an industry, making it harder for small upstarts to compete with the large established large players. Why should Big Business feel animosity towards Politicians promising them that?
I question how true this was in the thirties. Brandeis certainly recognized, then, that New Deal policies overtly favored Big Business.
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