Biting The Hand That Feeds

Atlas will Shrug, even if Atlas has foolishly embraced liberalism:

It’s difficult to decide who deserves more derision in this Washington Post report on fundraising woes in the Democratic Party. Should we laugh at the Nancy Pelosi-led politicians who thought that a year of populist pandering and the launch of a radical, aggressive anti-business agenda would have no effect on donations from the wealthy they demonized? Or should we instead mock those who lent their wealth to Democrats in the apparent belief that they didn’t intend to act on their class-warfare rhetoric?

Hey, why choose?

...

This last point is most significant. Donors flock to power, especially those with serious commercial interests in policy decisions on Capitol Hill. They suck up to the party that controls each chamber (in this case, the one party that controls both) in order to make sure their issues get on the agenda and get favorable treatment. That impulse helps keep incumbents in power.

However, that impulse has declined sharply in this Congress, and for good reason. The Democrats plan on radically restructuring two industries that comprise about a third of the economy, combined. While some in the health-care industry may gain with some of the “reforms” pushed by Democrats, more will lose. In the energy industry, just about everyone in that industry loses with cap-and-trade.

Nowhere is this trend more obvious than on Wall Street...

Who would have guessed that the people that Democrats demonized as evil in the first half of the year would be reluctant to donate now? For both the Democrats who are shocked, shocked! to find former donors alienated from their class-warfare campaign and the business interests shocked, shocked! to find class warriors in charge of the Democratic Party they supported unthinkingly last year, I award the Captain Louis Renault Award...