The Irony of Right-Wing CEO Propaganda

Recently, an alarming trend has begun in the corporate world that should be exposed and analyzed.  CEOs of large companies have informed their employees they will likely lose their jobs if they vote for President Obama in the upcoming election.  These CEOs are putting on their Nostradamus caps and predicting the future of the economy and are seeing only pain and grief if the Democrat is re-elected for a second term.  Is it fair to point out now that most of these same guys apparently did not see the economic calamity of 2008 coming and told their employees nothing of this nature at that time?  How strange?  But I guess they must be correct in their assumptions now.  Would everyone who believes that be interested in buying a bridge I have for sale?

There is a great irony here.  There is little doubt a lack of regulation in the housing and derivatives markets were the greatest causes of the financial crisis we are still feeling the effects of and both political parties were guilty of contributing to that situation.  But history has no place in the propaganda of these CEOs.  One even warns of “unprecedented regulatory burdens on businesses” that will come if Obama wins in November and this is why the employees should be worried about their jobs.  And therein lies the irony.

The economy imploded because of deregulation or a lack of new regulation where it was needed.  The bleeding was stopped with liberal economic policy and the passing of the stimulus bill.  Now employees are told to vote for the candidate most likely to deregulate and make the economy more volatile and to shun the candidate responsible for setting the economy on a stable path to growth.  So, if you want to keep your job, vote for the policies that nearly lost you your job four years ago instead of the policies that have kept you working during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The ridiculous reality of this situation is these guys actually do have the power to create the circumstances they are predicting whether the economy plays a role or not.  They can simply fire their employees, close their businesses, and watch the chaos like children who do not get their way.  This is most exemplified by the last few lines of this letter released last week to the, now frightened, employees of Westgate Resorts:

My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

Signed, your boss,

David Siegel

Two important aspects of this should be noted.  The first is the phrase “provide jobs”.  Siegel is obviously running with the idea the 1% are the “job creators” and threatens his people in a not-so-subtle phrasing of that.  The second is the fact certain people are able to make a threat like this because of the income inequality in the U.S.  He has no motivation to work so he hoards this over his employees and threatens their livelihoods because he can.  If the problem of inequality was not as great as it is, he might not be so motivated to close his business just to get his way.  (We, of course, should not worry too much about these threats since greed will keep these guys right where they are for the foreseeable future regardless of the election outcome.)

This is nothing more than another way of bosses buying votes.  In the past, people were paid to check the ballot box for a candidate of someone else’s choosing.  Now the currency is their job and the security of knowing they will have one next year.

And remember, this is not a person being influential because of their ideas, their ability to inspire people, their ability to organize people, or even their ability to change people’s perspectives on life.  It is the influence of money and greed, plain and simple, sad and unfortunate, disgusting and undemocratic.