In 2007, guess who wrote this:
Health care in this country is in shambles. At a cost of almost $12,000 a year for the average family, the system is bankrupting families and it's bankrupting companies ... Take General Motors. They're currently paying out $1,525 per vehicle for health care. Compare that to the $201 Toyota is paying and it sounds even more absurd. And what about those families and individuals who can't afford insurance at all?
It was Lee Iacocca, in Where Have All the Leaders Gone? The same icon of American business who was touted as a candidate for President in 1988 by business leaders throughout America has been on board for health care reform since before the 2008 election.
In that sense, I question the strategy of getting major companies to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of their opposition to health care reform, Green Jobs initiatives and other items on the progressive agenda.
After all, health care reform benefits businesses, large and small, and certainly the membership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is not so monolithic as to fail to see that. When Apple quit the USCC, it was hailed, here and elsewhere, as a triumph for progressives. It could also be seen as the loss of a channel of dialog. Apple could have been the bridge to many USCC members who could be persuaded to join the Green Jobs effort. Instead, now there's a new layer of insulation between us and them.
I can't help but draw a parallel between the "Quit the Chamber" campaign and the rhetoric of some of the people at the Town Hall meetings in August. When Senator Chuck Grassley held his Town Hall in Adel, Iowa, many stood up to criticize Grassley for even the poor facade of bipartisan discussion he was putting forward at the time. "Don't even talk to those liberals" was the tone of many of the comments, overlooking the fact that we elect representatives and senators to do just that -- to talk to each other!
Well, the USCC is not a representative body, and it is in the process of being taken over by ideologues, just as the NRA was. On the other hand, shutting the door and asking potential allies to "stop talking to those people" just widens the gulf.
MoveOn seems to have realized this. Their initial campaign, to get Toyota to quit the USCC as well, seems to have failed. So, MoveOn is trying something which, possibly, will be more successful: the "Tell Toyota to Stop Opposing Clean Energy" campaign asks Toyota owners to photograph themselves with their Toyotas, and to upload those photos to a petition for clean energy.
It's early, but it seems to me that this might have a better chance for success. Instead of trying to cut Toyota from the herd, the goal is to get Toyota to identify with its customers, and to remind that company that its livelihood depends on those of us who own Toyotas (or might). Perhaps Toyota can do for Green Energy initiatives what Iacocca, AARP and others have done for health care reform.
Anyway, my 1994 Toyota Corolla and I have a date with the camera...