American small businesses are somewhat of the canary in the mine. Not only are are small businesses the icon of American individualism, they are also the engine of our economy. "One recent study by the Small Business Administration (SBA) showed that businesses with fewer than twenty employees were responsible for more than 97 percent of all new jobs between 1988 and 2004."
Democratic politicians are wise to pay homage to small businesses and their issues. Fix what ails the small business and you fix the economy. This is an issue that has broad crossover appeal. Moderates and even conservatives want to protect American small businesses. But conservatives hate government regulation... until it benefits them. There are many government regulations that protect small businesses that conservatives can agree with; call them gateway regulations. Liberals tend to blindly support government regulations especially those imposed on business. There are many stupid regulation that hurt small businesses. The EPA has falsely been made the Bugaboo of bad government regulations for two reasons: 1) EPA regulations tend to cost money for large corporations for frivolous things like public health and, 2) it takes the focus off the real problems like farm subsidies that benefit corporate farms and kill family farms.
No longer is the Soviet Union a threat to us. The threat we face now are multinational corporations. Democrats are failing to make this case. They are also failing to make the case that government is often the weapon of preference wielded against the American people by the looming corporate menus.
The [Commerce} Department is infested with [corporations]. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of [Commerce] as being members of [corporations] and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the [Commerce] Department
The difference in this statement and the one originally made by Joe McCarthy is that this statement can be undeniably substantiated and the number is mach larger than 205.
Democrats have allowed the Corporate Party to conflate American business with multinational corporations. A wise politician will articulate this distinction with the American flag waving large in the background.
Here is a good article on the decline of American Entrepreneurship.