Democrats are the pro-business party

At tonight's Dean meetup I got into a short conversation with Bill Bradbury, Oregon's Secretary of State and one of the co-chairs of the official Dean for Oregon committee. Several of us were talking with him about the DLC. Bradbury was a founding member of the DLC but left it in part because of its overwhelming support of the Iraq war. I told him that the DLC lost its way. Its original goal was a good one: fight the notion that the Democratic party was anti-business. But the current leadership of the DLC thinks that the only way to do that is for the Democrats to kow-tow to business interests like the Republicans do. I commented that there was nothing in the Democratic message that was anti-business but that it gets spun that way by those who want to destroy the regulatory system that is such a vital part of making our economy work. In fact, I said, the Republicans are the true anti-business party because their policies so often lead to economic chaos that leaves many businesses in ruin. After all, I continued, what is more pro-business than profit? Wouldn't that make a great campaign slogan?