Ep 202: Ideological Shaping of the Possible Part I: Democrats and the Black Box Corporate Consulting Industry

May 29, 2024

Guest

Robert Gibbs

Guest

James Carville

Guest

David Plouffe

Political strategists David Plouffe, James Carville, and Robert Gibbs discuss the influence of Democratic consultants with corporate ties on party politics. They delve into conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, and the blurred lines between political commentary and corporate affiliations within the US media and political landscape.

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INSIGHT

Democratic Consultants' Corporate Cycle

Former Democratic administration officials often become corporate consultants, blurring party politics with corporate PR.
This revolving door creates conflicts of interest, enabling pro-war, anti-left austerity politics under a liberal guise.

ANECDOTE

David Plouffe's Overlapping Roles

David Plouffe moved from Obama campaign to consulting for Uber and Saudi Arabia's investment, all while appearing on MSNBC.
His undisclosed corporate ties illustrate media's neglect of revealing potential conflicts in pundits' roles.

INSIGHT

Government-Industry Clique Enforces Consensus

Experts in government and private sector share skills and operate within a clique that enforces corporate-friendly consensus.
Challenging this consensus risks blackballing; loyalty primarily serves maintaining the status quo, not public interest.

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“David Plouffe's advice for 2020,” Axios shared in 2019. “James Carville: 'Stupid wokeness' is a national problem for Democrats,” CNN reported in 2021. “Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, discusses the debt ceiling deal and the latest job numbers,” MSNBC announced in 2023.

On a regular basis, news media clue us into the latest prescriptions from so-called Democratic strategists: people who’ve served as advisers, cabinet members, or other high-ranking positions within Democratic presidential administrations, who’ve also gone on to make millions from corporate consultancy and PR. Whether Larry Summers, David Plouffe, or some other cable-news fixture, these figures are consistently trotted out to give a quasi-liberal, professional face to plain old pro-war, anti-Left austerity politics.

It’s an obvious conflict of interest. If a presidential alum joins the board or C-suite of Uber or McDonald’s, for example, they shouldn’t be given the authority to weigh in on regulations or labor policy, especially on media platforms that claim to be somewhat left-leaning. If they work for a military contractor-funded “Strategic consultant” firm or, as is sometimes the case, directly for a weapons maker, they shouldn’t be offering talking head opinions on issues of war.

But, within US media and politics, there’s a bipartisan, Gentlemen's Agreement not to acknowledge this, let alone condemn it. There’s a taboo against noting this widespread revolving door politics between the private sector, Gulf dictatorships, black box corporate consultancy firms and high institutions of government.

Instead, it’s simply accepted that every White House, State Department or Senate job is an audition for a cushy board membership at Amazon, McDonalds, Raytheon, or a shady “consultancy” firm.

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss the blurring of lines between Democratic and Republican politics and corporate PR, examining the revolving door between high status government jobs and the consultancy blob, as well as how cable and print news outlets give PR flacks a platform through which to treat horrible policies as just another product to sell.

Our guest is the Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser, founder and Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project.