Despite America’s founding values of liberty, justice, and freedom for all, the woke section of the Democratic Party is attempting to push economic central planning and socialist-style regulation in Washington. One of its chief proponents is Lina Khan—President Biden’s nominee to be a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission.
Typically, the debate between Democrats and Republicans has focused on how to make an efficient functioning economy serve all interests well. But now, we face a crusade by the new progressive left to challenge the premise that an efficient market economy actually serves all interests.
Sen. Warren (D-Mass) and her wing of the Democratic party handpicked Khan as a Trojan Horse for the worst of their ideas — the very socialist central planning that has historically brought countries to their knees. As Elizabeth Warren said herself, Khan represents the culmination of “a huge opportunity to make big, structural change by reviving antitrust enforcement and fighting monopolies that threaten our economy, our society and our democracy.”
Khan’s desire to regulate every sector of the economy springs from her belief that “there are no such things as market ‘forces’.” This suspicion of free markets and capitalism reeks of a modern milquetoast Marxism—gussied up enough to pass muster, but still rotten to its core.
And this type of politics makes for strange bedfellows. Khan’s work to reign in big tech has no doubt attracted some sympathy from populist conservatives like Tucker Carlson and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo). But conservatives really owe it to themselves and their voters to be clear-eyed about whose ideas they are embracing.
Khan’s wish to weaponize antitrust and consumer protection regulation against large tech firms is merely an appetizer to a main course featuring top down authoritarian control of the entire American economy—from manufacturing to retail and private equity. This is not just about Amazon and Apple, but Walmart and Caterpillar. Khan’s sight is set not just on breaking up Facebook and Google, but also Pfizer and Proctor and Gamble.
Rather than taking the Democrats at their party line, conservatives ought to see the propaganda for what it is. This is not principle, but power and a naked attempt to take it. Democrats may wear the mantle of “crusaders for the little guy,” but their policies don’t deliver and their politics is just a shameless power grab.
Instead, leftist attempts at antitrust reform should be seen for what they are—a giveaway to trial lawyers, a massive shift of centralization of power in the administrative state, and stripping the courts of the ability to constrain the agencies.
Conservatives eager to take a pound of flesh from Big Tech should not be fooled. We stand to open the flood gates with no hope to close them. What will start as an attack on big tech will ripple to economy wide regulation. The House Judiciary antitrust report — partially written by Lina Khan no less — with not a single Republican vote in support — is framed in terms of Big Tech regulation, but the laws it proposes affect every sector of the economy.
For one, competition law is necessarily economy-wide in scope and influence. So if you’re trying to reshape America radically, antitrust is your hammer. Take any social policy agenda you want, paint it as an antitrust problem, and thud — you’ve hit the nail on the head.
American antitrust is special — it’s designed to apply extraordinary interventions for extraordinary problems only. That’s why there’s no coincidence that the vast majority of the world’s most successful companies are American. We lead the world economically, precisely because we have the best competition law in the world.
But antitrust law can be a victim of its own success. Because it is so foundational to a functioning economy, it makes for an easy scapegoat for society’s problems. Antitrust touches everything, so guilt by association is easy.
Rational minds should resist this temptation. The quick hit from swinging an antitrust bat at one’s enemies is not worth the withdrawal that will surely come after. And the hangover from a Lina Khan-led Federal Trade Commission is sure to be a doozy.
Small changes make big ripples in antitrust, because we are talking about the bedrock of our free market economy — what type of competition is legal, and what isn’t.
Should she be confirmed, Lina Khan will lead the Federal Trade Commission, regardless of who actually chairs it. We’d do well to leave this Trojan Horse rotting at the gates. One need not wait to see what it contains.
Carl Szabo is Vice President and General Counsel of NetChoice, a trade organization.
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