Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan is sworn in before testifying to the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Beware the Corporate Democratic Donors With Knives Out for Lina Khan
Khan is the first real antitrust champion America has had in years. But will leading Democrats have the guts and integrity to defend her?
We’ve recently learned about Project 2025, the GOP’s scheme to let corporate agents take over our government. But there’s also a less visible effort by some donors to also make Democrats install corporate-subservient officials to expand their monopoly power.
High-finance finaglers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley are quietly demanding that Kamala Harris commit to appointing their designated toadies to oversee America’s so-called “free-enterprise” structure. Their primary target is the Federal Trade Commission, a little-known agency meant to protect and extend economic competition.
The FTC is now headed by Lina Khan, a tenacious opponent of anti-consumer, anti-worker mergers and takeovers. She rightly recognizes that the “free” in free enterprise is not an adjective but a verb, requiring aggressive public action to free up the enterprise of people who are now routinely shut out of the market by monopolistic giants.
If we really want free markets, Khan says, then let’s free them.
Oh, how the money vultures screeched! “She’s a dope,” raged takeover bully Barry Diller in a dopey fury.
Since many of the monopolistic titans who are offended by Khan’s otherwise very popular progressive populism are from the high-dollar donor class, they have undue clout. Thus they are bluntly demanding Khan’s head as their price for financially backing Harris’s presidential run. Commissioner Khan, they exclaim, simply does not understand “the way the Washington game is played.
Oh yes she does — and she’s flat out rejecting it. Khan is the first real antitrust champion America has had in years. But will leading Democrats have the guts and integrity to defend her? Or will the business-as-usual powers be ushered back in?
The answer to that will be an early measure of Harris’s commitment to economic democracy.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just hours left in our Spring Campaign, we're still falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
We’ve recently learned about Project 2025, the GOP’s scheme to let corporate agents take over our government. But there’s also a less visible effort by some donors to also make Democrats install corporate-subservient officials to expand their monopoly power.
High-finance finaglers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley are quietly demanding that Kamala Harris commit to appointing their designated toadies to oversee America’s so-called “free-enterprise” structure. Their primary target is the Federal Trade Commission, a little-known agency meant to protect and extend economic competition.
The FTC is now headed by Lina Khan, a tenacious opponent of anti-consumer, anti-worker mergers and takeovers. She rightly recognizes that the “free” in free enterprise is not an adjective but a verb, requiring aggressive public action to free up the enterprise of people who are now routinely shut out of the market by monopolistic giants.
If we really want free markets, Khan says, then let’s free them.
Oh, how the money vultures screeched! “She’s a dope,” raged takeover bully Barry Diller in a dopey fury.
Since many of the monopolistic titans who are offended by Khan’s otherwise very popular progressive populism are from the high-dollar donor class, they have undue clout. Thus they are bluntly demanding Khan’s head as their price for financially backing Harris’s presidential run. Commissioner Khan, they exclaim, simply does not understand “the way the Washington game is played.
Oh yes she does — and she’s flat out rejecting it. Khan is the first real antitrust champion America has had in years. But will leading Democrats have the guts and integrity to defend her? Or will the business-as-usual powers be ushered back in?
The answer to that will be an early measure of Harris’s commitment to economic democracy.
We’ve recently learned about Project 2025, the GOP’s scheme to let corporate agents take over our government. But there’s also a less visible effort by some donors to also make Democrats install corporate-subservient officials to expand their monopoly power.
High-finance finaglers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley are quietly demanding that Kamala Harris commit to appointing their designated toadies to oversee America’s so-called “free-enterprise” structure. Their primary target is the Federal Trade Commission, a little-known agency meant to protect and extend economic competition.
The FTC is now headed by Lina Khan, a tenacious opponent of anti-consumer, anti-worker mergers and takeovers. She rightly recognizes that the “free” in free enterprise is not an adjective but a verb, requiring aggressive public action to free up the enterprise of people who are now routinely shut out of the market by monopolistic giants.
If we really want free markets, Khan says, then let’s free them.
Oh, how the money vultures screeched! “She’s a dope,” raged takeover bully Barry Diller in a dopey fury.
Since many of the monopolistic titans who are offended by Khan’s otherwise very popular progressive populism are from the high-dollar donor class, they have undue clout. Thus they are bluntly demanding Khan’s head as their price for financially backing Harris’s presidential run. Commissioner Khan, they exclaim, simply does not understand “the way the Washington game is played.
Oh yes she does — and she’s flat out rejecting it. Khan is the first real antitrust champion America has had in years. But will leading Democrats have the guts and integrity to defend her? Or will the business-as-usual powers be ushered back in?
The answer to that will be an early measure of Harris’s commitment to economic democracy.