Microsoft is depicted as a monopolistic villain, while multinational companies more generally are targets for allegedly exploiting globalization at the cost of the world's poor and the environment. Just as the attacks have multiple strands, so too do the appeals themselves. The moralizing demagoguery of Gore and Lieberman plays to the constituency of America's Christian fundamentalists and right-wing political priests of morality, like William Bennett. It also harps on the fears of many ordinary Americans who see more guns entering schools and who see more violence on their TV screens. The widening gap between the rich and the middle-class in America may account for some of the business antagonism.
Decent citizens are upset by the extravagant and showy excesses of the nation's super-wealthy.
The politicians are encouraged to attack business by what the pollsters tell them. When people were asked whether business has gained too much power over many aspects of American life, the pollsters found in August that only 9 percent strongly disagreed and only 15 percent somewhat disagreed, while 40 percent strongly agreed and a further 32 percent somewhat agreed. For a long time it was conventional American wisdom that what is good for business is good for most Americans, but in the thick of the elections this is no longer true. And when interviewers asked whether people agreed with the attacks that Vice President Gore aimed at major corporations during the Democratic Party Convention, they found that 39 percent strongly agreed and a further 35 percent said they somewhat agreed. With those polling numbers it is no wonder that Gore, Lieberman and Nader have been attacking business.