Republican Cronies versus Business Freedom, North Carolina Edition

North Carolina Republicans wouldn't recognize free enterprise even if it ran them over—say, with an electric car!

Tesla Motors, maker of the Model S, voted Car of Year by Motor Trend and  best car in years by Consumer Reports , sells its cars directly. They sell over the internet, and, where permitted, they set up their own stores and sell the cars through them. This threatens the cozy middle-man system that U.S. car dealers enjoy. So the car dealers are fighting back—not in the capitalist way, but in the crony-capitalist way!

In North Carolina, the state senate voted unanimously on Monday, May 13 , for a bill that would make it illegal for any car manufacturer to sell its cars in any way in the state except through independent dealers. Since the bill also makes it illegal for car manufacturers to sell to North Carolinians through the internet, across state lines (as Tesla would), it is, in this respect at least, probably unconstitutional . After all, it is well-established that the U.S. Constitution leaves interstate crony capitalism—I mean, regulation of commerce—firmly in the hands of the federal Congress.

It might be argued that Tesla Motors deserves no better, since Tesla did get a government loan. But guess what? They're paying it off completely, right now . So there is no excuse for not treating them as what they are, a great American success story.

This disgusting bill, which is typical of our war-of-all-against-all political economy, was created and approved lock-step by Republicans.

The North Carolina Senate is 66% composed of Republicans . Those supposedly free-market-loving, Southern, conservative Republicans. Not a single North Carolina Republican of note spoke out in opposition. Not one North Carolina Senator of either party demurred.

Here is the message the North Carolina Republicans have sent: They are not meaningfully different from the Democrats when it comes to cronyism. They are just another party of the connected. This is country-club Republicanism for and by the old-boy, country-club set.

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