"We can fight Big Industry"
About this Quote
The line compresses a democratic creed into four words: concentrated corporate power is not fate, and organized people using public institutions can set rules that protect the common good. Coming from Bobby Scott, a veteran Virginia congressman known for labor, education, and civil rights work, it evokes years of fights over worker safety, fair wages, predatory business models, and the integrity of public systems like schools and health care.
Big Industry here stands for sectors whose lobbying muscle and market dominance skew policy away from public interest. Fighting them does not mean opposing enterprise; it means insisting that profit pursue lawful, accountable, and humane ends. The tools are familiar but often underestimated: antitrust enforcement that restores competition, labor law that enables workers to organize, oversight hearings that drag hazards into daylight, state and federal litigation that forces companies to internalize costs they push onto communities, and regulatory standards that keep air, water, and workplaces safe.
History validates the claim. Trust-busting in the Progressive Era, the New Deal labor compact, the Clean Air Act, the tobacco settlements, and recent opioid judgments show that determined coalitions can curb abusive practices. The asymmetry of resources is real: lobbying, revolving doors, and unlimited political spending tilt the field. Yet when workers, consumers, small businesses, researchers, journalists, and faith and civic groups align, democratic leverage grows. Scott’s own terrain of shipyards, ports, and industrial corridors makes the point concrete: fighting for OSHA enforcement, fair pay, and environmental justice does not kill jobs; it preserves dignity and health while rewarding honest competitors.
The verb can matters. It signals possibility, not inevitability. Success requires patient organizing, credible data, legal strategy, persuasive storytelling, and electoral accountability. Wins may arrive incrementally, then cascade as norms shift. The larger message is confidence in self-government: when rules are written in public, markets serve people rather than people serving markets.
Big Industry here stands for sectors whose lobbying muscle and market dominance skew policy away from public interest. Fighting them does not mean opposing enterprise; it means insisting that profit pursue lawful, accountable, and humane ends. The tools are familiar but often underestimated: antitrust enforcement that restores competition, labor law that enables workers to organize, oversight hearings that drag hazards into daylight, state and federal litigation that forces companies to internalize costs they push onto communities, and regulatory standards that keep air, water, and workplaces safe.
History validates the claim. Trust-busting in the Progressive Era, the New Deal labor compact, the Clean Air Act, the tobacco settlements, and recent opioid judgments show that determined coalitions can curb abusive practices. The asymmetry of resources is real: lobbying, revolving doors, and unlimited political spending tilt the field. Yet when workers, consumers, small businesses, researchers, journalists, and faith and civic groups align, democratic leverage grows. Scott’s own terrain of shipyards, ports, and industrial corridors makes the point concrete: fighting for OSHA enforcement, fair pay, and environmental justice does not kill jobs; it preserves dignity and health while rewarding honest competitors.
The verb can matters. It signals possibility, not inevitability. Success requires patient organizing, credible data, legal strategy, persuasive storytelling, and electoral accountability. Wins may arrive incrementally, then cascade as norms shift. The larger message is confidence in self-government: when rules are written in public, markets serve people rather than people serving markets.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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