If I never see the term “crony capitalism” used again, it will be too soon. Let’s not taint “capitalism”, which means the operation of the free market under the rule simple, stable, and knowable law, enforcing property rights and contract. This is doing the work of our opponents, weakening and corrupting one of the key elements of a program of liberty and productivity.

The economic program of post-“New Deal” America has been one of constant departure from capitalism, “progressing” towards its diametric opposite. Property rights are violated in an ever-increasing panoply of ways. Contracts are only enforceable by the politically favored, while the disfavored get the Lando Calrissian Contract. (“We had a deal!” “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”) Big Business forms cartels with Big Government and stays big through lobbying, legalism, subsidy, and regulatory suppression of competition. “Too Big To Fail” really means too big to succeed without government support and subsidy. None of these things are capitalism, but capitalism’s opponents would have us believe that such shady dealing is in fact the essence of capitalism. Letting them get away with this allows them to define the choice before the voters as their version of statism versus our version of statism. Don’t permit it.

We should call it “cronyism”, or “corporatism”, “corporate statism”, “central planning”, or even “the Chicago Way” or “Obamunism”. Don’t leave the valuable and important word “capitalism” anywhere in the same sentence, much less the same phrase. If we are to restore capitalism, we must first educate people as to what it is, and what it is not.