Chamber of Commerce or Radical Left Communism?

The Chamber of Commerce is working against the community and the voters. They aren't interested in a Republic of self-governed and responsible adults. They just want money.

Fig. 1 Karl Marx on US dollars, generated by Perchance.org.

Chamber of Commerce or Radical Left Communism?

Springfield citizens have recently been sounding the alarm about our local Chamber of Commerce over concerns of misalignment with the community's values. This reporting traces the money and influence behind chamber activities to cut through claims of nonpartisanship. We ask who they are truly serving and whether greater transparency and accountability are needed.

Using their Influence to Radicalize our Community

The Springfield Chamber has had an outsize impact on local elections in Springfield in the past. They have influenced who gets on the City Council and who is elected Mayor. They started influencing elections in 1999. In 2010, they formed the Good Government Committee (GGC), aligned with the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield. However, they have shuttered the GGC and announced they would stop endorsing school board candidates. However, this doesn’t mean they have stopped interfering in elections, but will use their Committee for the Future (CFF) to advocate for political issues. They were funding this by taking 10% of the dues from Chamber members to pay for these endorsements. Their new focus will be on ballot initiatives.¹ 

This is their recent history, but this doesn’t mean the same people aren’t trying to infect local politics with their radical agendas. Jim Anderson, who ran the Chamber from 1988 to 2014, is co-chairing United Springfield. The other co-chair is Elizabeth Smart, wife of Clif Smart. Their goals are to influence Springfield Public School’s School Board elections and to stop concerned parents from challenging radical left ideology, such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)², Social-Emotional Learning³ (SEL), Transgender students in sports, radicalizing books, and non-gendered bathrooms. The “organizers of the new fundraising PAC said its creation is a direct response to a dramatic increase in the participation of partisan and “dark money” groups–that opt not to disclose donor names–in local elections.” United Springfield is worried that parents (partisans) are spending their own money (dark money) to fight in school boards. People like Jim Anderson and Elizabeth Smart don’t really care about these issues. They care that businesses will pass over Springfield if we don’t radicalize our community to meet outside standards–standards from large corporations like Google or even from international interests like China. 

Organizations like the World Economic Forum (WEF) hold onto large sums of money through banks. These banks have the resources to help large corporations get the loans they need to grow and expand. By convincing the banks to withhold the money from organizations unless they internally meet certain expectations about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Social Credit Scores (Chinese Marxist control over the population), the large corporations capitulate to having DEI officers. Even Chick-Fil-A.⁴ Historically Christian businesses like Hobby Lobby⁵ are scored by this outside grade. The goal of the WEF is to force large corporations to use their influence to force even small communities into compliance with their radical beliefs. 

The Chamber acts like a vehicle for the WEF by helping radicalize our community through endorsing political candidates and ballot initiatives. Their goals don’t align with our values in Southwest Missouri–or our values as Americans. It was Chamber-backed council members that passed Springfield’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity ordinance in 2014.⁶ 

The people in charge at the Chamber have demonstrated that their interests rarely align with the community they are members of–instead they act like elites who know better than those beneath them. For further reading about what is going on in the Chamber, check out these articles at the Conservative Tree House about the US Chamber of Commerce. 

The Greater Springfield Area is in trouble. People in charge of too many local PACs, like the Chamber’s PACs, are passive about what they believe. They rather let outside agencies like the WEF and China tell them what to believe—especially if it leads to more wealth. However, this endangers a Representative Republic and Christian beliefs. A population which is Judeo-Christian buttresses the idea of a self-governing people. You cannot continue to be self-governing if you radicalize people’s sexual appetites to the point they believe their sexual identities are all that matter. This is what Transgender ideology and radical Gender Theory will succeed at doing. It will create the ultimate consumer—hedonistic, self-indulging, spenders.

The people who support the radicalization of the Greater Springfield Area will give up our ability to self-govern if it enriches them. In fact, they are eager to help radicalize our children so they are incapable of rational thought and using their liberty responsibly. If you don’t want to see our community corrupted from within, it is now your responsibility to vote against the Chamber by opposing any candidate they support through GGF or United Springfield. It doesn’t take many people incapable of self-governance to tip a community or a nation into tyranny. 

Copyright © 2023 by David Rice

Citations

Dereuck, K. (2023, September 12). Mike Kehoe gains gubernatorial endorsement from Missouri Chamber of Commerce. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/09/12/missouri-chamber-commerce-industry-endorses-mike-kehoe-governor-2024/9999186002/

Riley, C. (2022, September 6). Springfield chamber will no longer endorse candidates in school board elections. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/education/2022/09/06/springfield-chamber-commerce-no-longer-endorse-school-board-election-candidates/65367159007/

Staff, N.-L. (2023, January 20). Springfield chamber announces three leadership hires including CU's Dean Thompson. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/2023/01/20/springfield-chamber-commerce-new-hires-cu-dean-thompson-communications-public-affairs/69766394007/

Sullender, A. (2022, November 9). Landslide defeat in Galloway referendum -- with nearly 20,000-vote margin. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2022/11/09/springfield-galloway-village-rezoning-referendum-results-november-2022/69366390007/

Sullender, A. (2023, January 23). Chamber-backed Good Government Committee endorses in mayor, council races. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/2023/01/23/springfield-chamber-commerce-good-government-committee-endorsements-city-council-mayor/69955048007/

Sullender, A. (2023, February 13). Fundraising for City Council races exceeds $130,000 — who's bankrolling candidates? Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/13/springfield-mo-city-council-campaign-donations-mayor-election-2023/69411581007/

1. Anderson, J. (2022, November 14). 'United Springfield,' a new PAC forms to support candidates for school board, City Council. Springfield News-Leader. https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2022/11/14/new-pac-united-springfield-forms-support-candidates-school-board-city-council/69493177002/

2.  Former DEI head exposes TRUTH about ‘inclusion’ on woke college campuses. https://www.glennbeck.com/radio/dei-exposes-truth-inclusion-woke-college-campuses

3. The Real and Dark Dangers of Social-Emotional Learning. https://kingdomfirsthomeschool.com/real-dangers-social-emotional-learning/

4. Committed to being Better at Together. https://www.chick-fil-a.com/dei 

5. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Hobby Lobby. https://www.glassdoor.com/Culture/Hobby-Lobby-DEI-E7537.htm

6. Sullender. A. Springfield's short-lived SOGI ordinance protected gay, trans residents. Is it time to try again? https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/18/should-springfield-city-council-consider-sogi-lgbtq-gay-transgender-residents-protection-ordinance/7305984001/#