BIG BUSINESS IS NOT CONSERVATIVE: “How is one to explain the lack of conservative principles among big businessmen? There are two things at work here,” Dennis Prager writes.

RELATED: Wal-Mart heir funding Obama big time. That’s not exactly surprising, given this 2011 article at PJM titled, “Wal-Mart Goes ‘Back to Basics’: A Cautionary Tale for the Left:”

After suffering seven straight quarters of losses, today the merchandise giant Wal-Mart will announce that it is “going back to basics,” ending its era of high-end organic foods, going “green,”and the remainder of its appeal to the upscale market. Next month the company will launch an “It’s Back” campaign to woo the millions of customers who have fled the store. They will be bringing back “heritage” products, like inexpensive jeans and sweatpants.

Few may recognize it as such, but this episode should be seen as a cautionary tale about “progressives” and social engineering experiments on low-income Americans. This morning’s Wall Street Journal article is blunt:

That strategy failed, and the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant now is pursuing a back-to-basics strategy to reverse the company’s fortunes.

The failure, in large part, can be pinned to Leslie Dach: a well-known progressive and former senior aide to Vice President Al Gore. In July 2006, Dach was installed as the public relations chief for Wal-Mart. He drafted a number of other progressives into the company, seeking to change the company’s way of doing business: its culture, its politics, and most importantly its products.

But then, as Shikha Dalmia writes today at Reason, “Last Night’s Presidential Debate Proves That Al Gore’s Life Has Been In Vain.”

Well, he’ll always have ManBearPig, at least.