Get this, folks. America's largest business group, the US Chamber of Commerce, is spending $25 million on something that in years past would have been considered completely unnecessary: they're launching an advertising campaign to extol the virtues of -- wait for it -- free market enterprise.

Explaining the goals of the campaign, the Chamber president, Thomas Donohue, says that America needs 20 million new jobs to "re-employ the unemployed," and keep pace with our population growth. "The government can support a few jobs in the short run," he told reporters, "but over the long run, only the private sector -- powered by free enterprise -- can keep America working."

Now, when Donohue said the campaign isn't intended to be a partisan, state-controlled journalists were skeptical. AP reported that the Chamber's campaign "appears to challenge some of President Obama's job-creation rhetoric and initiatives." And they cited examples: Obama's proposals to create a new financial consumer protection agency, and Democrats' "cap-and-tax" energy plans. Mr. Donohue correctly responded that those plans will "weigh down America's once vibrant capital markets with excessive regulations," and "raise taxes on our most productive citizens."

A few short years ago, it would have been unthinkable that the Chamber of Commerce would need to spend $25 million defending the idea that jobs are best created in the private sector -- let alone defending "free enterprise" as a cornerstone of our greatness. Yet here we are, ten months into Democrat Party rule, fighting to keep America -- and the American dream -- alive. Folks, these are dark days. Very dark days.