[fny]

Your problem is that big business has conflated free-market capitalism with the right to monopoly and convinced your constituency that anti-trust regulation is destructive to a free market when, in truth, oligopoly leads to corruption of the free-market and a farce of capitalism.

You need to work on educating your citizenship gradually until they understand the conditions wherein capitalism actually works. That way they might see why breaking up big busines and preventing M&A is often the Right Thing™️ and conservative to do.

[ethbro]

Pretty sure parent is aware what "their problem" is, seeing as they have a front seat to it. ;)

And "educating the citizenry" as a feasible tactic in local races is an exercise in futility. For the cost of an educational campaign, his or her opponent (or their supporters) could run attack advertising that would certainly lose parent the election.

Aggregating like businesses and pushing for change higher up the political food chain is more effective, albeit not without its own risks.

[dredmorbius]

Conflated, or used the shibboleth of "free-market capitalism" as a cover for monopoly mercantilistic rent-extraction.

Having put a fairly considerable amount of study into the history of economic thought, back to Greek and Roman times (see Backhouse's The Ordinary Business of Life for a comprehensive, if dry, overview of mainstream economic thought), and with a strong focus on Smith to present, this problem is a pervasive one.

The irony is that it's practiced quite ardently by many of the loudest "defenders" of free-market systems. (Not always -- there are straight-up monopolists who have given up all pretense. Most, though, preach and act inconsistently.)

[programmingpol]

Well said. I could not agree with this more.