After spending a good chunk of the past few years in the Middle East trying to promote democracy as U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s chief of staff, Brian Gunderson’s new job is to criss-cross the United States extolling the virtues of capitalism. Since July, the 48-year-old Minnesota native has been heading up the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s US$100-million campaign aimed at convincing Americans that free enterprise is the cure to what’s ailing the country.

Q. Does it strike you as a bit odd that you’re promoting capitalism in a country that’s considered by many around the globe to be a bastion of free enterprise?

A. The truth is that traditionally the Chamber of Commerce and other groups have spent a lot of time developing new ways to make the case for free enterprise. We stopped doing that around the time of the Cold War for exactly that reason -- the perception that the argument had been won and that people the world over were embracing free markets. Throughout this decade, however, and especially since the recession began in December 2007, we have been paying a price for that neglect. There has been growing sentiment in a number of places that is harmful to the free enterprise system. With the stress of recent events, there’s a temptation to start moving in a different direction and that would be a mistake. It would make it harder to create the jobs we need and it would squelch needed innovation.

Q. The campaign has taken direct aim at President Barack Obama’s agenda, including his attempts to overhaul the U.S. health-care system, plans for a special government agency to protect consumers and efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Obama has fought back by publicly denouncing the Chamber. How do you see this spat playing out?

A. The President is a decent man and I think he’s interested in listening to constructive criticism rather than trying to smother it. It’s possible there are some individuals in the administration that are trying to play into some of the criticisms of the Chamber. But I don’t expect that to be a problem in the long run. The campaign has always been conceived as a positive campaign. We want to make the positive case for free enterprise versus opposing any particular politician or specific policies. Nevertheless, the campaign will certainly talk about some of the challenges confronting job creation and the free enterprise system, such as the rapid growth of government and rapid growth of government debt.

Q. What sort of things are you doing to promote the idea of free enterprise?

A. We’ve begun a national advertising campaign. We are running innovative ads that cast free enterprise in a different light. We hope we can reach a very wide audience, beyond those who are already enthusiastic supporters of the system. We have aggressive efforts to find and sign up newly identified supporters of free enterprise. We have a series of what we call “thought leadership activities” -- conferences with opinion leaders and academics to develop new arguments for free enterprise or rediscover old ones that are particularly relevant to our current circumstances.

Q. What are the ads like?

A. You can find examples of our ads on our website (www.uschamber.com). They are designed to make the point that free enterprise involves everyone who lives in this economy, that all 300 million Americans are part of free enterprise. If anyone has the idea that free enterprise simply means large corporations or Wall Street, our ads very powerfully make the point that is not accurate. We all benefit from free enterprise.

Q. There is a backlash against Corporate America, particularly Wall Street. Has that been challenging to counter?

A. We are concerned that because America is at a crossroads moment now, where we’ve been through a couple of difficult years, you can imagine the country moving in a policy direction that would hurt free enterprise and therefore job creation and innovation. Part of the purpose of the campaign is to see that doesn’t happen.

Q. You spent a lot of time travelling abroad in your last job as chief of staff to Condoleezza Rice when she was U.S. Secretary of State. How does your new job compare?

A. I’m doing a lot more domestic travel. In a way, it’s quite refreshing to go to places like Omaha, Nebraska, rather than Islamabad, Pakistan. But the truth is, it’s very gratifying to be able to work on very important domestic issues. There’s probably no issue that’s more important right now than finding ways to create the 20 million jobs that we believe the country needs to create over the next decade.

Q. As you go to these places across the country, what sort of feedback are you getting?

A. Positive. This has been a very difficult two years for people all over the world. We have an optimistic message that there is a way out and that our strength lies in economic freedom, which has served us very well for many generations. I think that resonates very powerfully with people in these trying circumstances.

Financial Post

jwhitman@nationalpost.com