The fix may not be in on the shutdown, but it’s starting to take shape. Fear of a bad earnings climate has business leaders breaking with Teaparty Republicans and lining up behind moderate GOP members and the democratic President. The WH is only too happy to capitalize:
TPM — President Barack Obama is embracing the business outreach, eager to employ groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street CEOs to portray House Republicans as out of touch even with their long-established corporate and financial patrons.Yet, the partial closing of the government and the looming confrontation over the nation’s borrowing limit highlight the remarkable drop in the business community’s influence among House Republicans, who increasingly respond more to tea party conservatives than to the Chamber of Commerce.
On Wednesday, Obama is hosting chief executives from the nation’s 19 biggest financial firms. Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to Congress signed by about 250 business groups urging no shutdown and warning against a debt ceiling crisis that they say could lead to an economically disastrous default.
This is what we want and what a lot of people predicted. Teaparty conservatives create a rift between themselves and what could have been solid allies in the political and business communities, and the rest is a classic case of divide and conquer. In the past democrats haven’t been aggressive enough to go straight for the GOP’s jugular, but this time around they may finally be ready.
I’ve said this before — what we really need to put a stake through this party’s heart is a few high-level defections. Maybe that’s too much to expect from the current lawmakers, but perhaps from a few of the more moderate journalists like David Brooks or some retired senators might announce that they don’t intend to vote for any more Republicans until they start showing a lick of sense. Two or three of these might be enough to start an avalanche, out of which the conservative and liberal wings of the Democratic Party could begin to create a new middle, while the Tea Party inherits the Republican brand and the sinking ship it’s pasted on.
What is a bit interesting, though, is that there do seem to be a lot of businesses that likewise don’t want the ACA. But then, I’d guess that’s a reason you said they could be solid allies.
Mum and I were just speculating that perhaps the establishment wing of the Republican party is going along with whatever crazy ideas the Tea Party is pushing so all the backlash will land on them (the TP wingnuts), and the establishment can more easily purge them from the party during the next primary season (while still getting votes from wingnut voters for doing their best against Obama). Perhaps that’s a little convoluted.
Exactly. I happen to think that a lot of the opposition to the ACA is wrong and/or misguided, but there’s a whole different level of wrong between “I oppose health care reform” vs. “I oppose health care reform so strongly I am willing to sabotage the entire fucking country.”
And FWIW, if (let’s say) the ACA had been rejected in the legislature, I would have said the same thing if Democrats threatened to shutdown the government if they didn’t get it restored.
They’re probably going to meet at the local Denny’s, because I hear that White House tours are closed for the present.
@Reginald #5 – Only non-essential functions of the federal government are shut down. Catering to the whims of major financial firms is a VERY essential function of the federal government nowadays, so you can bet they will get a lavish White House luncheon and a personally guided tour without having to rub shoulders with the hoi-polloi.
I think that’s too convoluted. You are proposing that the message the old guard Republicans wish to send to voters is “we’re crazy, but not THAT crazy.” That’s a fine distinction to make to voters who are obviously already thinking-impaired.
I know that is just wishful fantasy, but how about if all the remaining sane Republicans suddenly announced they were changing to the Democratic Party. That would give the Dems enough to become the majority, and therefore to elect a new Speaker of the House.
That’d be A) political suicide for those Republicans, and B) not a great deal for the Democrats, either.
A because they would now be in a party that generally skews more moderate-liberal (in American terms), and thus would be decidedly conservative, and facing primary challenges from people who better suit the Democratic party base.
B because in the meantime, the Democratic party would have all these new members who skewed more conservative than the party as a whole would like, and certainly on social issues would make things suck more.
Best outcome, I think, is if the Republicans calve off the Tea Party altogether, have the ‘baggers go form their own party. The GOP can then deny funding to the Tea Party, and watch it wither into the equivalent of the Constitution Party.
Again, this is what the Democrats have already agreed to: http://bit.ly/GzPURf. They have already agreed to implement the Ryan budget.
And to end the shutdown, they’ll yield more. How exactly is that the same as “In the past democrats haven’t been aggressive enough to go straight for the GOP’s jugular, but this time around they may finally be ready.”
I’m half-expecting a modern beer-hall putsch from the tea-partiers after this tactic fails.
The Republican party exists to meet the needs of the rich. Tax cuts and deregulation mainly. But there are not enough rich to win elections so they have had to entertain a crazy class. Gun nuts, abortion extremists, immigrant haters, outright racists, fundamentalists, gay bashers. And this worked for them until that crazy class started to take over their party and wanted REAL power.
Remember, the Republican party had pretty much all 3 branches of government during the early 2000s so could have passed constitutional amendments on prayer in schools, gay marriage, free guns everywhere, etc etc but they did not in part because if they passed such laws they might lose the crazies for the next election. Plus, for the most part Republicans really aren’t as crazy as the crazies they’ve entertained.
So now the Republican party is in a dilemma. They need to bring some sanity back to the process of governing but they can’t piss off the crazies too too much because if they lose the crazies, they could actually lose elections big big time. And if that happens, they will lose the giant tax cuts and might run the risk of going back to paying real taxes like they did back in the 1930s to 1980s. (When America screamed forward in progress like the world had never seen before nor since.) And all their work over the past 30 years to destroy the middle class and get that middle class back to accepting $10 an hour wages will be for naught.
Same here Fox. The teaparty base has basically been promised Obamacare will be stopped. They’re gonna freak right the fuck out as it dawns on them that that will never happen.
Can you please describe what this failure looks like?
I see the shutdown ending. Is that the failure? Can’t be, even they expect it to end.
The House votes and passes a clean CR? Then the baggers win, because the clean CR is the Ryan budget.
They get thrown out of office? Take a look at the districts these baggers are running from (30 or so) and they are all LANDSLIDE G.O.P.
So, what does failure look like?
Everyone by the extremely stupid knows that. The fact that they are re-negotiating a lost battle is to their credit.
It’s like someone threatening to revoke your degree, and you standing firm, beaming with pride as having fought off attempts to do so, and calling it a victory.
Obamacare is the law of the land. Obama is not going to sign off on that no matter what.
But what he and the Democrats are giving up in spades besides that is alarming.