Heather Cox Richardson — Bobby Jindal just splintered the GOP: The unholy alliance between Fox News and the 1 percent can no longer stand

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s op-ed in the New York Times marks the whimpering end of an unholy alliance. The letter itself was a ham-handed attempt to capture the 2016 evangelical vote before Sen. Ted Cruz does. But the very crudity of his piece revealed that the union at the heart of Movement Conservatism is ripping apart.

In his op-ed, Jindal undertook to explain to business leaders how Movement Conservatism works. Its political strategy, he lectured, “requires populist social conservatives to ally with the business community on economic matters and corporate titans to side with social conservatives on cultural matters.” The governor is right: Since the 1980s big business interests have managed to secure policies that have concentrated wealth at the very top of the economic ladder, and they have managed their coup only with the help of the votes of social conservatives.

But Jindal’s hyperbolic posturing as he warns “any corporation” “bullying” social conservatives into accepting same-sex marriage to “Save your breath,” reveals a touchstone moment: This grand alliance is over....

What follows is a must-read on the history of US politics, and the GOP in particular, since the Eisenhower administration.

Seeing such a caricature of the bargain that made Movement Conservatism succeed could create the magical moment in which the party finally rejects the devil’s bargain it struck in the 1950s.

If only.

What is especially revealing is that the situation which Americans find themselves today is not the result simply of ignorance but also of political manipulation of prejudice and bigotry.

Salon
Bobby Jindal just splintered the GOP: The unholy alliance between Fox News and the 1 percent can no longer stand

Heather Cox Richardson

Alex Pareene — The Tea Party and big business want the same things

The only major divisions in the Republican coalition are over tactics, not policy....

The biggest problem with the moderate fantasy of a new Moderate Republican rising from the ashes of Ted Cruz is that “big business” isn’t going to force the “Tea Party” to moderate its positions, it’s going to fight to get them to fight for their positions more effectively. People opposed to the goals of the Tea Party movement should be even more opposed to the business community reasserting control over the party. The end result of the “grown-ups” stepping in to squash the Tea Party would be more power to people like … Mitch McConnell, the man who’s done more than anyone else to block Barack Obama’s agenda. The actual policies being fought for, with few exceptions, wouldn’t change.

The one major issue where there is actually tension between the bottom-line priorities of the donor class and the desires of the activist movement is immigration. There are many obvious reasons why big business would prefer looser immigration restrictions, more guest workers and visas for “highly skilled” immigrants. But for a popular movement still fueled by the tribal panic of aging whites, “more immigrants” is not a winning message. (It’s also true that “the donor class” is much more socially liberal than the grass-roots activists, but same-sex marriage isn’t enough of a profit-booster to make it a fight worth having outside the “blue states” where it’s already popular.) Even on immigration, smart representatives of the donor class seem to be suggesting that they believe it’s better to let activist conservatives have their way than to create a genuine split in the party. Because what’s good for Republicans is good for rich people.

The GOP civil war is over who is right tactically. The overall strategy is the same. Deny the Democrats the ability to govern when they are in power and maximize advantage when the GOP is power. The only argument is over how hard to rock the boat.

Salon
The Tea Party and big business want the same things
Alex Pareene

Join the corporate elite and rule the world!

This says it all!