There is no better example of party politicians not representing the interests of the people they purport to serve than our own Joe “the pits” Pitts. (Sorry, I could not help myself.)
Anyway, Joe’s career voting record is scored by the big business lobby, the American Chamber of Commerce at 92%; meaning he has voted their position 92% of the time for all the years he has been in office. When you look at his career score by the AFL-CIO, at 5%, you get a clear idea of just who’s interests Joe is serving. This is not an issue of big business versus labor, both have legitimate interests. The issue is one of balance, 92% versus 5% is just despicable.
And yet I think that the accusation of the Republican Party representing business interests is yesterday’s news. The elements currently controlling the Republican Party have driven it so far off the rails that the party is now in many cases voting against the interests of their donors.
The Republican Party has reached a new level of insanity. Damaging the credit rating of the United States by refusing to compromise in good faith, for example, was the result of shortsighted and cynical political gamesmanship, and is actually against the interests of their largest donors.
A conservative party relies on tradition for pragmatic reasons. This party has become rabidly ideological, repeating ad naseum their talking points from 30 years ago. Paul Krugman wrote a very insightful column when he said that, since the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs, they’re getting the candidates they deserve – only salesmen who tell them what they want to hear (e.g. Romney) or genuinely crazy ideologues (e.g. Paul, Gingrich) can pass muster.
Now of course there is plenty of both to go around – people like Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich strike me as being both salespersons and legitimately scary in terms of their apparently genuine commitment to the party’s dinosaur ideology.
Anyway, I think that the issue is partisanship. Sometimes – too often – partisanship trumps everyone’s interests, including the wealthy.