…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.
The Republican party of 30 years ago was far more practical, pragmatic, and realistic than what is being passed off as Republican today.
For the record, I was registered Republican for a decade starting in the early 1970s. As the 80s progressed, my conscience convinced me to change my party affiliation to Democratic. It wasn’t me that changed that much, it was the Republican party that moved from the center toward the right, while the Democratic party moved toward the center.
What do I mean by that? Compare the records of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon (the good parts) to that of Barack Obama; both Republicans were in fact a bit more liberal that our current President.