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The Republican Rift

By Joe Conason,  February 2, 2010 | 2:42 p.m

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The most revealing moments in President Obama’s State of the Union address were not in his remarks, but the reaction to them by those listening on the Republican side of the aisle. When he proposed to recover a “financial responsibility fee”—in plainer English, a bank tax—from the largest and most heavily leveraged Wall Street firms, the Republicans sat on their hands and scowled, while Democrats cheered and whistled. And when he warned that the Supreme Court’s latest decision would open the political process to mega-corporations and their foreign owners, the Republicans were so enraged that they have since accused him of lying. (Emphasis added)

On both counts, the politics and policy are subject to reasonable disagreement, but the facts support Mr. Obama. More important, however, is what those two issues say about the continuing character of the Republican Party at a time when its leaders are counting on the “conservative populism” of the “tea party” movement to revive the party’s fortunes. (Emphasis added)

Consider the possibility of unchecked foreign influence in American political campaigns, a change that would seem certain to irritate the self-styled superpatriots of the Republican right. [snip]

[SNIP]

At least some of the founders of the “tea party” movement found this development disturbing—and that may be why the Republicans reacted so angrily when the president mentioned it. The same may be said of the new tax on big banks, which Republicans have vowed to reject even though it is designed to recoup the costs of the bailout that was so unpopular among their “populist” constituents. (Emphasis added)

Again, the facts are simple enough. The legislation that established the Troubled Assets Relief Program—with many Republican votes—required the president to claw back the program’s hundreds of billions of dollars through a dedicated tax. As designed by the Obama economic team, that tax falls solely on the largest financial firms and penalizes them according to the degree of leveraged risk those firms have taken on. Its designation as a “responsibility fee” is not merely a way to avoid uttering the word “tax,” but recognizes that the economic and social costs of the recession must be charged to those companies and their irresponsible (and sometimes illegal) practices.

Again, the Republican response is anything but populist, unless that term has lost all meaning. The Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, and an array of the party’s elected officials marched to the microphones to parrot the same arguments articulated by the bankers: They’ve already paid back the money! They’re going to pass the tax on to their consumers! And a recession is no time to raise taxes anyway! The new G.O.P. idols, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Marco Rubio of Florida, were the most eager critics of any attempt to tax the bankers. (Emphasis added)

The more Republicans claim to change, the more they remain the same. The more they wrap themselves in dubious populism, the more they will defend the wealthy and powerful, without respect to national sovereignty and the national interest. (Emphasis added)

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I am sure the WH will use the audience tape to its utmost advantage.  If the Dems can show that the Republicans at the core are very anti-populist and very pro big business, they just may be able to reverse the anger against Dems.  But, will they gain the people back? That's doubtful.



-- Edited by Sanders on Wednesday 3rd of February 2010 12:37:55 PM