Republicans know who pays their bills

June 29, 2005

The Republican coalition of wealthy corporate donors and evangelical Christian activists is usually not on the same page. The factions want different things and have significantly different visions for America. Sure, they’ll smile at one another at parties, but theirs is a marriage of convenience.

Once in a while, they’ll act like competitive siblings, with one side wondering why the other is getting all the attention. Indeed, after Republicans took on the Terri Schiavo matter, opposed funding on stem-cell research, and started threatening federal judges, Andrew Samwick, chief economist of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, said, “I’m inclined to support the Republican Party, but the question becomes, how much other stuff do I have to put up with to maintain that identification?”

But when one tallies things up, one side is clearly winning. It’s not the religious right.

Just six months into a new term for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, some of their heaviest donors are scoring victories on the legislative and regulatory fronts.

From rewrites of the laws governing bankruptcy and class-action lawsuits to relief for oil, timber and tobacco interests, GOP supporters who gave millions of dollars last year are reaping decisions worth billions from a Congress with more Republicans.

Honestly, what kind of policy progress have we seen this year? A bill on class-action lawsuits (demanded by corporate America), a bankruptcy bill (demanded by the credit card companies), and a change at the top of the Securities and Exchange Commission (demanded by Wall Street).

This isn’t tough to figure out.

The finance sector gave nearly $195 million to the GOP in the 2004 elections. And 105 of Bush’s 548 elite fundraisers — those who raised $100,000 or more — were from the world of finance, making it his biggest base of top-dollar support, at $34 million. And thus we have class-action and bankruptcy “reform.”

The tobacco industry gave Republicans $2.7 million and it just so happens that lawyers at Bush’s Justice Department are demanding less money from Big Tobacco. Securities and investment firms gave $47.8 million to Republicans last election and suddenly Bush is replacing an effective chairman of the SEC with someone who’ll do Wall Street’s bidding. Energy and natural resources interests gave $39.3 million to the GOP last year and coincidentally the Bush administration has expended oil development on federal land and reversed a ban on road construction, timber harvesting, mining and energy development on undeveloped national forest land.

The religious right, meanwhile, has a long list of demands, but they aren’t driving the agenda.

Note to James Dobson: Looks to me like your Republican buddies are playing you for a sucker. Are you going to take this lying down?

Carpetbagger: “Note to James Dobson: Looks to me like your Republican buddies are playing you for a sucker. Are you going to take this lying down?”

Answer: Yes, he will, as will all of the rest. The RR has backed itself into a corner, having revved up their rank-and-file into loving Republicans and hating Democrats. They’ve overcommitted their support. If the RR can’t all of a sudden throw their backing to the Democrats in retaliation for not getting promises kept, then what leverage do they have? The “Reform Party”? The Republicans have got the Religious Right by the testicles, and there is nothing left for Dobson to do but bleat about it.

  • Note to James Dobson: Looks to me like your Republican buddies are playing you for a sucker. Are you going to take this lying down?

    That’s hysterical … well done, CB!

  • Of course he can retaliate! Pat Robertson has threatened several times to go off and form a Christian Taliban party. He actually *wants* to do it– and he has run for president before, so he knows *how* to do it too.

    Of course it would be suicidal for them, and a huge win for the Democratic party. I’d love to see a Christian Ralph Nader appear in 2008. The question is: is the ego of Robertson, Dobson, or any other such figure, equal to that of Ralph Nader? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a Nader amongst ’em.

  • Goatchowder, you’re right. But I’m not sure they have enough will to kick the Republicans out the front door only to let Satan (the Democrats) in through the back. They can threaten it, of course, but they would risk losing what few gains they have made. All of that faith-based payoff (er, support grants) will disappear.

    And anyway, a really sick part of me likes the imagery of the Republican elephant with the RR over a barrel, with a jar of Vaseline nearby all hot and ready.

  • The leaders of the religious right need to be able to show their rank and file how put upon they are by the forces of secularism, humanism, modernism, … . That’s harder to do when each of your agenda items are being met. Dobson, Robertson, et al are like the philosophers in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when confronted with the computer that would give them the answer to the question they’ve been wrestling with forever. The philosophers didn’t really want to know the answer– that would put them out of a job. Likewise, the RR leaders don’t really want everything they’re asking for. It’s much more lucrative for them to be able to rail ad infinitem against not having all that stuff.

  • I agree with Scott. Without the self-generated perpetual conflict they inflict on the nation, they can’t maintain their personal power. And for them, power is what it’s all about not merely winning the debate.

  • Donald and Scott,
    You’ve made points that I certainly agree with, but I think Carpetbagger’s point was that they’re not getting much in the way of genuine power and influence. It’s one thing to be able to agitate perpetually, but without the power then it isn’t worth the effort. And the Republicans have only been begrudging them a meaningless scrap or two.

  • I dunno what scares me more, religious fanatics or greedy corporate bastards, but what does scare me is that both evils are in the majority of congress.

    but to Goatchowder, dood, i seriously hopes that happens, it’ll be like a ralph nader evil twin or something, fucking up the republicans even more. go pat roberston, fuck up an election PLEASE!!!!

  • “And anyway, a really sick part of me likes the imagery of the Republican elephant with the RR over a barrel, with a jar of Vaseline nearby all hot and ready.”

    Eewwwwwwwwwww………

    Rick “Elephant on Man” Santorum will be all over that.

  • Couldn’t god just tell Robertson and Dobson to run together on a ticket? But of course neither would take the VP slot. If it weren’t for their overinflated egos, that could be the dream ticket for lots of fundies and every Democrat. But what if god told one of them to take the VP slot, maybe with a hint of what’s to come with “He who humbles himself shall be exalted,” implying a death of the president after election. So how do I get ahold of this god fella to make the suggestion? I’ve tried my hairdryer but there doesn’t seem to be a good connection there.

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