Posted by Damozel | It turns out that the Republican Party, and especially the Bush Administration, "misunderestimated" American common sense at their peril. They should have listened to prominent former Republican Abraham Lincoln, who was pretty sure you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Ordinary Republicans in my South Carolina hometown truly didn't understand that their support for trade expansion was going to end in their losing their jobs to India. I know a few myself who were unpleasantly surprised when the textile mill in my upcountry South Carolina milltown--"the largest cotton mill in the world under one roof" [scottlucas.com] they taught us in school---was shut down in 2003. It's gone, along with many, many jobs and a big chunk of the town's identity. And these small town tragedies have been happening all over the nation. To the companies that have benefited, and to whose campaign coffers they contributed, this is doubtless the cost of doing business. But those who paid it are not necessarily willing to go on doing so.
According to The Wall Street Journal, ordinary Republican voters have grown skeptical on free trade. In the recent [nonpartisan] Pew poll,
[s]ix in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports. That represents a challenge for Republican candidates who generally echo Mr. Bush's calls for continued trade expansion, and reflects a substantial shift in sentiment from eight years ago...While rank-and-file Democrats have long blasted the impact of trade on American jobs, slipping support among Republicans represents a fresh warning sign for free-market conservatives and American companies such as manufacturers and financial firms that benefit from markets opening abroad. (Wall Street Journal)
A further indicator of this growing "skepticism:" In the last quarter, fund-raising for Ron Paul---who "calls free-trade deals "a threat to our independence as a nation," --- has apparently doubled. (Wall Street Journal)
But it's not just free trade. Business leaders, who voted Republican because they believed that doing so would be in their interests, are fed up with the Iraq war, the growing deficit, and the party's conservative social agenda.
Pew found that between 1987 and this year, for example, support for "old-fashioned values about family and marriage" had dropped 11 percentage points. The percentage of those who said gay teachers should be fired dropped 23 points, Pew said. Support for U.S. global engagement and "peace through military strength" also shrank. (Wall Street Journal)
For example: The Wall Street Journal quotes 69 year old Richard Clinch. ""Like many Republicans, I am frustrated," he says. "We've lost control of spending," and the administration's execution of the Iraq war has been "incompetent." Mr. Clinch says he is liberal about rights for women and gays, and vexed that "we [Republicans] get sidetracked on these issues like gay marriage.""(Wall Street Journal)
Evidently, many Republicans feel the same way. A number of business leaders have jumped ship.
Richard Cooper of Winnetka, Ill., a 67-year-old investor and former chairman of Weight Watchers Inc., hasn't just switched parties -- he is helping Sen. Clinton's campaign. An early Reaganite, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Illinois governor in 1976. He says he has been alienated in recent years by Republican policies across the board. A leader of the international "Responsibility to Protect" project for global action against humanitarian crises, he opposes Bush foreign policies. The father of a daughter with lupus, he wants funding for stem-cell research, which antiabortion Republicans oppose.
As for fiscal policy, Mr. Cooper contends that "Democrats are the new conservatives." Republicans "are still talking about tax cuts. It was one thing when Ronald Reagan was doing it and the top [income-tax] rate was about 80%. Now tax rates are reasonable. So what if I have to pay 5% more in taxes?"(Wall Street Journal)
It turns out that not everyone who favors fiscal conservatism shares the same values as evangelical Christians. Who knew? the party's powers that be must be asking themselves. In fact, many fiscal conservatives share the same social values as---wait for it---Democrats.
[T]he number of Americans who share some classic Democratic concerns has risen. Three-quarters of the population is worried about growing income inequality, Pew found, while two-thirds favor government-funded health care for all. Support for a government safety net for the poor is at its highest level since 1987, Pew said. (Wall Street Journal
Alan Greenspan, as everyone knows, recently blasted fiscal policy under Presidency Bush and the Congressional Republicans who sailed in it. ""The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize.""(Wall Street Journal) And Greenspan---whatever you think about him otherwise--- totally nailed the underlying problem: the GOP's obsession with power. The GOP, he said, has been "fundamentally been focusing on how to maintain political power, and my question is, for what purpose?"(Wall Street Journal) That's my question too, Karl Rove.
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