Charles Erwin Wilson, a GM exec who eventually became Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, once told Congress “I thought what was good for the country good for General Motors and vice versa” (this is the source of the famous “What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA” expression). I’m no corporatist, but I’ve always thought there was some wisdom in the old-school conservative belief that the well-being of America’s largest employers is inextricably linked to the well-being of the nation.
The days of pro-business conservatism are over now. The US Chamber of Commerce begged Republican Congressmen to support the stimulus package to no avail. Conservatives are actively rooting for the liquidation of automakers and banks, with “Let them fail” replacing “drill baby drill” as a rallying cry. And that’s when they’re not urging us to boycott Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts for supporting the United Pastry Jihad.
A striking example of this was provided by some commentary on a right-wing blog here in Western New York, which mocked a local company for its financial woes. My friend Rottenchester summarized:
Paetec is a local company that employs close to a thousand people. They took advantage of some tax breaks and other incentives, and they plan to move their headquarters downtown. They are having a tough time because of the recession, so they’ve been downsizing their plans.
I didn’t realize that pointing and laughing was the “conservative” response to a company that’s having a hard time, but I guess we’re living in a new era.
Republicans once called themselves the party of Lincoln. Then they began to use opposition to Civil Rights as a staple of their “southern strategy”. They once described themselves as defenders of freedom. Then they started supporting wiretapping and the suspension of habeas corpus rights. They once called themselves pro-business. Now they laugh at American companies that face bankruptcy.
What’s left, other than hatefulness and the occasional reference to Edmund Burke?
Hyperion
I think my first post at B-J opined that the Repubs just seemed meaner than Dems. Now that appears to be CW.
calipygian
They can always go back to plumbing and tea-bagging.
Napoleon
Charlie Wilson was right, in so far as a nations economic well being is closely connected to the health of its manufacturing sector. I have always believed that. I have always believed that the government should encourage that sector and have tax, research and other policies that are focused on a healthy manufacturing sector.
Of course much of what has been happening on Wall Street for years had nothing to do with that, nor buying and selling of companies. The hollowing out of manufacturing and the lack of any manufacturing policy (until Obama’s, which is his green policy)
BTW, Dunkin Notes?
Jay C
What’s left, other than hatefulness and the occasional reference to Edmund Burke?
Well, since fewer and fewer people know (or care) who Edmund Burke even is, I’ll say that teh Hate (along with its pals Resentment, Entitlement and Anger) will really be all that the Republicans will be about by next election. Wonder how far that will get them….?
cleek
they’re the nationalist, jingoist, ignorant, selfish and homophobic douchebag party!
kommrade reproductive vigor
Bad cop, no note!
They still do. Every election cycle they dust off their Party of Lincoln ad and wave it at the brown folks like a handful of shiny beads. We laugh. They get offended and go back to making ads about crack dealing, gang banging Welfare queens.
Thus is order maintained in the world.
Mouse Tolliver
They said they were the party of morality and family values, and they gave us dildos and rubber underwear; cross-dressing, diaper-wearing, whore mongering, toe-tapping underage-male-page-seducing senators; a gay hooker in the White House press room; a gay p0rn star in Iraq attacking the character of one of the troops; a state that consumes more internet p0rn than any other; and party leaders who’ve been divorced multiple times.
DougJ
Fixed it.
nylund
I think they’ve pretty consistently hated "teh gay".
JenJen
Anyone watching Rush Limbaugh on CNN, speaking live from CPAC? The guy looks like a fatter, sweatier Tony Soprano. Some serious hero-worship going on in that room.
He just said, with a straight face and to loud applause, that he can’t believe Obama, with all of his gifts, isn’t using his talents to inspire the American people, instead choosing to punish workers and talk ill of America.
Interesting. Opposite Day, but interesting!
Comrade Stuck
I’ve said it before on this blog and others, sometimes mocked a little (not here) that the GOP now under control of southern ideologues are operating out a mindset that says, I don’t accept your liberal constitution and many of it’s basic tenets. Such as separation of church/state, individual civil liberties, and a whole array of notions of fairness and restricting government power. It is often a subtle and maybe even an un conscious (though less so with each passing day it seems) drive toward a type of authoritarianism grounded in centuries of the southern aristocratic lifestyle and ideology thought to be previously conquered with the Civil War and subsequent apartheid era, that only was thwarted 30 or 40 years ago. Read it in the rebellion talk growing on the right, whipping themselves into a state of mind of "hell no we won’t go". Add to that the political Fait Compli of the southern strategy with national elected offices split amongst two parties largely along the old Mason Dixon line and you have a setup for real secession overtones, not just culturally, but throughout our governing bodies at the national level. The bulk of the country has firmly turned against the beliefs and policies of the old south currently embodied in the GOP. And are turning toward the traditional polices of the democratic party, the ones calling for fairness for average people and restoration of the middle class. Only a complete failure of dems to fix the destruction wrought by 30 years of RW policies can change the direction now set. And if that happens, we may be in for the era of guns and knives.
Dennis-SGMM
The Repubs in Nixon’s time called themselves The Law and Order Party.
They should just give in and call themselves the Political Expediency Party. That way they could have PEP rallies wherever they went.
colin k
They’ll always have Paris to castigate with reason or reproach. (Which goes quite well with the occasional Burke reference.)
Expect widespread harping on the "Europeanization" of America in the months and years to come.
Comrade Stuck
Fart Bastard Limbaugh is on teevee now wanking on about stealing from the rich to give to looser welfare liberals, with Obama manufacturing a crisis to steal the loot. It would be comical, if not for the fact millions of idiots buy his drivel.
Dennis-SGMM
Prompted by my recollections of the Nixon era, I’m wondering how long it will be until the Republicans declare that the majority of Americans support them and their policies despite all evidence to the contrary, a Silent Majority, to coin a phrase.
Wile E. Quixote
Republicans – We’re hate-filled bigots for Jeebus!
calipygian
Already done. C.F. The Rant of the CNBC Douchebag and Michelle Malkin’s Terrible Teabaggers.
mgordon
"What’s left, other than hatefulness and the occasional reference to Edmund Burke?"
Tax cuts?
Dennis-SGMM
@calipygian:
They’re playing their Greatest Hits only no one is getting up to dance.
JenJen
@calipygian: And as further proof, the CPAC 2012 Straw Poll just concluded. The big winner?
MITTENS! Three-peat!
2nd place went to Bobby Jindal. Oh, my.
3rd place tie between Sarah Palin and Ron Paul.
Laura W Darling
@JenJen: I just got up from a little nap and from what I gather so far, I like Obama ‘cuz I’m emotional.
Edit: I was expecting/hoping to see the United Pastry Jihad logo in use on BJ. Has there truly not been an event since the creation of said logo that would warrant such an honor?
Brandon T
Unrelated, looks like we should create a Tuzla Award for Politically Advantageous Tall Tales. Apparently, Jindal’s been using the embellished tale about him fighting teh evil bureaucrats during Katrina for quite some time:
valdivia
anyone watching Rush give his keynote to the nutters?
JenJen
@Laura W Darling: Didja also know that, according to Rush, the way to really, I mean really, unhinge a liberal is to calmly explain to them how cruel the policies they support are?
I was not aware of that! Also, suddenly Rush has grown concerned about generational debt.
Laura W Darling
@JenJen: I think it’s good that Rush points out what constitutes cruel to help us all draw that fine line in our tiny minds.
A cruel person would mock Kerry’s Viet Nam service and make cracks about his varicose veins.
DougJ’s title pretty much covers what I’ve seen so far.
valdivia
oops I see JenJen gave a report. Thanks for that I rarely have the stomach to watch but I was curious what he had to say.
BTW I loved our President’s weekly address, he knows what is coming from their side.
Keith
Once they realize that most people don’t know what "Keynesian" means, you can expect that to be their next buzzword du jour. And it’ll most likely be used as a blanket definition for "no regulation and tax cuts" to boot.
JenJen
@valdivia: Sadly, it’s still on. And as Laura W said, DougJ’s title covers what’s happening.
Although… did you know that since the Democrat Party created poverty, that’s why we still have a war on poverty? ‘Cause Democrats don’t know how to win a war? Gosh. The more you know! I’m getting a headache trying to dissect that one.
Ooooh, now Rush is railing against the "conservatives" that attended that dinner with Obama before the Inauguration. He said that Obama was annointing these phonies as the leaders of the conservative movement. He’s quite clearly still annoyed that he didn’t get an invite.
Latest wisdom: "We’ve got to stop treating voters as children." Ouch! Zing!
valdivia
@JenJen:
JenJen I tried to watch and just seeing his face in mid rant without hearing anything made me change the channel.
But what a fount of info he thinks he is. Maybe he should re-read his Burke about the origins of poverty. Not that i agree with Burke but obviously the man does not even know what it is to have a conservative credo.
valdivia
I see at Think Progress that one after another Republican and conservative is yelling from the rooftops that they want Obama to fail. Can someone savvy make a youtube of all these fools?
Tonal Crow
The GOP is the Party of Lies, Envy, Hate, and Christianist Jihad. Is there any more to say?
burnspbesq
@JenJen:
Was that followed by the Two Minutes Hate?
JenJen
Rush repeated, proudly, that he wants Obama to fail, so that will probably make the rounds with the Villagers tomorrow. He’s nothing if not a self-promotional blowhard.
To explain himself, he told a delightful anecdote about being a Steelers fan (see, John? Do you get it now?) and how he wanted Kurt Warner to fail, too. Rooting on the Second Great Depression as a sports metaphor! Cute!!
He’s wrapping up by urging the crowd, "Stop thinking you’re the minority! It is not true!" May the Nixonian circle be unbroken, by and by, lawd, by and by.
He spoke longer than the President did Tuesday night. CNN and Fox News stuck with him, too. So, who is the leader of the Republican Party, again? Is there seriously any question about that anymore?
valdivia
@JenJen:
oh lovely! because for Rush a football game is the same as people starving and being unemployed and not having homes. hateful hateful hateful
JenJen
DougJ, my apologies for interrupting this thread with a Rush liveblog. It did end up meshing nicely with your title, though.
Cat Lady
Rush is Rumpelstiltskin, stamping his feet, not realizing his wingnut implosion horizon is looming. Nothing good ever comes from drug addiction/sex tourism/media over exposure.
Obama is making them all crazier, and that’s saying something. It was genius for him to call out Rush by name. Game on!
b-psycho
@JenJen: I’m surprised Ron Paul made it that close, since he agrees with us DFHs when it comes to war.
b-psycho
Methinks a surprise cameo on SNL by James Gandolfini making fun of this shit is in order (assuming he’s not a republican, that is)…
IMO best crackup line was when he said the Right needed to stop treating voters like children — then followed by saying they still had to say "no" & favorably comparing conservatives to parents. It’s as if each sentence he spews completely forgets the previous one exists.
Rottenchester
Appreciate the link DougJ
That blog, MonroeRising, is a treasure trove of the latest wingnut thinking. The other day I commented there and was truly schooled. I found out that I’m a "socialist" (which is funny since I’m a small business owner) and that the true measure of the economy was not GDP or the unemployment rate, but rather the stock market. And, even though the Dow was down 4000+ points pre-election in ’08, and is only down 1000 post-election, it’s all Obama’s fault:
Delia
Wars. Can’t we have more wars to go along with the tax cuts and union bashing?
tofubo
wrong thread, see above
kommrade reproductive vigor
…
Nah, I’m not gonna say it.
bago
@kommrade reproductive vigor: So that’s why they have a 13 year old spreading the message.
MNPundit
So I leave for a few days and find my entry is winning the United Pastry Jihad contest.
I always knew we were a pack of morans.
liberal
Yeah, but I’d wager that USCC will continue to support the Rethuglicans in elections. So it’s win-win for the Rethugs—they get to pander to the base, and don’t have to pay a price with the business class.
Nikta
Thank you so much for introducing me to Monroerising.com Or not. Dear lord – the quantity of stupid in one small area I choose to call home. The toilet paper post is a damn riot.
Psyberian
Interesting post. It looks like Republicans are only pro-Successful Business now. They’re with you when you win, but kick you when you’re down.
MH
1. Nothing.
2. And there never was.