Everyone should always call it “Murdoch’s WSJ” just so we don’t forget. Subscription only but I’ll fair-use some of it for you here.
But polling data confirm business support for Republicans is eroding.
In the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in September, 37% of
professionals and managers identify themselves as Republican or leaning Republican, down from 44% three years ago.Richard Clinch, a 69-year-old New York native, illustrates the party’s plight. The retired Westinghouse manager and mechanical engineer says he has been “a lifelong Republican.” As a young fiscal conservative, he was attracted by the party’s reputation for frugal and competent governance, he says. The Democratic Party left him cold, he says, because of its social spending and ties to the unions that exasperated him at work. As a retiree in Annapolis, Md., he became a local
Republican officer.Yet next year, for the first time since he began voting in 1960, Mr. Clinch won’t support the Republican presidential nominee, he says. He only “very reluctantly” voted for Mr. Bush’s re-election in 2004. “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.”
And so the CYA narrative for intellectually lazy and increasingly worried “moderates” begins. IIRC, there was a lot of this “lifelong Democrat” switching in “disgust” with the “moral failings” of the Democratic party under Clinton, and we were treated to stories like this in great number in 1999. The decrease noted here is only 7%, and only among “professionals and managers.” So I take it with a grain of salt re: the problems in the Republican party and membership dismay. Still, I think I understand what’s going on here. White guys with management jobs are getting squeezed, just like the rest of us, because the numbers are down. They themselves may still have fat 401Ks and other financial instruments in the Ownership Society, but if you are working in business you can’t help but notice all the softness in all the different markets, and that has an impact on your bottom line. No matter how much you lurv your Chimpy in Chief.
Still, these guys have a long way to go before it’s Kumbaya with us DFHs
.
Such misgivings do not necessarily translate into long-term gains for Democrats. Mr. Clinch says his two sons — one a 50-year-old ophthalmologist, the other a 42-year-old economist — have both jumped from the Republican to the Democratic Party. But Mr. Clinch isn’t necessarily voting Democratic. “I think I’m becoming an independent,”
he says. “If I were 21 years old, I’d be an independent definitely.”
The old “I’m an independent” dodge. Lazy and hypocritical Republican moderates are very practiced at falling into this line whenever their heroes fuck it up so badly it can’t be denied. “I’m a freethinker! A plague on both their houses! It’s not my fault!” Whatever. But I’m sure Murdoch’s WSJ readers appreciate the option to get out with their White Man credentials intact.
Federal campaign-finance reports document shifting support in some quarters of the business community. Hedge funds last year gave 77% of their contributions in congressional races to Democrats, up from 71% during the 2004 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan analyst of campaign finances. Last year the securities industry gave 45% of its money to Republicans, down from 58% in 1996, the center said.
“You see it in the lack of donor support” for Republican presidential candidates, says longtime strategist John Weaver. As former top adviser to presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain, Mr. Weaver recalls hearing Republican businesspeople grouse about the party’s focus on moral issues and Iraq.
Overall, Democratic presidential candidates have raised more than $200 million this year, about 70% more than their Republican rivals.
Heh, I’ll let Matt explain what that means:
To party committee leaders like Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel, the money coming through Moveon and Actblue is nice but no longer necessary. There’s no reason to make any trade-offs to progressives to get it, unlike the period from 2002-2006 when business lobbyists had no reason to give to Democrats. Progressives have limited leverage through the general election process, and Howard Dean has failed to create a place for progressives in the party structure as the DNC Chair.
I would put it even more bluntly: fuck off, little grassroots person. You got us here, we don’t need your dirty grubby hippie input in the process of government anymore, thank you very much. Hit the road, shut up, and let the Serious People take over. Serious Leadership like Hillary Clinton will make sure that no Rich People will be harmed in the coming recession/depression, and that the US economy will still be directed towards making sure our primary export is war on credit.
Matt is still positive about raising ActBlue money, but I confess I’m not. Or rather, I am on the level of primary challenges, but I think the ’we can do it’ progressive timeline just got shifted forward several years, if it ever had been shorter than that.
Front page
So, the Dems didn't respect us in the morning?
What a surprise.
I wonder, also, what that does to the “netroots” business model.
Money, money, money. “You can’t give them a seat at the table because they eat all the food.”
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Hillary, Compassionate Imperialist
Yes, this is how it is going to go. And all of a sudden the Hillary fundraiser Murdoch put on a year or two ago doesn’t look so odd. Hillary is the Reasonable Centrist
who will bring sanity and “competence” back to government. She will not end the war, obviously, or curb the imperial executive, or go easy on Iran, or cut the military, or put the insurance companies out of business, or investigate the prior administration with any real enthusiasm or effect, or anything else too radical. And she will triangulate her ass off, giving the dirty fucking hippies the high hard one. More and better Democrats, my ass.
She will, however, appoint marginally better judges to the federal bench (like, center-right instead of rightwing nutcase), so it is not true to say, as some do, that she will be exactly as bad as whatever lunatic the Republicans nominate. “Not quite as bad as the other guy” is not much of a slogan, however.
Jeff, you speak, a lot of truth, but...
I don’t get “More and better Democrats, my ass.”
If you’re saying that Hillary is not a better Democrat, I certainly couldn’t argue with you.
In the meantime, I suggest we continue to support Congressional primary challenges and rally support for the better Democrats in the presidential primaries (I’m for Edwards, with nice thoughts about Kucinich and Dodd, and tie-breaking in favor of Obama over HC, if it comes down to that). That, and continue to beg Al Gore to jump in. You know, better Democrats.
Marginal is better than insane
It’s all about shoving the Overton window left…
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Al Gore, In Ads For His Road-Show, Announces Himself As
“Once the ’Future President’ of the United States.
He’s appearing this week or next at the Santa Ana pueblo casino show-room. 500 seats? I dunno, never been there. The pueblos in the Rockies have become the western edition of the Catskills?
My point is, I read this as evidence that he’s not gonna get into the race.
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
CD, That was brilliant. I
CD,
That was brilliant. I did NOT want to agree with you, but I ended up doing so on most points.
One of your commenters is right, however, that probably the best way for activist progressives types to affect the make-up of the Democratic party and the issues taken up is to fund particular Congressional candidates. I would add, that we should fund our favorite state house reps and mayorial races, etc. Never give up. Look for every local and regional opportunity to push the issues that matter.
"More and better Democrats, my ass"
Is basically me giving into bitterness, that’s all. It has become the slogan of last resort for progressives who see a Green Party vote (or Libertarian, or whatever third party protest vote you want to pick) as a total waste (or worse, indirect support for the Republicans), and it is not wrong, exactly— I mean, certainly, there is more of a chance of changing the Democratic party back to one that more or less supports the Constitution than there is of changing the Republican party, and a third party vote is probably pissing in the wind. But as a rallying cry, it is not much better than “Hillary: Not Quite as Authoritarian and Crazy as Rudy!” And I say this as someone who had VERY low expectations for what the slim Democratic majorities in Congress could accomplish in terms of substantive legislation. AT A FUCKING MINIMUM, however, I expected a Democratic majority in both houses to assure that there would at least be no EXPANSION of the imperial executive and the war. My expectations, though low, were clearly not nearly low enough. In addition to all the other examples of the sort of rolling over and sticking their butts in the air that the Dems have engaged in since winning Congress, it appears likely now that they will allow legislation to come to the floor and pass that gives retroactive immunity to telecoms and others who assisted with illegal spying on Americans for the last 6 years. As Glenn Greenwald points out, Bush couldn’t even get that dogshit passed last year with a REPUBLICAN majority. So in this respect and others, we were actually in better shape when the Republicans had Congress. I would not have guessed that I would EVER say that. So how about “More and Better Republicans”??? Why the hell not? Based on the evidence at hand, it’s only a slightly more bankrupt phrase than “More and Better Democrats.”
the SCOTUS argument
holds less and less weight with me as there are more and more examples of the end of the rule of law for us little people. i mean, what difference does it make if we have more or less of the fourth amnd on the books if there is effectively 0 protection “when it counts,” that is for thee and me and whomever else the police state tolls? in the underground economy where the law is a fluid if one way exchange of power and capital, the imperative to “save the SCOTUS” just doesn’t move me the way it used to. i imagine that hillary (or rudy) will go with a centrist who will often vote with the right. the time to panic about the SCOTUS was 1999-2000. not enough people did, and voila- roberts is a young man.
the scotus is already lost, in terms of it allowing progressive values to be the guiding light in which the court interprets law. for decades to come, barring some odd moment in history. i reread jeff’s comment, and yeah. as a slogan, “hitler not satan!” doesn’t exactly move me.
Woody, the guy gave everything he had, and Clinton
stood back watching while the Izod-clad rioters destroyed our democracy 7 years ago. There’s no upside to running for President if you’re Al Gore. None. The feigned admiration of the so-called “opposition party” melts in the face of the GOP jackboots and the GOP polo shirts equally fast, and equally completely.
Al Gore is … well, he’s like one of those old Knights of the Roundtable, except not Lancelot. Not Guinevere’s maybe-paramour; he’s as smart and as savvy and as suave as Bill Clinton ever was (and yeah, in a completely different and totally indefensible way, he’s every bit as blind), if not more so; he has the knowledge, from growing up in his father’s house, of how the Congress works, and he put that to damned fine use as VP (not to mention as a Senator from Tennessee). Al Gore is perhaps the closest thing we’ll ever see again to FDR, but for Al Gore the place to be, now and forever, is not in the blood and the mud and the beer, if you will, of the day-to-day campaign infighting; it’s at the rostrum, in front of the microphones, pointing to the graphs and changing the slides and giving us the detailed information that OUGHT to provide us the foundation for good sound decisions, in that most innately valuable of paradigms: conservation.
Note that I did not say conservatism.
He hasn’t been preaching about it anywhere I’ve seen, but I believe Al Gore is a churchgoing man. I think that’s a good thing, because I suspect he goes to a church where “stewardship” is discussed more than “dominion.”
Certainly, he is not our Big Dog. Clinton is the Big Dog, capable of bristling, snarling, and when the occasion demands it, bloodily eviscerating political foes. Jimmy Carter is our High Priest, showing the way and walking the talk at home and abroad.
Al Gore is not Our Great Hope — he’s our Senior Statesman. He’s figured out how to use that role damned effectively, too.
Insofar as we have a Great Hope, it isn’t Hillary Clinton. She may very well be electable, or even elected; but as I have stated otherwhere, she is not a Democrat in the sense Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt were Democrats; she is not a Democrat in anything like the way Harry Truman was. She is the slightly-modernized Democrat her husband was: right of center enough to appeal to the GOP-wannabes.
I believed Bill Clinton, and voted for him, and was pleased when he won, and watched in horror as he was vilified, demonized, impeached, hamstrung at every turn by the dishonest, jealous media abetting the disgusting Republicans.
We can’t do that again. We won’t have any country left.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
jeff, stop, you're making me laugh
i love bitter cynicism and gallows humor. heh.
still, there are times when i wonder what it would be like to try to reform the republican party from the inside out. the problem is right now the White Fuckup Leadership Mystique is bouyed by an ocean of money and power. they will eventually trip up, but in the meantime they prevent real change in their own party. as for what we can do? sitting it out is an option, for as long as until it is not. that’s what i tell people. go ahead- put your head in the sand. i don’t judge. but it won’t save you, or make it any better when the fecal material splatters across the oscillating device nearest you and yours. in the end it always feels better, even if only marginally, to do something.
TX oilmen hate Hillary
Seriously, there’s a new Hillary joke from one of them today. Reminds me of the whispering campaign against Ralph Yarborough, my idol. If they’re that afraid of her, she’s got greatness for sure.
Ruth
Jeff, your frustration is precisely what "MABD" is about
Plainly both the size and nature of the Dem Congressional majority isn’t getting it done.
As an antidote to despair, feel-good-but-destructive splintering, and head-in-the-sand, I avidly champion Darcy Burner’s phrase.
More Dems by itself isn’t enough. Better Dems by itself isn’t enough. But accomplish both would help bring America back from the brink. To me, it’s the single most constructive thing we can do in this election cycle, alongside our daily duties of dragging the Overton Window back where it belongs.