It seems strange, almost surreal, to say this, but the Republican Party, and arguably the whole conservative movement, is not the left’s biggest enemy at the moment. On keeping a public plan in healthcare reform; streamlining student lending; and passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), cap and trade, financial regulation and a host of other structural economic reforms progressives hope to enact, the GOP is more akin to the garbage men than the alderman. [Click the link for an explanation of what this analogy means. –ed.]
“Most Republicans aren’t waking up every day thinking, How do we kill banking regulation?” says Goehl. “Most people who listen to Rush Limbaugh aren’t waking up thinking about how do we kill banking regulation. But the people with the deep pockets who have power in DC are thinking that.
“I sometimes get frustrated because it seems like the left isn’t focused on corporate power. We like to talk about the Sarah Palins and Rush Limbaughs, and meanwhile the American Bankers Association is one of the main entities running the country.”
….While the Republican Party shrinks, corporate interests are deftly molting their old K Street Project skin and crawling en masse inside the big tent being pitched by the Democratic Party. These same corporate interests have always had a purchase on Democrats, of course. But for much of the last decade, business interests had the luxury of spending most of their resources aiding their allies in the GOP.
Chris is right: the biggest threat to the Democratic agenda these days isn’t the Republican Party. It’s the Democratic Party.