Conservatism = Con Men

When Trump drops out, will he revert to form and start considering himself more inline with the Democrats again-- at least in terms of economic issues? As John Harwood pointed out in the NY Times yesterday, Trump once famously told CNN viewers that "It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats." And it does, despite GOP caterwauling about unleashing the power of something (something that means greed) by cutting taxes so that the whole economy explodes in an avalanche of trickle-down glory. Except it doesn't. It's what all the current GOP economic and tax plans are based on-- including, ironically, Trump's own-- but none of them are remotely realistic.

Although economic (and employment) growth resulted from Clinton's and Obama's modest tax increases, Rubio, Cruz, Jeb and Kasich are all on record predicting dire "job killing" consequences-- only to see net job creation during the 15 years that Clinton and Obama occupied the White House topping 30 million-- 50% more jobs than were created in the 20 years of Reagan and the two Bushes combined.

So maybe that's why the Republicans-- including Trump-- spend so much time talking about other issues that appeal to ugly bigotry and outright xenophobia and racism. Has anyone ever doubted it? The conservative economic case-- conserving the wealth and the status of the wealthy-- has never been a winner in a political system that is even remotely based on one-man-one-vote. Another reason, of course, why the Koch brothers and other manipulative right-wing plutocrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting schemes and candidates to undermine democracy itself and make it increasingly difficult for working people to vote. Democracy itself-- like education-- is always the enemy of conservatives.

Conservatives such as John Boehner and Paul Ryan. Yes, the conservatives are being demonized by the far right and very radical fringe-- deranged and very well-financed reactionaries (with their ubiquitous online campaigns to "Boot Boehner," "Dump McConnell," "Drop a Truth-Bomb on Kevin McCarthy" and "Fire Paul Ryan")-- but a great deal of that, as Eric Lipton and Jennifer Steinhauer reported in yesterday's NY Times has more to do with right's ultimate raison d'être-- the profit motive. The loudest voices on the far right are the ones scamming for the most dollars, regardless of whatever ideological arguments they purport to make. Their victims are dumbbells, brainwashed by years and years of Fox and Hate Talk Radio and eager to waste their pennies and dollars on the con-artists who dominate this sector of the "conservative" movement.

Larry Ward, the founder of the Constitutional Rights PAC, defended the move to derail the ascension of Mr. Ryan, calling it a worthy goal.

“Politics is supposed to be bloody. It is supposed to be a battle of will,” Mr. Ward said. “And the one who can get the American people siding with them is the one who wins.”

But Mr. Ward also has a financial stake in the fight. He runs Political Media, a Washington-based firm that will charge Constitutional Rights PAC a fee for sending out the blast email with the dual purpose of asking conservatives to help dump Mr. Ryan and to donate to Mr. Ward’s political action committee.

“Help us fund the fight by making an emergency donation of $30, $50 or even $100 today,” the email said, even though records show that Mr. Ward’s PAC spends every dollar it gets on consultants, mailings and fund-raising-- making no donations to candidates. Mr. Ward defended his use of his own firm, saying he gives his PAC a discount on his company’s regular service charges.

Mr. Ward has plenty of competitors. Groups including the Tea Party Leadership Fund, the Madison Project and the Tea Party Patriots have in the past year turned the attack on the Republican leadership into a fund-raising tool, records show.

The messages have resonated deeply throughout the conservative news media, from Fox News to Breitbart.com, helping to force out Mr. Boehner, to undermine a potential replacement, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, and to discredit Mr. Ryan, a process that is starting to cause a backlash among some Republicans.

“This is clearly an organized effort and an attempt by these groups to raise money for themselves,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who added that she was the target of a similar attack during the 2013 Senate debate over gun safety legislation. “They hurt our party, they hurt our Congress and they hurt our country.”

...“These groups stir people up on issues that don’t exist or solutions that can’t be achieved and hold members to impossible tests,” said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises money for candidates. “There needs to be an investigation into these groups. Where does the money go?”

This morning, in a short NY Times update, Scam They Am, Paul Krugman reminds his readers that "the modern conservative movement is in large part a 'strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers' with 'a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.' ... This is surely a much more important part of our political story than almost anyone acknowledges. I don’t think you can understand the depth of Obama- and Hillary-hatred without understanding just how much of it is generated by scammers out to make a buck off the racism and misogyny of some-- sad to say, fairly many-- older white men."

Also this morning, Jeb Bush was talking about Trump to Republican primary voters in South Carolina. His comments were unkind but explain the dilemma all Republicans find themselves in today and get to the boot of why the GOP is not a natural governing party but just an opposition party, and often not even a "loyal opposition."

The NRCC, NRSC and RNC see their territory being infringed on by the extremists... and now they expect their new Speaker to do something about it. We'll get into that in the very next post today.