Category Archives: Republican

We have been thinking about the Republican Party and how it can come backworthily, constructivelyafter the splits and shatterings of recent years. The GOP is relatively strong in the states but holds neither the White House, House nor Senate and in presidential elections struggles to win the popular vote. Entrenched power centers are arrayed against it, increasingly including corporate America. But parties have come back from worse. The Democrats came back from being on the wrong side in the Civil War.

Some thoughts here on Republicans and immigration.

From Pew Researchs findings on U.S. immigrants, published in August 2020: America has more immigrants than any other nation on earth. More than 40 million people living here were born in another country. According to the governments 2020 Current Population Survey, when you combine immigrants and their U.S.-born children the number adds up to 85.7 million. Pew estimates that most (77%) are here legally, including naturalized citizens. Almost a quarter are not.

Where are Americas immigrants from? Twenty-five percent, the largest group, are from Mexico, according to Pew. After that China at 6%, India just behind, the Philippines at 4%, El Salvador at 3%.

America hasnt had so many first- and second-generation Americans since the great European wave of the turn of the last century. The political party that embraces this reality, that becomes part of it, will win the future.

Read more from the original source:

Republicans and Immigrants Need Each Other - The Wall Street Journal

Karen Carter Peterson is attacking Troy Carter for not renouncing support from an outside Republican group backing him in the congressional race between them.

Peterson and Carter are both Democratic state senators from New Orleans, but Peterson is running to the left of Carter to represent a district that includes New Orleans, the west bank of Jefferson Parish, the River Parishes, and north Baton Rouge.

Karen Carter Peterson and Troy Carter didnt disagree broadly Friday during the first debate between the two candidates for an open congressio

Its largely been forgotten, but there was a time when Peterson worked closely with a Republican, then-state Rep. Jim Tucker. In fact, she helped make Tucker the first Republican House speaker in Louisiana since Reconstruction.

In return, she became the first Black female speaker pro tem, the No. 2 position in the House.

This story begins following the 2007 elections when Bobby Jindal, a Republican, was elected as governor, and Republicans continued to gain seats on Democrats in the House.

After the elections, the breakdown was 53 Democrats, 50 Republicans and two independents.

Then-state Rep. Don Cazayoux, a third-term Democrat from New Roads, had consolidated most Democrats behind him to try to become the next speaker.

Troy Carter has continued to enjoy a substantial financial advantage over the past month compared to Karen Carter Peterson, his rival for the

But Tucker, a developer from Algiers, believed he could pry off enough Democrats to win the nod. House members would choose their next speaker when they first convened in January 2008. Jindal had pledged not to back a candidate until someone had lined up a majority.

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Tucker had played a key role in molding the House Republican minority into a viable opposition force in recent sessions. Now a third-termer, Tucker cut a deal with Peterson. Tucker went to her because he knew Petersons father, Ken Carter, a politically active attorney and constituent of Tuckers, and because he and Peterson were members of the Orleans Parish legislative delegation.

Peterson did her part and delivered the support of several members of the Legislative Black Caucus who agreed to cross party lines and back Tucker.

Jindal then offered his support, and Cazayoux withdrew.

With Tuckers backing, the House elected Peterson as speaker pro tem.

Tucker served as speaker for four years. During that time, party switches left Republicans with a majority in the House that they havent relinquished.

Karen Carter Peterson is seeking to tie Troy Carter to former President Donald Trump in the final 10 days of a special election that will send

Tucker narrowly lost a 2011 election to be secretary of state, was nearly chosen as LABIs president and CEO in 2013 and since 2015 has served as the CEO of Commcare Corporation, which owns 11 nursing homes and hospices.

Peterson served as speaker pro tem until 2010 when she won an open state Senate seat, a position she continues to hold.

Advocate library manager Judy Jumonville contributed to this article.

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Karen Carter Peterson once helped elect a Republican speaker; here's how it happened - The Advocate

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., here in 2017, is pushing his party to focus on working-class voters as a way to win back the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms and the White House in 2024. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images hide caption

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., here in 2017, is pushing his party to focus on working-class voters as a way to win back the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms and the White House in 2024.

A growing number of working-class voters were drawn to Donald Trump's Republican Party, and now top Republicans are searching for ways to keep those voters in the fold without Trump on the ballot.

"All of the statistics and polling coming out of the 2020 election show that Donald Trump did better with those voters across the board than any Republican has in my lifetime since Ronald Reagan," Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told NPR. "And if Republicans want to be successful as a party, win the majority in 2022, win back the White House in 2024, I think we have to learn lessons that Donald Trump taught us and how to appeal to these voters."

Since 2010, the most significant growth in the Republican coalition has been white voters without a college degree an imperfect but widely used metric to quantify the working-class voting bloc along with some marginal growth among similarly educated Black and Hispanic voters. Banks believes the only winning path forward for the GOP is to reimagine itself permanently as the party of working-class America.

Banks is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative faction in the House long rooted in small government, low taxes and social conservatism, and he recently sent a six-page memo to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., making his case. For Banks, it means tougher immigration laws and cracking down on China, Big Tech and, perhaps most provocatively for the GOP, corporate America.

"For too long, the Republican Party fed into the narrative and the perception that the Republican Party was the party of big business or the party of Wall Street," Banks said.

Read the full memo below:

Republicans are increasingly comfortable attacking corporations these days, a political stance made easier after Wall Street donors gave more to President Biden in 2020, major companies halted donations to Republicans who objected to Electoral College results on Jan. 6, and as companies take more liberal positions on controversial issues such as Georgia's new voting law.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week issued a rare public lashing toward companies that oppose the law. "My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It's not what you're designed for," he said. McConnell a top recipient of corporate political donations walked back his comments, but not a statement his office released warning corporations of "serious consequences" for "behaving like a woke parallel government."

Top Senate Republicans some considering 2024 presidential runs have been echoing the call to remake the party even before the 2020 election. "We've got a big battle in front of us, Republicans do, to try and make this party truly the party of working-class America," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said in November.

He's among a number of Senate Republicans who have taken recent positions that run counter to longstanding party orthodoxy, such as linking up with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in support of stimulus checks last year and supporting a mandatory $15 minimum wage for companies with annual revenues over $1 billion.

Others include Florida's Marco Rubio, who recently sided with pro-union forces in an organizing dispute at Amazon and speaks frequently of "common good capitalism," and Utah's Mitt Romney, who has introduced legislation to expand the welfare state to provide more generous benefits to combat child poverty.

"I think the claim that says the Republican Party is the party of the working class is at best, insincere, and more likely, political misdirection and rebranding exercises," said John Russo, a visiting scholar at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and a co-editor of the publication Working-Class Perspectives.

The working-class vote is complicated and too often confused with whiteness when about 40% of the working-class vote is people of color, Russo said. Their support also didn't cut overwhelmingly toward Republicans in 2020. Biden still won a majority of voters who earn less than $50,000 year, while Trump won a majority of voters who earn over $100,000 a year.

Russo said about one-third of working-class voters are considered persuadable in elections, and it's never reliable whether cultural or economic forces will drive their vote. "The working class, like all of us, carry multiple identities, race, class, gender, religious, geographic, and people may vote different parts of their identity as situations and moments change in their lives."

Democrats are not ceding this vote without a fight, led by a new president with a blue-collar upbringing who wants to enact the most radical economic investment in working people since the New Deal, with a message to sell it targeted almost squarely at the working-class vote. "I'm not trying to punish anybody, but damn it, maybe it's because I come from a middle-class neighborhood, I'm sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced," Biden said in a recent speech promoting his $2 trillion infrastructure and economic stimulus plan.

Republicans think Democrats are overreaching with their economic largesse. Banks compared Biden's plans to a feel-good sugar high that will lead to a crash. "And I predict it will crash long before the 2022 midterm election, as we see a lot of government spending inflate the economy, but then when it bottoms out and American workers, blue-collar working-class Americans feel the effect of it, they're gonna blame Joe Biden and Democrats for it," he said.

The battle for the working class is even more urgent for the two parties because it's a growing bloc of voters. Since the 2008 financial crisis, Russo said, more middle-class people have slid economically backward and are experiencing what he calls "the fragility of working-class life."

Original post:

Top Republicans Work To Rebrand GOP As Party Of Working Class - NPR

John Boehner, pictured in 2016, was speaker of the House during the Obama presidency. He says he sometimes went along with things he personally opposed because it was what members of his party wanted. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

John Boehner, pictured in 2016, was speaker of the House during the Obama presidency. He says he sometimes went along with things he personally opposed because it was what members of his party wanted.

John Boehner says he couldn't win an election as a Republican these days.

"I think I'd have a pretty tough time," he says. "I'm a conservative Republican, but I'm not crazy. And, you know, these days crazy gets elected. On the left and the right."

Boehner has a new memoir, On the House, about his time in politics.

His refrain is familiar a retired politician bemoaning increased polarization and partisanship, laying the blame squarely on both parties though as a member of House Republican leadership for much of his career, he has more experience and more stories about dealing with the "noisemakers" and "knuckleheads" within his own ranks.

Boehner was first elected to the House in 1990 as a firebrand conservative from Ohio, rising to become House speaker with the help of Republican Tea Party victories in the 2010 midterms. Until his retirement in 2015, he led a Republican caucus largely focused on undoing former President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul even if it meant shutting down the government.

Boehner's memoir tells of his attempts through the years to corral his members. As he tells Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition, often that meant going in directions he personally opposed.

He relates the situations to one of his folksy sayings "Boehnerisms" that says, "A leader without followers is just a man taking a walk."

"There were a couple of times where I found myself taking a walk. And I was going one direction, the team was going some other direction," Boehner says.

One of those times came in 2013, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other hard-line Republicans forced a government shutdown in a failed attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act.

"And even though I didn't really want to go the direction where the team's going, they were the ones who elected me to be the leader and I had an obligation to go lead them," Boehner tells NPR. "So that means I had to go jump out in front of them, even if I thought what they were trying to do really made not a whole lot of sense."

Boehner's retirement in 2015 allowed him to avoid working with former President Donald Trump in the White House. By the time of Trump's swearing in, Boehner writes that he was "not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created."

Boehner tells NPR that when Trump refused to accept his election loss, "he really abused the loyalty and trust that his voters and supporters placed in him."

Here are excerpts of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

You describe the way that you ran meetings when you were speaker of the House or really in any leadership position. You say that the key thing was to listen to other people and figure out what was on their minds and which way the room was going.

Well, I was in the sales and marketing business before I got into politics and learned a few things about sales. The most important thing about a salesman is not his ability or her ability to talk. It's their ability to listen. Because if you're listening to the person across the desk, you have a pretty good idea what it is they're looking for and you can figure out a way to get there.

And no different in politics, because in politics especially in the Congress you've got this large body of people that you're trying to move in a particular direction. You really can't even begin to move them until you understand where they are and why they are where they are.

Your party captured the House in 2010. It was driven by the Tea Party movement. You make it clear that there are a lot of people in the Tea Party movement that you consider "crazies." But at the time, you made sure there was no distance, no gap between mainstream Republicans and Tea Party types. You knew that was the way to power.

Well, the fact is they got elected as Republicans, they were members of the Republican conference and most of those so-called Tea Party candidates became what I would describe as regular Republicans. There were a few who I would describe as knuckleheads who all they want to do is create chaos. But the fact is they got elected. I was the speaker and I had to find a way forward as a team.

What do you think about some of the leading figures in your party, the way that it has gone in recent years?

Well, the people of governing in Washington today on both sides of the aisle have an even more difficult task than I did. The country is far more polarized now than it was 10, 12 years ago. And that means the people trying to govern have an even more difficult time trying to bring two sides together, or for that matter bring one side together.

I get the impression, though, that you think that a lot of leading personalities in your party don't really stand for anything, don't really believe in anything.

Well, listen, I've been around politics now for 40 years, and I thought I knew something about politics. But clearly today, I don't know as much as I thought I knew about politics. Because, you know, I'm a Republican, actually. I'm a conservative Republican, but I'm not crazy. And then they've got, I don't know, these noisemakers, I'll call them. But Nancy Pelosi's got the same problem on her side of the aisle.

When you talk about noisemakers, who do you mean? Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan?

Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan. I could go down a long list of people who are more interested in making noise than they are in doing things on behalf of the country. Sometimes I get the idea that they'd rather tear the whole system down and start over because I've never seen anything that they were for. I know what they're against, but I've never really seen what they're for.

There's a case to be made that the Republican Party today is abandoning the idea of democracy. So many people supported the effort to overturn the 2020 election. So many state lawmakers now are pushing for voting restrictions based on false claims about that election. What do you make of that argument?

Listen, the election is over. I listened to all that noise before the election, after the election. And, you know, there's always a few irregularities, but there's really been nothing of any significance that would have changed one state's election outcome, not one. Nothing even close.

I just find what President Trump did before the election, especially what he did after the election, he really abused the loyalty and trust that his voters and supporters placed in him by continually telling them that the election was going to be stolen before the election. And then after the election, telling them that the election was stolen without providing any evidence, no facts. And that's the part about this that really disturbs me the most.

People who were loyal to me, people who trusted me, I felt like I had a responsibility to be honest with them, straightforward with them. And to see this loyalty and trust be abused by President Trump, it was really kind of disheartening at best.

Bo Hamby and Reena Advani produced and edited the audio interview. James Doubek produced for the Web.

See original here:

John Boehner On The 'Noisemakers' Of The Republican Party - NPR

At the time, the Obama administration was cracking down on illegal immigration in an attempt to bring Republicans to the table for a grand bargain on comprehensive immigration reformbut it was more effective politics for both Democrats and Republicans to pretend that Obama was less of a border hawk than he really was.

Again and again, Republicans have targeted groups they believe too small or too powerless to spark a costly political backlash. By attacking them, the GOP seeks to place Democrats in a political bind. If they decline to bow to demagoguery, Democrats risk looking either too culturally avant-garde for the comfort of more conservative voterswhose support they need to remain viableor too preoccupied with defending the rights of a beleaguered minority to pay attention to bread-and-butter issues that matter to the majority. This strategy has worked in the pastPresident Bill Clinton, who signed the federal statute outlawing same-sex marriage in 1996, was no Republican. Many people across the political spectrum accept the premise that defending a marginalized groups civil rights is identity politics, while choosing to strip away those rights is not.

In 2004, Republicans pursued a good-cop/bad-cop strategy: Bush sounded notes of tolerance and acceptance in public, while Republican strategists pursued an anti-gay-rights agenda behind the scenes. In 2012, the partys presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, ran to the right of Bush on both immigration and LGBTQ issues in order to prove that he was severely conservative. In 2016, the Republican base wanted a nominee who would sound their hatreds with a foghorn rather than a dog whistle. Trump obliged, promising to ban Muslims from coming to the United States and build a wall on the border with Mexico. Trump had previously mocked Romneys harsh self-deportation policy as maniacal, but the reality-show star knew what the Republican base wanted in a president when he finally ran.

That brings us to 2021. Republicans lost the fight over marriage equality so decisively that some now pretend not to have vigorously opposed it in the first placemuch to the alarm of many religious conservatives, who are their most dedicated supporters. The fight over immigration is locked in a stalemate, because Trump showed national Republicans that embracing nativism is less politically costly than they had supposed. Anti-Muslim animus has hardly disappeared, but it is no longer as useful a tool to oppose the current leader of the Democratic Party, an elderly Irish Catholic man.

Read: The GOPs Islamophobia problem

Conflicts between civil rights and religious freedom can certainly present thorny legal dilemmas, but most of what Im describing here involves Republicans consciously choosing not to leave people alone. There was no threat to life or liberty that demanded same-sex-marriage bans, Sharia bans, or draconian state-level immigration laws. They embraced these causes because they believed that picking on these particular groups of people was good politics, because of their supporters animus toward them, and because they believed that their targets lacked the votes or political allies to properly fight back.

Read the rest here:

The GOP's War on Trans Kids - The Atlantic

Iowa Republicans need to show support for higher education instead of underfunding and micromanaging them.

Iowas higher education systems are getting constantly slapped by Republican legislators, and its time for it to stop.

House File 868 a bill that freezes funding and tuition and fees for universities under the state Board of Regents recently passed through the state House Appropriations Committee. The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile did propose a funding increase restoring an $8 million cut from last year and $6.5 million for Iowas community colleges while the funding increase is applaudable, it still falls short of the regents requests.

While Iowa House Republicans argue the regent universities already received emergency funds from the American Rescue Plan, what they cant seem to wrap their minds around is that legislation like this is harming higher education in Iowa.

Im not here to argue over tuition rates because thats a separate conversation. Legislation that underfunds Iowa universities is part of the negative attitude that many Republicans have blatantly displayed toward higher education.

This bill is just the most recent example of an ongoing trend. The constant underfunding and micromanaging needs to stop. Otherwise, the future of quality higher education in Iowa is at stake.

Frankly, Iowas history of underfunding higher education is frightening. Take for example the 2021 state budget proposal that was introduced by Gov. Kim Reynolds which underfunded public universities request by $11 million. Whats really alarming though is the fact that while the state budget has doubled over the past two decades, funding has declined by about a net $8 million.

But funding isnt the only method Republicans are using to bludgeon Iowas public universities. On top of underfunding institutions, legislators are determined to micromanage them in a way that derails their academic missions.

Where is this evident? House File 802 which prohibits divisive concepts in diversity, equity, and inclusion training in schools, universities, and government institutions.

Yes, its hypocritical that Republicans are supporting a bill that prohibits certain topics to be discussed after passing a bill in support of the freedom of speech at regent universities. But it also drives away minority populations from attending Iowa universities. Why would anyone want to attend a school in a state that sends a bad message on how it views minority groups?

And, we cant forget the infamous tenure bill that has been introduced and died for three consecutive years. Nothing says we dont fully value Iowas higher education system than trying to get rid of a practice thats meant to help retain and recruit faculty.

While the tenure bill is dead and the future of the DEI and funding bills is unsure, legislation like this shouldnt be introduced in the first place. All it does is send a message to prospective and current students, faculty, and staff, that Iowa doesnt value higher education.

What does the tenure bill do? It drives away faculty from coming to Iowa institutions, which is the last thing they need as numbers have declined across all three universities.

What does the DEI training bill do? Its going to prevent diversity in universities by limiting conversations about systemic racism.

What does underfunding the Iowa public universities do? It says that the state doesnt want to invest and value its life- and industry-saving research, nor its award-winning students, faculty, and staff. Not only does it send a bad message, but if quality of education is the goal, this undercuts the universitys mission in the long run.

With financial losses from COVID-19 and a decrease in student enrollment, Iowa universities are in desperate need of financial help.

Our institutions dont need the state telling them what they can or cant teach or attempts to get rid of practices that provide top-tier education. Support must come financially, but it also must be evident through legislation. And right now, certain bills and Iowas history of underfunding isnt particularly doing that.

Iowa Republican lawmakers need to change their attitude toward higher education. Its time to stop the underfunding and micromanaging and instead show support from state legislators.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.

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Opinion | Iowa Republicans need to value higher education - UI The Daily Iowan

The Senate overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday to advance a bill addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Led by Democrats Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Rep. Grace Meng of New York, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will require federal officers to "facilitate the expedited review" of hate crimes.

"It defines COVID-19 hate crime as a violent crime that is motivated by two things: (1) the actual or perceived characteristic (e.g., race) of any person, and (2) the actual or perceived relationship to the spread of COVID-19 of any person because of that characteristic," according to the bill's summary.

In a rare bipartisan effort, a vast majority of senators voted 92-6 to advance the bill bringing it one step closer to passing.

But the legislation could still face a difficult path forward. Republicans only supported the procedure on the agreement they could add amendments to the bill after it advanced: They added 20.

Hirono told HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic, some of the amendments added, "have absolutely nothing to do with the bill."

Senate leaders will now have to agree which amendments to consider in order to pass the bill through the Senate, "very, very soon," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday.

Here are the six Republicans who voted "no."

Read the rest here:

These are the 6 Republicans who voted against a bipartisan bill on anti-Asian hate crimes - Business Insider

Former President Donald Trump is staking his claim to the Republican Party in a closed-door speech to donors Saturday night, casting his populist policies and attack-dog politics as the key to future Republican success

By STEVE PEOPLES AP National Political Writer

April 11, 2021, 12:01 AM

4 min read

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Former President Donald Trump staked his claim to the Republican Party in a closed-door speech to donors Saturday night, casting his populist policies and attack-dog politics as the key to future Republican success.

Trump also reinforced his commitment to the GOP in his address, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press, which comes as Republican officials seek to downplay an intraparty feud over Trump's role in the party, his commitment to GOP fundraising and his plans for 2024. While Trump's advisers report he will emphasize party unity, he rarely sticks to script.

The key to this triumphant future will be to build on the gains our amazing movement has made over the past four years, Trump told hundreds of leading Republican donors, according to the prepared remarks. Under our leadership, we welcomed millions upon millions of new voters into the Republican coalition. We transformed the Republican Party into a party that truly fights for all Americans.

The former president delivered his remarks behind closed doors at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, in the final address of the Republican National Committee's weekend donor summit in Palm Beach. Most of the RNC's invitation-only weekend gathering was set at a luxury hotel four miles away, but attendees were bused to Trump's club for his remarks.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to address donors Saturday night as well. Earlier in the weekend, a slew of candidates already positioning themselves for a 2024 presidential run made appearances. Besides DeSantis, the potential White House contenders included South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also spoke.

In his remarks Friday night, Cotton leaned into the GOPs culture wars, attacking the Democrats positions on transgender youth, voter ID laws and Major League Baseball's decision to move its All-Star Game to protest Republican voting laws just as Trump does in his prepared remarks.

While a significant faction of the Republican Party hopes to move past Trumps divisive leadership, the location of the weekend gathering suggests that the GOP, at least for now, is not ready to replace Trump as its undisputed leader and chief fundraiser.

Trump's team reports that his remarks are intended to reinforce his continued leadership role in Republican affairs, a sharp break from past presidents.

Saturdays speech will be welcomed words to the Republican donors visiting Mar-a-Lago to hear directly from President Trump," Trump adviser Jason Miller said. "Palm Beach is the new political power center, and President Trump is the Republican Partys best messenger.

Despite Saturday's intended message, Trump's commitment to the GOP is far from certain.

Earlier in the year, he raised the possibility of creating a new political party. And just a month ago, Trumps political action committee sent letters to the RNC and others asking them to immediately cease and desist the unauthorized use of President Donald J. Trumps name, image, and/or likeness in all fundraising, persuasion, and/or issue speech.

GOP officials have repeatedly tried to downplay the fundraising tensions and see Trumps participation as a sign that he is willing to lend his name to the party. At the same time, Trump continues to aggressively accumulate campaign cash to fuel his own political ambitions.

Trump has also regularly attacked his Republican critics in recent weeks, especially Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney. Neither attended the weekend donor summit.

Trump did not attack Cheney or McConnell or any Republicans in Saturday's speech, at least according to his scripted remarks.

Originally posted here:

Trump: The key to Republican success is more Trumpism - ABC News

For four decades, the basic deal between big American corporations and politicians has been simple. Corporations provide campaign funds. Politicians reciprocate by lowering corporate taxes and doing whatever else corporations need to boost profits.

The deal has proven beneficial to both sides, although not to the American public. Campaign spending has soared while corporate taxes have shriveled.

In the 1950s, corporations accounted for about 40% of federal revenue. Today, they contribute a meager 7%. Last year, more than 50 of the largest US companies paid no federal income taxes at all. Many havent paid taxes for years.

Both parties have been in on this deal although the GOP has been the bigger player. Yet since Donald Trump issued his big lie about the fraudulence of the 2020 election, corporate America has had a few qualms about the GOP.

After the storming of the Capitol, dozens of giant corporations said they would no longer donate to the 147 Republican members of Congress who objected to the certification of Biden electors on the basis of the big lie.

Then came the GOPs wave of restrictive state voting laws, premised on the same big lie. Georgias are among the most egregious. The chief executive of Coca-Cola, headquartered in the peach tree state, calls those laws wrong and a step backward. The chief executive of Delta Airlines, Georgias largest employer, says theyre unacceptable. Major League Baseball decided to take its annual All-Star Game away from the home of the Atlanta Braves.

These criticisms have unleashed a rare firestorm of anti-corporate Republican indignation. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, warns corporations of unspecified serious consequences for speaking out. Republicans are moving to revoke MLBs antitrust status. Georgia Republicans threaten to punish Delta by repealing a state tax credit for jet fuel.

Why are we still listening to these woke corporate hypocrites on taxes, regulations and antitrust? asks the Florida senator Marco Rubio.

Why? For the same reason Willie Sutton gave when asked why he robbed banks: thats where the money is.

McConnell told reporters corporations should stay out of politics but then qualified his remark: Im not talking about political contributions. Of course not. Republicans have long championed corporate speech when it comes in the form of campaign cash just not as criticism.

Talk about hypocrisy. McConnell was the top recipient of corporate money in the 2020 election cycle and has a long history of battling attempts to limit it. In 2010, he hailed the supreme courts Citizens United ruling, which struck down limits on corporate political donations, on the dubious grounds that corporations are people under the first amendment to the constitution.

For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process, McConnell said at the time. Hint: he wasnt referring to poor Black people.

Its hypocrisy squared. The growing tsunami of corporate campaign money suppresses votes indirectly by drowning out all other voices. Republicans are in the grotesque position of calling on corporations to continue bribing politicians as long as they dont criticize Republicans for suppressing votes directly.

The hypocrisy flows in the other direction as well. The Delta chief criticized the GOPs voter suppression in Georgia but the company continues to bankroll Republicans. Its Pac contributed $1,725,956 in the 2020 election, more than $1m of which went to federal candidates, mostly Republicans. Oh, and Delta hasnt paid federal taxes for years.

Dont let the spat fool you. The basic deal between the GOP and corporate America is still very much alive.

Which is why, despite record-low corporate taxes, congressional Republicans are feigning outrage at Joe Bidens plan to have corporations pay for his $2tn infrastructure proposal. Biden isnt even seeking to raise the corporate tax rate as high as it was before the Trump tax cut, yet not a single Republicans will support it.

A few Democrats, such as West Virginias Joe Manchin, dont want to raise corporate taxes as high as Biden does either. Yet almost two-thirds of Americans support the idea.

The basic deal between American corporations and American politicians has been a terrible deal for America. Which is why a piece of legislation entitled the For the People Act, passed by the House and co-sponsored in the Senate by every Democratic senator except Manchin, is so important. It would both stop states from suppressing votes and also move the country toward public financing of elections, thereby reducing politicians dependence on corporate cash.

Corporations can and should bankroll much of what America needs. But they wont, as long as corporations keep bankrolling American politicians.

Read more from the original source:

Republican attacks on corporations over voting rights bills are a hypocritical sham - The Guardian

Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and people of traditional faith love to whine about the policies they believe are destroying the America they love. Isnt it just awful what the liberals and the far-left have done to our nation with their socialist policies, they say to each other, wringing their hands, before going about their daily lives.

After the 2020 election legally won by President BidenJoe BidenBiden eyes bigger US role in global vaccination efforts Trump says GOP will take White House in 2024 in prepared speech Kemp: Pulling All-Star game out of Atlanta will hurt business owners of color MORE egged-on by former President TrumpDonald TrumpHarry Reid reacts to Boehner book excerpt: 'We didn't mince words' Man arrested for allegedly threatening to stab undercover Asian officer in NYC Trump says GOP will take White House in 2024 in prepared speech MORE and some of his loyalists, their cry became: Look what the far-left media and their allies in Big Tech did to us!

All this has been heaped upon their constant complaints about the disgraceful far-left bias in the media, academia, entertainment and, of late, science and medicine.

Since before I entered the Reagan White House in 1987, I have been listening to such incessant whining. Poor us, they cry, We Americans who believe in God, the rule of law, sovereign and protected borders, a strong military, smaller government, lower taxes and personal accountability. What are we to do in the face of such unfairness?

What they generally do is howl at the moon.

If Republicans, conservatives and people of traditional faith truly believe the left has come to dominate the media, entertainment, academia, science and medicine, then they should take steps to change that.

Almost a quarter-century ago, I sat down with my old boss, former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, to discuss this reality and the political and power-balancing enigma. Back then, long before tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube came to dominate society, Dole the former Senate majority leader and Republican presidential and vice presidential nominee was honestly astounded that more ultra-wealthy Republicans and conservatives were not getting into the media and entertainment fields. What we were told then was that those fields either did not fit their business models or that they might adversely affect their bottom lines.

As Dole and I discussed, commonsense and pragmatism dictates that not having a voice in the largest megaphones of our nation the media, entertainment and academia is a losing strategy destined to create negative consequences for those trying to advance conservative or faith-based thought or arguments.

It can most certainly be argued that, for the past few decades, the left has come to dominate these fields, as well as science and medicine. And in some ways, liberals should be congratulated for achieving such dominance. That said, none of it happened in a vacuum or in the dead of night. It was all done with everyones eyes wide open including people who later morphed into complainers about the unfairness of it all, but who voluntarily chose to do nothing at the time. For whatever reason, they looked away while those on the left went about their business creating amazing high-tech achievements such as Google, Amazon and social media platforms.

Now, some on the right want to scream, How dare those liberal entrepreneurs espouse the political or ideological thoughts they believe in, on sites they created, while blocking some they disagree with! Ah, but isnt it basic human nature to exercise control over a private company in which one has invested his or her blood, sweat and tears to create?

The last time I checked, there were thousands of Republican, conservative, libertarian and traditional faith-based millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires who have amassed collective wealth exceeding $1 trillion. Surely thats enough money to invest in a few newspapers, fund television networks, start a few universities or create some Big Tech sites of their own.

Its time for the right to stop playing victim and put their money where they swear their values lie. If not, those who are complaining should put a cork in it.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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Republicans and conservatives are to blame for the America they decry | TheHill - The Hill