The Republican Party of today serves the plutocrats well. It gave the rich huge tax cuts. It awarded credit and bank corporations with the new bankruptcy bill that devastates poor consumers in order to make these corporations richer. In an energy bill, it offered energy companies subsidies, tax breaks and other goodies. In a so-called highway bill, it offered similar goodies to a big range of companies. And let's not forget about the no-bid contracts it gave to Halliburton, Bechtel and others.
Theocrats do not necessarily go for such gifts to the rich. However, they play along. They received such things as prayer in the school, restrictions against abortion, recommendation of abstinence to young unmarrieds and faith-based initiatives. Bush even recommended an amendment to abolish gay marriage.
But the theocrats were unsatisfied. They wanted something solid. They wanted somebody on the Supreme Court that would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They were not sure about Roberts, though he is a good Catholic. They went along with the nomination because Roberts was extremely well qualified. However, they were originally upset about the nomination of Miers because there was no way of being positive that she would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Theocrats were reassured when notified that Miers belongs to a conservative evangelical church and by Bush's statement:
“People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers. They want to know Harriet Miers’ background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.”
James Dobson, a top theocrat, said he was told by Karl Rove that:
"Harriet Miers is an evangelical Christian; that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life; that she had taken on the American Bar association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion; that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life."
Other evangelicals seem to be following Dobson's lead. But not the so called elite. Republican intellectuals like Bill Kristol, George Will, James Buchanan and Rich Lowry were harsh and ferocious in their complaints. Some go so far as to call upon Bush to withdraw the nomination. They are upset and unhappy. But why?
Andrew Sullivan says:
"So what we're seeing is an inevitable clash between the party's elite realists and its grass-roots true believers."
What Sullivan calls "elite realists" I call plutocrats, and what he calls "true believers" I call theocrats. The intellectual plutocrats do not care much about God in the schools and sex everywhere. They do not know how religious extremists may vote in a case pitting business against labor or business against consumers. They thought that this time Bush would pick a plutocrat and not a theocrat. They think that Bush strayed from the real purpose of the Republican Party: to take care of Big Business.
The plutocrats are screaming: Let's get back to true Republicanism and helping the rich.
The theocrat-plutocrat crash took some time coming. Now it is here, ready to tear the elephant apart. Not to worry. The donkey is ready to take the place of the elephant.
