The Pivot Point Brendan Delaney's Blog

When Obama Wins, Thank a Republican

by Brendan Delaney

According to Joe Scarborough on Meet The Press this morning, Newt Gingrich’s recent Republican Primary win in South Carolina was not so much a victory for Newt Gingrich as it was a primal scream by Republican voters against the Republican Party establishment.

Newt Gingrich wins South Carolina Primary

As a former Republican myself, I can identify with those who are so frustrated with their own party that, in order to send a message of contempt to their party leaders, they would be willing to nominate a completely unelectable candidate like Newt Gingrich.  I sent my own message to the Republican party in 2007, when it came time for me to renew my drivers’ license.  At that time, when given the opportunity to change my political affiliation, I opted to become a Democrat.  I did this because I didn’t want to be associated with a party that I felt no longer represented the best interests of anyone I knew.  I was also highly disillusioned by the way they so cynically rammed through a candidate as unqualified, and unintelligent, as George W. Bush (whom I did not vote for, btw).  The election of George W. Bush allowed the Republican Party to take care of their cronies in corporate America, and also set in motion many of the policies that led to the dismal state of our economy today.  And while they may have secured the White House in 2000 and 2004, they sacrificed the allegiance of people like me - people who believed in the Republican party and its ideals, before the Republican party cast aside those ideals in favor of catering to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

So now I am a Democrat, but it hasn’t exactly been a match made in heaven.  I’m a big fan of American business, and I’m not a huge fan of unions.  These are two qualities that put me at odds with a lot of card-carrying Democrats.  While I’ll concede that unions are great, if you happen to be in one, they also drive up prices for the rest of us, which leaves less money in our pockets, less money for spending, and ultimately, less jobs in the economy.  Business, particularly small business, is the lifeblood of our economy.  It creates 80% of the jobs,  and generates tax revenues that fund many of the government programs that so many Democrats are fond of.  The lifeblood of our economy is not big corporate America, which, in cahoots with the financial sector, seems increasingly intent on sucking the wealth out of the middle class, hollowing out our country from within, and lining their pockets with ill-gotten gains.  They have done this with the blessing of the Republican Party, which has assisted them by channeling their political donations and lobbying efforts.

So when I left the Republican Party in 2007, it was because I came to realize what many Republican Party members are just now learning - that the Republican Party doesn’t represent the best interest of the bulk of Republicans.  Instead, they are controlled by, and work in the best interest of, large corporations and the big banks in the financial sector.   Republican Party leaders cynically cloak their true motives with messages of “freedom” and “job creation.”  And they perpetuate the notion that it’s more American to be a Republican.  Unfortunately, a lot of Republican Party members believe just that.  But, as the South Carolina Primary has proven, a lot of them are starting to wise up.

If Joe Scarborough is correct, then the “primal scream” heard in South Carolina is, in effect, a protest by Republicans against the Republican Party establishment.  And it’s not the first Republican protest we have seen from within the ranks of the party.  To date, there have been three Republican primaries, and there have been three separate winners.  And the very existence of Ron Paul as a semi-viable (though ultimately doomed) candidate is a form of protest as well.  His enduring success, despite the best efforts of mainstream media to ignore his existence (a topic itself worthy of a lengthy blog post), only further serves to demonstrate that Republicans are in the throes of an internal revolution.  And revolutions, as Republicans know, are never good for business.

At the end of the day, what we have learned (the net-net, in business-speak) is that the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot, and it's potentially fatal.  In 2012, Republicans have a tremendous opportunity to take back the White House, and they are squandering it.  They sold out their own party, and created an environment that is ripe for exactly what they are hoping to avoid - a two-term Democratic president.  As a result, the Democrats aren’t going to win the election in 2012, the Republicans are going to lose it.  So, for all you Democrats out there, when you’re dancing in the streets in November after Obama is re-elected president, be sure stop for a moment and thank those who made that victory possible - the powers that be in the Republican Party.

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