Time to build the Grand Alliance

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week i suggested "It is time for a Grand Alliance between Democrats, establishment
Republicans, and centrist moderates in a united front" against the far-right radical extremist elements of the Tea Party.

Today I read that the GOP establishment business community shares this view. The New York Times reports today, Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House G.O.P.:

As
the government shutdown grinds toward a potential debt default, some of
the country’s most influential business executives have come to a
conclusion all but unthinkable a few years ago: Their voices are
carrying little weight with the House majority that their millions of
dollars in campaign contributions helped build and sustain.

Their
frustration has grown so intense in recent days that several trade
association officials warned in interviews on Wednesday that they were
considering helping wage primary campaigns against Republican lawmakers
who had worked to engineer the political standoff in Washington.

Such an effort would thrust Washington’s traditionally cautious and pragmatic business lobby into open warfare with the Tea Party faction, which has grown in influence since the 2010 election and won a
series of skirmishes with the Republican establishment in the last two
years.

“We
are looking at ways to counter the rise of an ideological brand of
conservatism that, for lack of a better word, is more anti-establishment
than it has been in the past,” said David French, the top lobbyist at
the National Retail Federation. “We have come to the conclusion that
sitting on the sidelines is not good enough.”

Some warned that a default could spur a shift in the relationship between the corporate world and the Republican Pariy,
Long intertwined by mutual self-interest on deregulation and lower
taxes, the business lobby and Republicans are diverging not only over
the fiscal crisis, but on other major issues like immigration reform,
which was favored by business groups and party leaders but stymied in the House by many of the same lawmakers now leading the debt fight.

* * *

Moreover,
business leaders and trade groups said, the tools that have served them
in the past — campaign contributions, large memberships across the
country, a multibillion-dollar lobbying apparatus — do not seem to be
working.

“There
clearly are people in the Republican Party at the moment for whom the
business community and the interests of the business community — the
jobs and members they represent — don’t seem to be their top priority,”
said Dan Danner, the head of the National Federation of Independent
Businesses . . . “They don’t really care what the N.F.I.B.
thinks, and don’t care what the Chamber thinks, and probably don’t care
what the Business Roundtable thinks.”

* * *

Few
of the most conservative House lawmakers draw substantial support from
business political action committees, and business lobbyists
acknowledged that the mere suggestion they were considering backing
primary challenges next year could enhance grass-roots support for the
very lawmakers they want to defeat. But the dysfunction in Washington
has now turned so extreme, they said, that they had few other options.

"To some extent, the Chamber itself, along with other lobbying groups, helped create the conditions for Washington’s impasse." Exactly! The GOP establishment business community has got to stop enabling and empowering the GOP crazy base with its money and support.

The business community has got to let go of the disabling myth that Republicans are better for the economy and business. The historical record is clear: Democrats are always better for the economy. Download Democratic vs. Republican Economics: NO CONTEST (Dems Always Better). The Historical Record. [Kindle Edition] at Amazon. Even Forbes magazine agrees! Want a Better Economy? History Says Vote Democrat!.

Here is a handy quick reference.

h/t jobsanger.blogspot.com