The long GOP takeover battle by the few
Consider the history of Money and the Republican party. We can trace the struggle for control between the few and the rest of what became a conservative party for over the past 150 years and arguably that contest simply continued from the Whigs before them. But the struggle between Lincoln legacy Republicans wealthy Industrialists and Bankers in the North began in earnest the 1870s under Grant. Post Civil War fortunes born of it were corrupting the party already. The gilded age that followed was awash with money and politicians were bought much more routinely by ever more wealthy interests. If there was any question of which party was the better purchase it was not much of a choice. The GOP had more money courtesy of the wealth its wealthy members gained during and after the Civil War. Dems remained an odd mix of Southern Racists and Northern poor with money in the mix of course but not worth buying as much as Republicans.
The GOP’s support was also based, then as now, with people who felt good about their middle class success and status in society or at the least were upwardly mobile or aspiring and feared to lose what they had. So there was really no need for the party to pander to the poor and struggling all that much especially when they were often the cause of the problems the less well off faced. But While it long remained a home for moderates and some shades of populism, the war for the identity of the party or more particularly who truly owned it would rage until Reagan more than a century later. But the first big step came early on with the deal to deny Tilden the presidency in 1876. This involved Abolitionist and Civil War hero Rutherford B. Hayes selling out the ideals of Lincoln to allow racists to reclaim the South in exchange for a comfortable time for big money and that the set the ultimate real course of the party regardless of detours it took after that.
By the turn of the 20th century the Party was still torn and still had room for actual populists. Boom and bust playgrounds for the few over the past decades wore out their welcome yet again. So when Teddy Roosevelt became an accidental president he proceeded to weld the opposition to the super rich and corporate power into trust-busting with widespread public support. But he was not popular with the wealthy to say the least. The GOP had prospered because of the Civil War… many “War Buck” millionaires emerged and grew ever richer from that and in the laissez faire decades after through boom and bust the rich had the upper hand and America finally had enough and populism gave the rich a huge setback for a while. The Taft and Wilson years were mixed. WWI bred a new crop of Warbuck-rich and after the hiatus of the Wilson years the money wing of the Republican party surfed on the post-war wish for “Normalcy”… which they defined as no holds barred, off to the races wide open capitalism with the GOP as boosters and protectors. Being upwardly mobile and successful for the middle class was a better fit with the Republican party. And predictably, once given all the scope to run wild yet again the Republicans imploded the economy as a result of their policies trashed the Republican brand again and made FDR and the New Deal inevitable.
But while the party still had some room for some populism the moneyed owners came to the fore even more as leaders in resistance to FDR and the New Deal. After long years in the wilderness, the post war urge for change finally got up to speed with the Republicans surfed that to the White House with a moderate Eisenhower. But while his tenure saw very high taxes the military industrial complex did very well indeed from the Cold War so for the rich it was a mixed blessing. And in the ensuing decades, in and out of power the GOP fought its own internal war with the Wealthy searching for the right recipe for power and to own the party outright.
Destroying the New Deal and “socialism” would take decades more but the oligarchy’s greed never sleeps and enough of them retained enough patience to take what they believed would be the long road to complete victory… and part of that was finding ways to control the party more effectively. Not all were that sanguine about the future. Extremist conservatives lost patience and broke away forming splinter conservative groups most notably the John Birch Society and worked to gain grass roots support. Again and again the impatient elements in the party pushed for too much too soon and jumped the shark yet again. But over the years this process worked quite well as a way to loot while the looting was good and then relent to a Dem comeback to do repairs and ready the economy for the next round of looting once memories faded just enough and the GOP could get elected again. And the more prudent boom and bust surfers in the oligarchy structured their wealth and invested in ways that would help them profit maximally and then ride out each storm and have even more wealth at hand afterwards to help fund the next round of politics.
With the failure of Nixon to keep the party in the White House, the hoped for next steps away from the New Deal could not be made after the “disappointments” of the Eisenhower years. JFK mollified the rich somewhat with tax cuts but he was still enemy number one. Nixon’s loss meant falling behind in the big plan so it seems the party’s partial owners got impatient and and swung for the fences in 1964 with an out and out conservative running on most of the policies favored by the rich. But with the landslide loss they seem to have learned that selling variants their “rich should rule” snake oil Goldwater style, more honestly out in the open was a loser. The next time some got impatient was when some breakaways went with the Libertarian party effort in 1980 with a Koch on the ticket. Again they were running rather openly on their actual policies and barely caused a ripple.
But in the meantime, Nixon winning in 1968 was a helpful midpoint on the way to Reagan. With him as a “cloth coat Republican” Conservatives were joined by moderates bewildered by the 60s and people who while not anti war were not happy with Vietnam and importantly also significant numbers of Southern Dems turning away from their party due to Civil Rights.
But even so, it was 3rd party candidate George Wallace who took 13% of the popular vote that probably did the most to help Nixon’s win. This time a 3rd party helped the GOP. The next time a major 3rd party candidate arose it would be the Democrat Clinton who benefited. But Wallace helped tear loose a sizeable chunk of previous Southern support for Dems. Nixon did set all of the Southern Strategy himself but with Wallace as part of it along with Nixon it set up the eventual Regan Democrat phenomenon. But all told, a big win for the money side of the party. Nixon for all his quirks and failings did some things that displeased the wealthy arm of the party but not enough for them to pull support until he “Watergated” himself. His legacy included things like the EPA anathema to corporate America ever since. But he certainly pandered to the rich in multiple ways (tax cuts again, plenty of military spending pork) and they had plenty of oligarch advisors to help the few as much as was possible back then.
(see this book for what 1968 meant for the GOP)
It is funny to look back at the multiple failures in continuity for the big plan of the rich to remove all impediments to their wealth and power. Every time they just get too greedy and impatient and lose power and lose ground due to overreach. The failures of their policies and internal bickering led to Wilson winning in 1912, the 1929 crash and FDR winning, Kennedy slipping in may have been due to a hangover from the Eisenhower years and Nixon still honing his act but not there yet… The major stumbles by the GOP were “disappointing” for both the rich and for moderates but for different reasons. Then Nixon flamed out spectacularly after his landslide win in ‘72… and it was his mania and drive to win big that led to his worst impulses being given full rein and leading to his downfall. These flaws were welcome in an everything to play for, go for the big win home that the party was more than ever.
Still he put in place more foundations for future tactics and strategy. The Southern strategy was as wildly successful as it was calculating and cynical. But that was nothing new, his win in 1968 was also in part due to his baser instincts leading him to the hidden treason of scuppering the Talks with North Vietnam. The Ford and Carter interval after him was still frustrating for the, call them: “Masterless samurai millionaires” bent on revenge for the New Deal… lying in wait in boardrooms, country clubs, country estates and big city penthouses, plotting their final victory. And yet their master plan while hurting the many time and time again always comes apart at the seams after a few years. Three steps forward, two steps back. Yes they fail but they keep failing in the direction that they want and gaining even more power and control over their party of choice, the Republicans.
Reagan saw the big change in the party to more complete ownership by the few and the base even more entrained with dog whistle racist-nativism and commie aversion plus a major new element… the Christian right beginning in 1979 with the Moral Majority. Reagan had been nurtured for years by the most conservative even reactionary parts of the corporate oligarchy from advertising shill to Governor of California to the failed primary run in 1976 when the ultra conservative side rebelled against Ford who had given the liberal faction of the party its last real hurrah by naming Rockefeller as VP. Ford was too nice and not conservative enough. Losing to Carter only set up the hard right, money and faux populism masked bigot faction to complete its takeover of the party plus a purge of any who did not fit in. The moderate and liberal side of the party was finally dead for all intents and purposes. And now the owners worked harder to foster new soldiers in their political war. They did more with conservative think tanks, foundations, societies, universities and law schools. They stepped up recruitment of the young and helped likely future “leaders” in their thinking and their careers every step of the way. The YAF, Young Americans for Freedom from the Nixon era seem almost quaint compared to later incarnations. Later the creation of ALEC and FOX News, talk radio and more all dovetailed into the wider effort to set up a permanent conservative majority… or at least a permanent rule by conservatives even as an actual minority.
Building on Nixon’s Southern Strategy the party ran with Reagan and then came the somewhat disappointing (to the Koch branch of the party that is) Bush I term. Never mind that the Thousand points of light BS was never more than PR, Bush was somehow too nice. Old money and not greedy enough. Entitled but too comfortable. But as always a greed stampede on his watch soiled their political nest yet again. All the greed of the Reagan Bush years undoing itself in another downturn and generally wearing out more than a little of its welcome. This time though it was the Dems who benefited from a 3rd party as Ross Perot took a sizable percentage of the popular vote. The strains in the economy and slow realizations that things had gone too far perhaps. But by this time it can be said that the other big strategy of the new Republican party, that of slowly moderating the Democrats via moving the Overton window, shifting definitions, assumptions and media balance made safe many changes dear to the heart of the few and set up the next steps. Clinton was very frustrating to the Koch Network and the others on the hard right corporate side of the GOP. But only because he was in the way of bigger, faster changes.
Clinton triangulating and compromising was all well and good for the Nabobs behind GOP as a damage limitation phase while they unleashed Gingrich and the Republican House on the USA and Clinton. They certainly expected to get him out after one term and regardless of outcome to tarnish him and Dems with the new strategy of unrelenting baseless investigations. And with this new politics of personal destruction they had the new Fox News entity to help poison discourse and warp perceptions. The base and ownership were in place for the GOP and only new labels and the bigot and fear motivations were simply run out in new trappings as needed helped by their new leveraged media assets. Bush win was a squeaker for them and it was only possible via a new version of voter suppression and electoral fraud along with compliant Supreme Court Justices. Investment in new tactics and conservative judges in the right places had paid off big time. And the marriage with the Christian Right renewed its vows more vigorously with more and more offshoots into a plural marriage with the growing wealth and influence of mega churches and their media.
But for all the Oligarchy friendly new policies and changes under Bush they imagined that they could make the “win a war” strategy that failed for his father after the first Gulf War work for his son. That is, parlay it into a successful reelection AND make a pile of money off the war and occupation. Led by people with more greed than sense, more urgency than knowledge the entire fiasco eventually blew up in the 2008 great recession. Notice the pattern? While the long haul revolution figures behind the march to a total oligarchy push from the shadows, their recipes and their eager allies always go overboard and screw the pooch over and over. Most Dem wins stem from the GOP running with the greed ball and stumbling badly. But big money never sleeps and the election gaming they implemented had to be increased to counter demographics.
So they worked to hijack as many state legislatures as they could in time for the 2010 census and reapportionment. It has been wildly successful and with the Biggest bonus of the Bush years beyond regulatory destruction, the conservative court ruling in favor of Unlimited dark money in elections plus the now advanced and widespread Gerrymandering set the stage for the ultimate fail-win — Trump. They build the machine that he hijacked and now owns. He has bribed the powers that be with Tax cuts, even worse and wider regulatory destruction and nativist extremism and he has for now an unshakable hold on the party. When the GOP and its owners get everything they think they want, this is what it looks like. And because they have no choice, they just double down and convince themselves that they can win with a total showboating fail of a turkey like him because they either go all in or they will lose it all. A very high risk venture. And the oligarchy only likes sure bets so they rig every game in their favor. But all ploys run out of room at some point and usually in disastrous fashion.
To recap, the Moneyed of America have tended to favor the Republican party more than the Democrats for nearly one hundred and fifty years. But their ownership of it was not nearly as complete as it is now until Nixon and Reagan fully ushered in the modern Republican party, and its present Amalgam of the greatest wealth and the greatest fear and hate to energize and mobilize it. These are appropriately masked and cloaked to keep selling the right image to the base. But as has always been the case with the GOP they are too greedy and impatient to not undermine their strategy and strengths. Their un-democratic spirit has given them control only to have it taken away by a man who is more greedy and impatient than they are and who also stole the allegiance of the Fox generations and among them the harder base of the more afraid and angry.
This is perhaps the final flowering of greed and expediency with all prudence and care thrown out the window. And it is not a sure bet that things will return to a normal pattern of Dem repair, GOP regaining power and looting yet again. Things are so extreme now that perhaps only an equal and opposite reaction by Dems will win but the social, political and economic havoc might be so bad that democracy fails and Trump or a successor who takes the autocratic foundation that Trump is laying and imposes a long term form of Oligarchic Fascism that will delay any return to democracy for a generation at least.