Krugman on the Crumbling Republican Coalition

I'm on the road again and may be out of range of wireless for a day or two. In the meantime, the implosion of the Republican leadership continues. I want to emphasize we need two parties but not the disastrous nonsense that passes for the Republican Party in Washington. Here's a post from Paul Krugman of The New York Times on Truthout:

Right after the 2004 election, it seemed as if Thomas Frank had been completely vindicated. In his book "What's the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," Mr. Frank argued that America's right wing had developed a permanent winning strategy based on the use of "values" issues to mobilize white working-class voters against a largely mythical cultural elite, while actually pursuing policies designed to benefit a small economic elite.

It was and is a brilliant analysis. But the political strategy Mr. Frank described may have less staying power than he feared. In fact, the right-wing coalition that has spent 40 years climbing to its current position of political dominance may be cracking up.

At its core, the political axis that currently controls Congress and the White House is an alliance between the preachers and the plutocrats - between the religious right, which hates gays, abortion and the theory of evolution, and the economic right, which hates Social Security, Medicare and taxes on rich people. Surrounding this core is a large periphery of politicians and lobbyists who joined the movement not out of conviction, but to share in the spoils.

To share the spoils. This is the core of the congressional leadership. This is what we mean by those who like to feed at the trough and are given permission to do so as long as they rubber stamp what Bush and the Republican leadership wants.

P.S. Many thanks to Slate for quoting a little and linking to the 'Who Could Have Imagined' Condi Rice's Memory Lapses... article.