The Two Republican Parties

There is common stock and there is preferred stock. . . There is general admission and there are private boxes. . . There are members of the Republican Party and there are the owners of the Republican Party. Most likely, the membership category of the party was invented by the New Nixon, the one who realized that the number of people who believed Republican principles was dwindling. The Southern Strategy, using race disguised as "states' rights" and "law and order," elected Nixon. Reagan followed the blueprint, making a states rights speech in a Mississippi county where three civil rights workers had been killed and then praising Jefferson Davis at Stone Mountain, Georgia. George H. W. Bush got great mileage out of the Willie Horton ads. Using race, homophobia, religion, and anti-abortion positions as market tactics for Republican members, the owner Republicans have gained control of the executive and legislative branches and are following an agenda that reduces the role of government, empowers and enriches multinational corporations, and enlarges the chasm between the rich and the rest of us.

The effect of this year's bankruptcy legislation enriches the rich at the expense of the rest of us, many of whom are member Republicans. Privatization of Social Security is about money in the pockets of the rich and less retirement security for the rest of us, including member Republicans. Repeal of estate taxes, styled "death taxes" by the propaganda corps of the party, ensure that the rich can pass their wealth on to the next generation and continue avoiding taxes on their huge wealth while the rest of us, including member Republicans, must rely on our own ingenuity, energy, hard work, and luck to defeat the stacked deck owner Republicans deal from.

The owners and operators of the Republican party have never had to work for a wage or a salary. Republicans like Ken Mehlman are employees, perhaps members but certainly not owners. Owners are Richard Mellon Scaife, George H. W, Bush, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, . . .