It turns out that GOP politicians cannot have it all these days.

It used to be easy to be a GOP politician. They didn’t need to come up with immigration plans, healthcare plans, balance the budget, or fund relief to hungry and poor Americans. They didn’t want the government to work. If the government worked, there would be less need to hire corporate America to do the job. Look at private prisons and private schools with vouchers – both sucking off public money – and expand it to nearly everything. All the GOP needed was to cut regulations and taxes, not implement good ones. Corporate America rewarded them handsomely.

As for getting votes, that was even easier. Run a commercial of a black kid with his pants half down his ass, a pregnant Hispanic teen in an Emergency room, and a gay couple kissing. Then say that “American values” are under attack. Done deal, half of America rushes out to give the Kochs and Waltons a tax cut.

God, it was so easy.

But like everything else, Trump managed to screw up even the easiest formula. None of the above works in an unstable country. Corporate America runs on the 30-year mortgage and interest rates. They are betting on the fact that not much will change over a decade. They don’t want socialism (true socialism, like Sweden, not Canada) and they don’t want fascism. They don’t want mass unemployment, terrible wars, or the country at each others’ throats. They don’t want anything that makes the world unpredictable. Unpredictability threatens the assumptions that go into investments.

So Corporate America believes it must stop the MAGAs and might be the only entity that can actually do it. According to Business Insider:

Walmart, Amazon, and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have cut off political funding to the 147 GOP lawmakers who voted against certifying Joe Biden as president. Hallmark went a step further, and asked Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall, who both voted against Biden’s certification, to refund its political donations. This mass exodus of corporate backing could have an effect on politicians’ actions, experts told Insider.

The companies above are just a sampling. Walmart is a killer for the GOP. Amazon has more money than half the nations on earth and Morgan Stanley influences everyone else with money.

Cutting funding hits these politicians where it hurts,” Donald Hambrick, a professor of management at Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University, told Insider. Withholding donations is “probably the more profound of the actions that can be taken,” he added.

No shit?

Yeah, why even bother doing corporate America’s bidding if they ain’t giving you any of the sugar?

As more information is released related to the siege, “it’s gonna be uglier and uglier, and employees and customers are gonna lean on these companies to do something and basically punish the Republicans who helped bring this about,” Hambrick said.

Near term, the single biggest impact may be on Republican votes in the Senate on impeachment. If they vote “Not Guilty,” they will be put on the “No dough” list. If they vote to convict, they’ll lose a lot of actual votes. In the end, though, what’s the point of being elected in the GOP if you’re not getting any money out of it?

Again, near term, corporate America wants Trump clipped. The banks don’t trust Trump with a loan, why would they trust him as president? And they’ve already seen what he’s capable of doing.

Long term, the goal has to be to moderate the MAGAs, keep the entire Trump family out of this, and to a lesser extent, moderate the progressive left. Thankfully the progressive left isn’t as into getting rich and do want good government.

Thus it is that the long term future looks awfully bleak for the GOP and they may even face a split in the party. Trump may form a new “Patriot party” to primary or run against Republicans who “fail” him. We can think of no more deserving victims than McConnell, Graham, McCarthy, and – of course, Trump.

Fitting. ETTD. Everyone say it together, everything Trump touches dies.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected]