GOP Voters and Business Interests Abandoning Congressional Republicans

I am asked at times why, if I write an LGBT blog, I concentrate on trashing the Republican Party so often.   The answer is simple.  The GOP has aligned itself with the most vicious and nasty of the anti-gay far right and heinous Christofascist hate groups - e.g., check out the parade of GOP members of Congress through the Values Voter Summit in D.C. this weekend - with the result that exposing the lies and hypocrisy is part and parcel with exposing the lies and hypocrisy of the enemies of LGBT rights and equality.  And, therefore, the lower the GOP falls, the better the prospects for advances in LGBT rights and equality.  But I digress.  It seems that the cretins rocket scientists not in the Tea Party never factored in the reality that they and their agenda might be radioactive with normal (translate sane) GOP voters and the business interests that have historically helped bankroll the Republican Party.  You know things are bad when even Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is dishing the Congressional GOP. As Think Progress reports, the fever ridden swamp that is today's GOP base is driving away GOP voters and business interests.  Here are excepts:

As the government shutdown enters its eleventh day and the nation races towards a possible default, a growing number of Republican lawmakers, leaders, and voters are publicly blaming Congressional Republicans for the budget impasse. Though they fault President Obama for failing to negotiate with Congress, as the public mood sours, some within the GOP are hurriedly distancing themselves from the mess in Washington.

“It’s time for someone to act like a grown-up in this process,” former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) told the Associated Press. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) agreed, remarking on Monday that “This is not how we should operate. It shouldn’t be about people fighting and yelling.’ “The bottom line is we need that money in our economy to save rural hospitals and jobs in the rural areas,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday, criticizing the GOP’e effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. 

The criticism comes as an Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday showed that “three-quarters of Republicans nationally said their party in Congress deserves a moderate degree or most of the blame for the shutdown” and a NBC/Wall Street Journal survey reported that just 24 percent of Americans now have a favorable view of Republicans — the lowest figure in the poll’s history.
In yet another sign of trouble for the GOP, business interests are also showing signs of discontent, signaling a possible rift with Republicans ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections. 

Iowa Republicans “are recruiting a pro-business Republican to challenge six-term conservative Rep. Steve King (R), a leader in the push to defund the health care law,” the Associated Press reports and party establishment leaders in Michigan are threatening to recruit and fund challengers to Rep. Justin Amash (R) and other Tea Party aligned candidates.

A report released earlier this week found that the shutdown is disproportionately affecting Republican-leaning states like Virginia, Alaska, and Alabama, which have higher concentrations of federal employees and federal contracts. 

I continue to urge Virginia voters to send a resounding message to the Congressional Republicans by voting a straight Democrat ticket on November 5, 2013 and send the GOP statewide slate down in a landslide defeat.