Quick Take: Wingnuts and the 1%
One way California’s top two primary has given at least a small boost to Republican candidates is in allowing GOP economic elitists to campaign free of the need to kowtow to the social issue right-wing.
Thus Neel Kashkari, a corporatist toady if ever there was one, became the GOP challenger for governor without having to embrace or finesse toxic political stands on abortion, gay marriage and immigration, which he freely handed to wing-nut champion Tim Donnelly; compare how Kashkari ran unencumbered by redneck baggage, in contrast to eMeg Whitman, who doomed her 2010 general election chances by absurdly posing as a nativist in the primary.
Now comes Paul Krugman to deconstruct how the stunning defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor dramatically exposed the GOP’s fault line between economic royalists and social extremists; with Cantor’s loss in Virginia, the wing nuts finally caught on to the con game Republican 1% elected lackeys have run since Ronald Reagan:
Mr. Cantor’s defeat shows that lip service to extremism isn’t enough; the base needs to believe that you really mean it.
It will be fascinating to see how and if The Imp is able to juggle the economic and social concerns of the GOP’s two camps in the general against Gandalf.
Subbing for John and Ken doesn’t really support the idea you won’t bow to the wingnuts.