"The Republican Party’s “Donorism” Problem" by Ross Douthat at the NY Times

The Republican Party’s “Donorism” Problem

by Ross Douthat at the NY Times

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/the-republican-partys-donorism-problem/

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With ambitious politicians trekking to Wall Street to raise cash and frequently sending their former staffers to lobby for the banks on K Street, the ardor elected Republicans may have for cracking down on financial institutions is diminished.

Every battle within the G.O.P. tends to be explained in moderate-vs.-conservative terms, and when the subject of policy innovation comes up it’s usually framed as a matter of sensible centrists trying to push their ideas against an intransigent right-wing base. But financial reform is just one of the many areas where the divide might be aptly described as a “donorist” (to borrow Martin’s phrase) versus “populist,” and where the party’s rank-and-file and their tribunes might actually be more receptive to new policy ideas than the self-described moderates who often write the party’s biggest checks.

True, grassroots conservatives have a depressing tendency to rally around gimcrack proposals (“9-9-9,” the gold standard etc.) and the hucksters who promote them. But if you’re looking for a potential constituency for a Republican economic agenda that doesn’t just start and end with lowering marginal tax rates for high earners, you’re much more likely to find it among social conservatives who backed Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in Republican primaries or even the viewers who thrilled to Glenn Beck’s jeremiads against corporatism than among the party’s biggest moneymen — most of whom, for understandable reasons, tend to like the G.O.P.’s near-obsessive focus on the top marginal tax rate just fine.

This isn’t to say that the “donorists” are averse to reframing the party’s agenda. The raft of semi-prominent signatures on a Republican brief in support of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and the sudden renewal of elite-level enthusiasm for immigration reform are both examples of donor-influenced policy experiments.

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