Wall Street Takes Command

I've been waiting for the tea party to crumble for some time now. In my lifetime, the Republican Party has always belonged--ultimately-- to the 1% of America that is unimaginably rich and greedy. Let's call them Wall Street, although of course it is not that simple. Wall Street decided which Presidential candidate the party would back: Dewey, Eisenhower, etc. Goldwater was the exception. The genuine Republicans might be small town bankers and Episcopalian grocery store managers, but their choices for President (with names like Bricker and Taft) seldom won the nomination. That is why I have not believed that the Republicans would refuse to raise the debt limit. Wall Street would not like that. But I was beginning to get nervous.

Today the billionaire Koch Brothers, primary financial backers of the tea party degenerates and neo-confederates, gave up on enforcing the debt limit, which they were supporting yesterday. I think there were two factors involved. (1) Although rich beyond measure, the Koch Brothers could not afford to alienate Wall Street, whose terrible swift sword they had reason to fear. (2) Enforcing the debt limit would crash the economy and reduce the holdings of Koch boys. Although they sponsor the John Birch Society (which means they are nuts), they now had to decide between ideology and greed. In that situation, greed usually wins. It might take a few more days, but Wall Street has taken command. And, yes, the President saw this coming months ago.