Influences on Republicans

Random thoughts . . .

There are influences on Republicans, some obvious, some not. As is clear from the nomination of Judge Alioto to the Supreme Court, the religious right holds full sway over the current administration these days. And in the following link you can really see how the power of that voting block can be energized. In 2004 Annenberg published a table of percentages of Evangelical voters by state.
The neocon wing of the party has been in charge of foreign and fiscal policy from early on in the administration. One of the most imbedded of them was "Scooter Libby," recently indicted for perjury, lying and obstruction of justice. (Incidentally, it was not being a neocon that caused him to intentionally endanger our national security by outing CIA covert officer, Valerie Wilson. BTW, her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson spoke at length at the National Press Club. He cleared away many myths and erroneous reports. The speech is worth watching again).
In our current president's father, George H.W. Bush, you have seen a vanishing influence in the party the moderate, Eastern elites. Their sheer force of numbers has migrated to the South, following desegregation. I am reading David Halberstam's book War in a Time of Peace. This great author gives a very good summary of this significant change within the party in this book.
The reader who commented on my previous post reminded me of the influence of what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex." His prophesy has come to pass, big time, it seems to me. Look at the power of special interest money on the electoral process. We are aware of how much corporate ownership of the MSM has influenced the decline of hard hitting investigative journalism. Look at the power of the VP's Halliburton to dominate the Iraq enterprise, and the hurricane enterprise.
Figuring out the opponent's biases is central to mounting a "loyal opposition."
The Republican party currently holds the most power. Understanding why they are behaving the way they do is essential to knowing what Democrats should do next.