UPDATE 6/16/14: All of the long comments (including mine) criticizing Jack Kelly have disappeared from the PG site. This doesn't happen with Reg Henry, Dan Simpson or Tony Norman. My only assumption has to be that Jack Kelly himself ordered them removed. How incredibly insecure the man must be to not be able to face any criticism.
So today Jack Kelly ruminates about the Brat win/Cantor loss Jack Kelly: Cantor ran to serve the elites - Dave Brat’s populist message may scare Hillary. It is an interesting topic, but what I find even more interesting is the Kelly embraces an anti big business spin. How long does he think th e Tea Party would survive he their billionaire sponsors abandoned them? But of course I am just jesting, the billionaires and the Tea Party love each other, and the billionaires think it is cute when the Tea Party rails against them. Below is a comment I posted on the PG website:
This column is an interesting swerve into fantasy land for Jack Kelly. He is, as ever, always willing to sing the praises of the latest flash in the pan for conservatives/the Tea Party, and there is a long list. Michael Steele, Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin (ever his favorite), and more recently Allan West and Ben Carson. I am surprised Kelly didn't suggest a Presidential run for David Brat yet.
But I expect that the fact Brat is an economics professor totally (if only secretly) delights Tea Party members and their slavish supporters like Kelly. I mean, among the Tea Party's principles is a rejection of any sort of expert.. but they mean the other experts. It's OK as long as their expert says the right things (an unregulated free market doesn't need a minimum wage, oh and by the way illegal immigration depresses the wages of actual Americans - I paraphrase his remarks). If he admires Ayn Rand and copies Ludwig Von Mies, he is in. As ever, it doesn't matter if reality backs up Dr Brat's remarks, there will always be some data that can and already has been distorted to produce a study or two to support his ideas, and other pet economists to oppose the sea of howls of derision from the mainstream. And Jack Kelly will be there to unquestioningly repeat Brat's rhetoric.
To me the really interesting thing is Kelly's brief attack on big business. Back in the nineties Pat Buchanan tried a similar thing, tapping into rural populist anger before the Tea Party was a gleam in the Koch brothers eyes. During another Democrat's Presidency (to the extent Clinton was not a DINO) Buchanan went after (believe it or not) income inequality. This surprisingly anti-big business (at its core) message garnered some support, although the culmination of Buchanan's efforts might have been his position on Florida's infamous "butterfly" ballot in 2000, where even Buchanan admits he siphoned off some of Gore's votes.
It is just funny how Republicans know they can "say" anything they want and still take big business for granted. It that respect (alone) I can see a comparison between a naive Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) and David Brat. As one junior member in the House of Representatives, he can say anything he wants, but will be unable to get any legislation passed (not even for Virginia land for the "Boy Rangers" or for legislation on shutting down immigration). The one percent will encourage his rhetoric, even as it encourages conservatives to say the majority of the one percent is made up of athletes and Hollywood. They get a laugh out of that in the club every time.
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