It’s interesting to think about the typical Republican “megadonor.” These people may come from Wall Street or the financial sector generally, or they may be involved in the energy industry, or they may be the CEOs of large corporations, or they may have large land holdings out West, or in some cases they may have made their fortune in religion. With the exception of the last category, these folks are not necessarily interested in the socially conservative aspects of the Republican Party. They have a personal interest in lower taxes and a professional interest in fewer regulations that may affect their business or industry. They may actively oppose President Trump’s policies on trade and tariffs, as well as his positions on immigration and the employment of non-citizens. When they donate enormous quantities of cash for political purposes, they see it as more of an investment than an ideological battle, at least to the degree that they ultimately hope to make a profit. For this reason, many large donors will fund candidates from both political parties in the hope that they’ll win either way. For the Republican true-believers, the ideological component may be just as important, but they may also be waging an ideological war within the Republican Party and, in part, against some of Trump’s positions.
As a class, most of them were probably more comfortable with George W. Bush, and certainly Mitt Romney, than they are with Trump. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason they’d want to keep Trump as the leader of the Republican Party other than that he already holds that position. Many of these folks live on the coasts in heavily Democratic urban centers or in surrounding suburbs that are rapidly becoming Democratic-leaning areas in the Trump Era. They share many of the same concerns as their neighbors about Trump’s anti-globalist, anti-Western foreign and trade policies. As Republicans, they’re directly experiencing the loss of power on the local level that seems to be a natural consequence of Trump’s style of governance. It would seem natural for many of them to have strong reservations about a second term for Trump if there is an alternative other than the Democratic nominee on offer.
But they don’t seem to be embracing impeachment. Here’s what David Drucker of the right-leaning Washington Examiner is reporting:
Wealthy Republicans are funneling millions of dollars through a constellation of party-aligned groups to defend President Trump against impeachment by politically wounding his Democratic antagonists.
Some of the biggest players in this coordinated effort are 501(c)4 organizations, issue advocacy nonprofit groups that do not have to disclose contributors. This option, which also permits unlimited donations, is allowing conservative groups to attack congressional Democrats and provide air cover to the president without tapping super PAC resources earmarked for the 2020 campaign.
“There’s a lot of interest in trying to fight back against impeachment,” Dan Conston said, characterizing the response from Republican megadonors. Conston, a veteran GOP operative, oversees American Action Network, the issue advocacy organization affiliated with House Republicans and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
Now, perhaps this is seen as a way to defeat Democratic congressional candidates without spending money on Trump’s reelection, and ginning up outrage about impeachment is primarily seen as a way of raising money from small donors. So, this could be interpreted as a kind of force multiplier. Megadonors give money in order to help the GOP raise more money, and the money is then used less to help Trump than to help the Republicans hold the Senate and retake control of the House.
But, at least on the surface, this is presented as an interest in protecting Trump from being removed from office. And it’s not clear to me why this is really in these people’s interest.
It must be admitted that megadonors often have a reason to curry favor with the Trump administration, perhaps because they want to influence regulatory or legal debates that can impact their businesses. But that motive is blunted by the anonymous nature of these contributions. It would be far more effective to make a public show of a donation than to hide behind a Super PAC.
It should also be admitted that many of these folks consume lots of conservative media and are not particularly sophisticated consumers. Many of them may nod along to the talking points of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, forgetting that this is a game being cynically performed for their benefit.
Still, the only real hope for the future of the Republican Party is that the big donors will break with Trumpism before it is too late to stop the march toward fascist white nationalist impulses. Right now, they have their opportunity to do that, and they seem to be doubling down.
Hubris. Also, since greed is good and knows no borders, it doesn’t matter to them if Chinese technology standards are entrenched or if US ones are entrenched, they will get a return on their capital no matter what. I think they’re probably wrong about that, but South Korea just signed a military agreement with China. They the rich need to be tamed, or fascism (Chinese or US or European version thereof) will swallow the world whole.
I do agree many are filled with hubris but if the markets turn down, which may be happening now, they will abandon Trump and look for the next promising oligarch.
I suspect they all fear losing out from a big payday. I think someone called it FOMO or something like that. So they all lean on the bar with their buddies. Likely don’t like the trade war but then again the returns have been positive for the smart ones. If a dem promised another way to Valhalla they would sign up, maybe Mayor Pete. It’s all about the money for them you know.
Presumably those mega-donors are biting for whatever reasons dark money characters like this Conston are telling them. Further, no one know how many “wealthy Repubs” are doing the contributing—“millions” of dollars to attack Dems is pocket money for a mere 5 or 10 of them, a simple afternoon of a few telephone calls. Just another great “benefit” of allowing the creation of this parasitic plutocrat class, via 30 years of “conservative” tax cuts–income, capital gains and (under Trumper) corporate rates.
While one can hypothesize that Trumper in some way harms Repub mega-donor interests (the failed Trade War), he much more frequently greatly aids them, from tax cuts to deregulation to lawbreaking non-enforcement; from total climate denialism to pro-corporate judges to bloated military funding to environmental despoliation to election throwing/rigging. When one adds in the fact that even (supposedly) Dem mega-donors are terrorizing the electorate by declaring they will support Trumper(!) over any Demonic Progressive, then the position of REPUB mega-donors isn’t too surprising: the (liberalizing) Dem party must be destroyed–there is no alternative–so every front must be heavily contested and reinforced. Hell, these “conservative” plutocrats are behaving precisely as the entire Repub party is behaving!
In some ways, our plutocrats have no choice but to keep the “conservative” chaos continuing because, with the failed 2016 election, the position of the “conservative” movement (forced into the thrall of braindead Trumpism) is “Apres moi, les Deluge”. Their war against the majority of the population (and against a democratically-run nation) has to become total, since there can be no negotiated surrender by Repubs now. They are in the position of Germany in, say, February 1945—they elected to engage in a brutal war of aggression and they now either hold off the Russian colossus or they are annihilated. So even if these mega-donors were to despise Der Trumper as much as the German General Staff came to despise Der Fuhrer, they are joined at the hip to his fate. Indeed, as the financiers of”conservatism”, they brought the nation to this point. After willfully creating the ignoramus Frankenstein monster that gave us National Trumpalism, the plutocrats have climbed out far too far on the “conservative” limb to inch back now. In for a thousand, in for a billion!
Well, for those few that are thinking rationally, they cannot stop Trump from being the next nominee, impeached, convicted, pardoned or not. The base makes that a certainty already.
Therefore their only play is to minimize the impeachment damage to maximize the probability of Trump actually winning again.
“It would be far more effective to make a public show of a donation than to hide behind a Super PAC”
I think this misses the whole point of SuperPACS. The idea is that the mega-donor is hidden (from the public), but is he/she really hidden from the recipient? It just takes a phone call to “make a deal”. The most effective donation would be the the one where the donation is completely private but is also directly connected to a reward to the donor, and said reward is also hidden from the public. You can bet that mega donors are getting something for their money and that Trump and his minions are fully aware of who is making large donations.
.. which I think explains why the mega-donors are sticking with Trump. His admin. is delivering the goods on taxes, regulations, government contracts. The trump bribery shop is open 24/7. The donors are really getting something for their money with Trump, I imagine they are quite happy with him. They certainly don’t want him replaced by Sanders or Warren, or any semi-honest pol. for that matter. Keeping Trump politically viable is their best hope for the racket to continue. (I guess they’ve decided Pence is a non-starter for 2020?)
Is it really surprising that wealthy Republicans are defending the corrupt actions of the president and their party? Ultimately corrupt government serves their interests, because obviously they are the ones with the money. It is almost always cheaper for them to buy off some politicians (or even an entire party…) than having to, say compete on the free market or sell a decent product for a fair price. And the thing is, the wealthy tend to overestimate their own ability to use money to influence people. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all think that they will be winners in the fascist paradise they want to turn the USA into. But as Russia demonstrates, when you have a corrupt oligopoly, there can be only one guy at the top and it’s not how much money you start with, its how ruthlessly you play the game.
Republicans are the only hope for more tax cuts and less regulation. The base is the only hope for electing Republicans. Trump is the best hope for controlling the base.