One Republican Who Has Changed His Stripes

Ohio's Republican Governor, John Kasich, has solid conservative credentials. He was one of the Gingrich's attack dogs back when the Newt ran the House. And early in Kasich's administration he backed a law that took away the bargaining rights of Ohio's public employees (since overturned in a statewide referendum). In that respect, he was no different than the tea bagger darling, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

But Kasich put some daylight between himself and the tea baggers in an interview with a NY Times reporter a week ago.

“I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor,” he said, sitting at the head of a burnished table as members of his cabinet lingered after a meeting. “That if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy."

“You know what?” he said. “The very people who complain ought to ask their grandparents if they worked at the W.P.A.”

And not just the ancient WPA. I would add any number of other government giveaway programs which have no stigma attached, like farm subsidies, a gazillion tax breaks/incentives and a variety of forms of corporate welfare. In other words, the good welfare programs.

This attitude that the safety net has become a comfortable hammock, that people who are on any form of welfare are moochers has become seemingly endemic in the Republican party, even among the segments that ostensibly think the tea baggers are too extreme. The recent cuts in food stamp benefits, as just one example, were not just the handiwork of the most extreme Republicans. It was very main stream effort.

The Republicans have spent so long opposing government social programs and have become so identified with those efforts that they now have to double down. After all, the recipients of all this magnificent largesse will only vote Democratic because they know for certain on which side of the street their bread is buttered.