Forcing big business to find new ways to reassert control of policy-making process

The Obama Coalition vs. Corporate America

By THOMAS B. EDSALL, NYT

The slow implosion of the Republican Party — along with the growing strength of a Democratic coalition dominated by low-to-middle-income voters — threatens the power of the corporate establishment and will force big business to find new ways to reassert control of the policy-making process.

The warning signs are everywhere.

The development carrying perhaps the most symbolic significance was the abandonment last week by 85 House Republicans and 40 of the 47 Republican senators of their longstanding commitment not to raise taxes. The tax increase was imposed on the affluent, a core Republican constituency. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page did not mince words, not that it ever does:

The Senate-White House compromise grudgingly passed by the House is a Beltway classic: the biggest tax increase in 20 years in return for spending increases, and all spun for political purposes as a “tax cut for the middle class.”

(More here.)