Trevor Noah on corporations reacting to Georgia's restrictive voting laws

After three days of fun with holidays, it's time for me to ease back into examining serious topics, like elections. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah uploaded the perfect video this morning for coating a serious subject with comedy, Georgia Restricts Voting & Corporations Snap Back.

Georgia lawmakers pass sweeping voting restrictions, under threat of boycotts corporations are finally speaking out, and Trump trashes MLB, Coca-Cola, and more.

I can explain the reactions of Coca-Cola, Delta, and Major League Baseball in one sentence: Being inclusive, including supporting voting rights, has become good for business. In return, conservatives are finally realizing that corporations are no longer their allies on social issues after decades of tacit support for them after decades of open support and cooperation on economic issues, and conservatives, particularly those in the Republican Party, are freaking out. Jimmy Kimmel concentrated on that part of the reaction in Trump Complains About Cancel Culture, Wants EVERYONE Canceled.

LA was early to rise this morning after an earthquake hit, Jimmy breaks down his Easter, the White House made special eggs for Easter featuring President Joe Biden’s dogs, we got well wishes from President Obama and even the Easter Dummy himself Donald Trump, Donald Jr. shared a sweet anecdote from the Trump family memory book and a perfect metaphor for growing up Trump, “Gonzaga” is playing the #1 seed Baylor in the NCAA men’s basketball championship, the MLB has decided to not have the All-Star Game in Atlanta and Trump is trying to cancel them too, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is the talk of the town in Washington after the reported investigation by the Justice Department into sex trafficking, and since Godzilla vs Kong was tops at the box office this weekend Jimmy’s kids Jane & Billy watched the trailer and gave their commentary on it.

Yes, Trump and son are hypocrites, but laughing at that is like laughing at water being wet. What I'd rather point out is that my readers and I shouldn't be surprised at the split between the business community and the Republican Party; it's been building for a decade. Follow over the jump for my recycled observations from nine years ago when I began to notice.

I saw the rift between the Republican Party and big business begin to form in 2012 and wrote about it first in When Mitt Romney came to town, he exposed the GOP's disrespect for its own ideas.

...Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs[:] Video: When Mitt Romney Came To Town [Video has been taken down, but the post at the link remains.]

Here’s Newt Gingrich’s bizarre 28-minute video attack on Mitt Romney; bizarre not because of the subject matter (which is pretty devastating to Romney), but because of the political orientation. Gingrich is coming at Romney from a position that can only be described as “left wing” — criticizing Romney for precisely the Republican values that Newt (and every other candidate) espouses.

I don’t think I’ve seen a better demonstration of an absolutely amoral lust for power — from Gingrich and from Romney. With this video, Gingrich is throwing the entire GOP ideology under the bus.

Nate Silver also remarked about how left-sounding the video was in Intraparty Attacks Could Be November Liability for Romney.

Ads like “When Mitt Romney Came to Town,” the 28-minute commercial put out by a “super PAC” that backs Newt Gingrich, adopt what appears to be a documentary style, but they present a one-sided view of the role played by private equity companies like Bain Capital, characterizing them as greedy and as lining the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the working class. Were it not for the couple of clips of Mr. Romney speaking French, one would be shocked to learn that the ads had been produced by Republicans, rather than by a liberal filmmaker.

Color me cynical, but I find both Johnson's and Silver's astonishment at the ideological inconsistency of the attack overblown, if for no other reason than I don't think the current incarnation of the Republican Party has enough respect for its own ideas to really have a consistent ideology.
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This isn't about ideology. It's about power, and Newt is doing his damnedest to gain power. To Hell with ideology--and in that regard, he and Romney are being typical Republicans.

I reiterated the point in a comment.

The irony is breathtaking, isn't it? After all, who actually formulated and popularized the most recent ideological framework for the GOP? Reagan and Gingrich. Now, Gingrich is trashing the whole thing in the service of his personal power.

I expanded on my point about ideology later that January in Newt Gingrich throws core GOP interest group under bus while campaigning as a populist.

I wouldn't call it "throwing the entire GOP ideology under the bus," as major U.S. political parties don't have consistent ideologies. They do, however, have consistent core interest groups and Gingrich is throwing one of them, the northeastern business interests, which have been with the GOP since it formed out of the remains of the Whigs in the 1850s, under the bus. That ended up being smart in the short run, given that he was angling for the votes of Southern populists, who don't care much for the northeastern business interests and haven't since before the founding of the republic. They came through for him last Saturday when he won the South Carolina primary handily.

On the other hand, Gingrich's strategy is pissing off the GOP establishment, who are behind Romney and represent the core interest group of northeastern businessmen (and women), no end!
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Keep the popcorn ready, folks. This will be fun to watch.

Nine years later, it's time to break out the popcorn again, as the rift between Republicans and big business has opened up wide enough for everyone to see. Who knows? Maybe the Republican Party will fall into it.