Joe Straus’s sacrificing of his relationship with Larry Taylor at the altar of establishment control exposes his “let’s all be sweet to each other” scam. Taylor is being scapegoated amid an ethics storm gathering around the Straus team.
The truth is, moderates like Straus obsess about “tone” because they want Republicans to tolerate liberal outcomes. Liberals make sure there will be no “pleasant tone” when they don’t get their way, while moderates distract conservative voters and elected officials from government growth by lauding the “pleasant tone” that always accompanies government growth under GOP control.
What Joe Straus clearly showed in his Houston Chronicle interview is that his pleasant tone and good relations with legislators only apply to the maintenance of establishment control. When establishment control is threatened, he’s happy to burn bridges, e.g. Larry Taylor.
“The establishment” are those who use the government to give them a competitive advantage. It includes huge companies who stifle competition through legislation via the liberals and moderates they finance, the liberal media who provide media cover, the academic establishment who compete for tenure and government grants by pushing establishment orthodoxy, and liberal Americans who succumb to the institutional might of establishment orthodoxy broadcast through the media, the entertainment industry, and the government funded and subsidized educational structure. Cities with capitol buildings and flashy universities tend to attract these people.
Straus burned the bridge connecting him to Larry Taylor, which may serve Taylor’s image in the long run. The establishment has run things for a long time, but like the American military after Pearl Harbor, the sleeping giant of the American electorate is just now rubbing the sleep out of its eyes. It’s finding the big government establishment sinking Europe just as our federal government moves left of Europe, and it’s reacting.
The political sea is changing and the power of politicians for rent maybe going the way of European “social democracy”.
