August 14, 2010 09:52 PM UTC

Dan Maes, Donald Johnson, Tom Tancredo, and corporate interests

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• by: bjwilson83

You may have noticed a new blogger on here recently by the name of Donald Johnson (no I’m not outing him, that’s his screen name). In reality, this is just a spillover from a long running debate on PPC and facebook. Apparently, now that the Republican establishment candidates have lost, he has decided to become a Democrat – he supports Hickenlooper over Maes. Let me bring you up to speed on the ongoing debate and inform you Dems about who you are accepting into your party.

Mr. Johnson represents business interests, as is clear from his blog. As such, he has been content to be an establishment Republican, enjoying their support of big business. There’s just one problem this year – the grassroots candidates won the Republican nomination this time. He has accepted Ken Buck reluctantly, meanwhile bashing him for being too “extreme” in hopes of forcing him into the establishment mold. The story gets more interesting when it comes to the governor’s race.

Although presumably a lifelong Republican, Donald has switched his support to Tom Tancredo, and even said he would vote for Hickenlooper over Maes in a two way race. Why would this be the case? This actually makes complete sense if you look at it from the point of view of corporate interests. Tom Tancredo voted for earmarks and the TARP bailouts, all good for big business at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers. Yet even if Tom weren’t in the race, he would not vote for the Republican candidate. In Johnson’s opinion, Hickenlooper’s business credentials are just enough to put him over the top of Maes, who would presumably represent the smaller mom and pop type business that are the lifeblood of the American economy and the real job creators in our nation.

So my question for you Dems is this: have you become the party of big business and corporate interests? We’ve certainly seen Obama, Bennet, and Hickenlooper all kowtow to these special interests, and it looks like some Republicans who represent the same interests are starting to agree with them now that the Republican Party has moved toward average Americans and away from special interests. On the flip side, it seems that many Romanoff democrats vehemently object to this new Democrat corporatism, and maybe some of them will switch parties as well. Is there a new realignment occurring in the parties with respect to corporate interests?