Here's the roll call vote in the House yesterday on the auto bailout. The bill passed 237-170. About 91% of Democrats voted for the bailout, while about 82% of Republicans voted against it. Today, of course, word is that the Repubs in the Senate may well block the thing.
Whatever policy arguments Republicans make, their opposition really boils down to three things, emotionally. One, they're such an anti-government party at this point that they can't countenance practically any action if it means the government is involved. Most of them would vote against curing Alzheimer's if the choice was between more Alzheimer's and the government getting the credit for the cure.
Two, they're so anti-union that they'd rather let an industry die than be seen as giving indirect aid to a trade union. Third, they're so southern that they can't really imagine, or don't care to imagine, the situations of any other parts of the country. Of the 32 GOPers who voted to bailout the industry, I count that only about six or seven were southern.
It's really quite amazing, and a recipe for making themselves marginal. Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans will try to have a conversation about solving the country's problems. The southern anti-government theocrat wing will stand on its little rock as it drifts further and further out to sea.
