(CNN) - Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell bluntly warned GOP senators in a private meeting not to sign on to a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley aimed at limiting corporate money bankrolling high-powered outside groups, telling them that many of them won their seats thanks to the powerful super PAC the Ken...
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell bluntly warned Republican senators in a private meeting not to sign on to a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley aimed at limiting corporate money bankrolling high-powered outside groups, telling them that many of them won their seats thanks to the powerful super PAC the Kentucky Republican has long controlled.
He doesn't though. It is all culture war posturing:
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Hawley bellowed this summer, “Corporations are not people.” The crowd, this one gathered in Washington for the social conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition summit, barely stirred. But then they erupted when the populist senator continued, “I’ve got news for these woke corporations: We are not going to surrender this nation to the cultural Marxists in the C-suite.”
This is typical conservative behavior. The moment the status quo does not benefit themselves, they become stridently progressive on that one issue.
Notice the subtext. Woke corporations and C-suite Marxists. He's opposed to corporations funding his opponents, and he finally got around to doing the math on Citizens United and realized that most corporations aren't run by fundamentalists and bigots.
Money isn't speech, and corporations aren't people. I've always said that. But the only reason Hawley agrees with me now is that the "people" are "saying" they don't want to be associated with fascists and terrorists.
But that’s…fine. Because corporationsa aren’t fuckin “woke” either. Corporations help nothing but corporations. Overturning citizens united does not change if their reasons for wanting to overturn it are stupid. These people are stupid. If they want to do the right thing for the stupidest, most incorrect reasons…it’s still getting the right thing done.
I agree with you completely. It just seems like a lot of people are confused about being on the same side of an argument as Hawley when they know what a selfish gasbag he is. He hasn't changed in the slightest, and hasn't become a better person or principled in any way. His interests align with the greater good right now, and he'll be useful as long as that's true.
Knew it. He's cutting off his nose to spite his face.
Edit: However, in this case, the nose has cancer, so maybe it could accidentally wind up being a good thing. Is he doing something he thinks is so evil, he's flipped back to good, like an old videogame score...?
I think it's always important to remember that people like him aren't evil incarnate they just have radically different worldviews, the majority of which I vehemently disagree with, but there's always some commonality out there somewhere. Cory Booker is working with Hawley on child labor prevention.