THE FEDERALIST'S LATEST NEW LOW.
Cue The Odd Couple theme:
At (Who Funds) The Federalist, Brad Todd -- seriously, his real name? You sure it's not Todd Brad? -- sings the praises of Senator Niedermeyer, the latest Jesus and Tax Cuts GOP laboratory vat creation, and unkillable Medicare fraud monster Rick Scott. And oh, what a song stylist Todd is! Pipe the lede:
The heat and light given off by the nuclear grind between President Trump and his antagonists have blinded Washington’s chroniclers to something important happening right before their eyes. The fusion of populism and conservatism as a workable and ideological political movement is emerging in the actions of two newly elected senators: Josh Hawley and Rick Scott.
What is it that nuclear power plants grind? Also, what's the difference between a political ideological movement and an ideological political movement? Ugh, we better skip down:
Scott, a self-made health-care CEO who built the nation’s largest hospital corporation...
Ha ha, that's one way to put it!
... zeroed in on the crisis of drug pricing. His proposal to outlaw any U.S. drug price that is higher than the price for the same medicine overseas fuses the twin populist urges of corporate accountability and nationalism. The novelty of Scott’s proposal is that it uses the profit motive to achieve an end Democrats have sought only through socialistic means.
Because if there's one way to stop socialism, it's price controls. (No capitalist need worry -- Scott's plan closely follows that of Alex Azar, Trump's head of HHS and former CEO of Eli Lilly U.S. As the New York Times asked when he was confirmed, "He Raised Drug Prices at Eli Lilly. Can He Lower Them for the U.S.?" and the answer is of course LOL -- this is just bullshit for the rubes and if you told a red state farmer with a MAGA cap who Azar was, he'd say the same.)
But I would say that, as a damned liberal -- and so, says Todd Brad or Brad Todd, would so-called conservatives who haven't climbed aboard the Trump Train:
Scott’s proposal has been quickly written off by conservative D.C. think tanks and organizations long pickled by the cocktails poured liberally at corporate fundraising receptions.
Those corporate liberal cocktail parties!
But it will be an enduring home run among the Trumpist majority in today’s GOP—a group that is every bit as skeptical of corporate oligopoly and multi-national monopolists as it is of domestic government overreach.
Because if there's one thing Trump hates it's oligarchs. Meanwhile Hawley, ToddBradTodd tells us, is "waging a similar battle against conservatives’ neglect of Big Tech" -- that is, he's hooked up with the wingnuts who are mad that private companies won't let them dominate their platforms. And if you don't agree with that, Brodd Tadd tells us, it's because you're trad, dad:
The generation of political Republicans already in office before the development of the smartphone still requires their grandchildren’s assistance to toggle between the satellite dish and the DVR, so it’s no wonder those old pachyderms have had no coherent policy approach to the rise of Silicon Valley’s abusive power.
Josh Hawley's the young, hip kind of theocrat creep who's bound to appeal to hypothetical young people who think like Roy Moore.
But the best part is the button -- take it away, The Federalist:
Todd is the co-author of "The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics," and co-founder of OnMessage Inc., a leading Republican firm that has advised Sens. Rick Scott and Josh Hawley among others. [emphasis added]
Here's to Pat Boone "youth" candidates, ancient Florida Man fraudsters and, most of all, self-dealing con men who manage to sneak their client blowjobs into what the uninitiated probably think is a legitimate political web magazine.