So it looks like Republicans (especially in the Senate) are working hard for their corporate masters to kill meaningful financial reform, all while still fanning the flames of governmental discontent and distrust most embodied by the clamorous Tea Party movement. It’s a tricky pivot, that, as illustrated in the above cartoon by Kevin Siers; how do you realistically paint yourself as “for the little guy,” and small business owners (a longtime Republican talking point crush) while also holding (no longer) secret meetings with Wall Street titans to help protect their interests?

It’s hypocrisy, of course. No great shock there. Both political parties trade in that from time to time. But it undermines an effective, honest courtship of Tea Partiers. Not that they’ll notice, really. Andrew Sullivan has touched on this recently, when he’s talked about how the Tea Party movement is not at all simply about the size and scope of government, since if it were it might actually try to spell out how to balance the budget without raising taxes. No, instead, it’s a movement at least significantly about identity politics (e.g., “I want my country back”), in which the Constitution is an emblem of a certain demographic that is as much about the Christianist right as it is about fiscal responsibility. They will hear what they want to hear, and see what they want to see, which means none of this.