The Battle of Delaware has has turned out to be the ugliest clash between the Republican Establishment and the conservative grass-roots politics of the Tea Party Movement

Castles in Delaware and the Big Business of Politics

By Daniel Greenfield
Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Battle of Delaware has has turned out to be the ugliest clash between the Republican Establishment and the conservative grass-roots politics of the Tea Party Movement. Now a castle has fallen in Delaware, but it won’t be the last. Because grass-roots movements and political professionals have different interests. Where grass-roots movements want values based reform, political professionals want a lifetime job in politics with all the perks.

Established parties welcome allied grass-roots movements only to become frightened of their success. Because while they like to talk about reforming government, they think reformers should know their limits. Because politics is a profession, like any other. Doctors don’t like the idea of patients treating themselves. Lawyers wouldn’t like the idea of making the legal system so easily accessible and sensible that there is no call for them anymore. Politicians and the vast infrastructure of analysts, pollsters, aides, advisers, managers and lobbyists around them feel the same way. Politics is a business. And while those who are in the business of politics have a certain tolerance for amateurs, when they’re being helpful, they turn on them quickly when they threaten their position.

We have made politics into an industry. An industry that is worth billions, particularly around election season. It’s about more than just a few hundred congressmen or state representatives or the people you see out front. Just as a corporation is a lot more than just its CEO or its board of directors. It’s also about the employees, it’s about everyone who makes money from having the system behave in an orderly fashion, so that when they need a favor, they know whom to go to. And those favors get invested and paid back down the line.

[b]O’Donnell’s win “crashedâ€