Tea Party Has Unmoored GOP From Big Business

The Associated Press says the Tea Party's growing power and influence has unmoored Republican politicians from their traditional alliance with Wall Street in favor of grassroots conservative activists.

AP reporters Charles Babington and Jim Kuhnhenn cited the "corporate community's waning clout" and "the remarkable drop in the business community's influence among House Republicans, who increasingly respond more to Tea Party conservatives than to the Chamber of Commerce."

The shift comes as grassroots activists have re-framed the GOP's old "pro-business" stance into a "pro-free markets" positioning that eschews the kinds of corporate welfare and taxpayer-funded crony capitalism found in big government giveaways to industries that make hefty political contributions.

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