The GOP's Class Divide

SAN DIEGO -- Pundits tell us that the contest for the Republican nomination is drawing to a close.

We can't have that. Things are just getting interesting.

As they arrive in South Carolina to campaign for the Jan. 21 primary, the GOP hopefuls are engaged in an argument about which group of Americans the Republican Party represents. Is it the folks in the upper class who are considered rich, or those in the middle class who aspire to be rich?

The dust-up started when Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry accused Mitt Romney of giving capitalism a bad name.

After Romney told a New Hampshire audience that there were moments on his way up the corporate ladder when he worried about getting a pink slip, Perry seized on the comment to try to get a crowd in South Carolina to focus on his claim that Romney had eliminated more jobs than he created while heading up the Bain Capital investment firm.

"I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips," he told his audience. "I'm sure he was worried that he would run out of pink slips."

The Texas governor later accused Romney of going way beyond "venture capitalism" and practicing "vulture capitalism" by preying on failing companies and picking them apart.

Last month, Gingrich responded to a call from Romney that the former House speaker return $1.6 million he received from government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac by urging the former CEO to "give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain."

Now, a political action committee that backs Gingrich plans to spend at least $3.4 million in South Carolina bringing to light more details about Romney's work at the company.

Gingrich defends the strategy.

"If you are going to run a presidential campaign based on a record, the record has to be open to review," he told reporters. "This is not anti-capitalism, that is the smokescreen of those who are afraid to be accountable." Later, on CNN, Gingrich explained the issue this way: "It's not about capitalism, it's not about free enterprise. It's about values, character and judgment."

To hear some conservative commentators tell it, Perry and Gingrich have committed a serious breach of Republican political etiquette. Apparently, you're not supposed to talk about money in mixed company.

Otherwise, you might provide liberals with ammunition that Democrats can use against Republicans in the general election. You might even tip off Democrats that a good line of attack -- especially in a sluggish economy where many Americans feel as if big banks and Wall Street firms have picked their pockets -- is to paint Republicans as the party of the rich.

Really? You don't think Democrats haven't already figured this out? These moves are from their playbook.

Just wait until you see what Team Obama has in store for Romney if he indeed emerges as the GOP nominee. By the time that Obama strategist David Axelrod is done, Romney will be a dead-ringer for Mr. Potter, the greedy and cantankerous banker from the film "It's a Wonderful Life."

Still, this is what Republicans should really worry about: If the party pooh-bahs are successful in shutting down any criticism from Republicans of Romney's career in the financial world, it will help cement the stereotype that the GOP is indeed the party of the rich. It will also send the message that if capitalism produces winners and losers, then the Republican Party only cares about the former. And this will limit the party's appeal by proving that it is more concerned about the big guy who lays people off than it is with the little guy who gets laid off.

Such a GOP might be the party of Nelson Rockefeller, but it is not the party of Ronald Reagan. The hero of the conservative movement cruised to victory in two presidential elections by appealing to blue-collar and middle-class voters and others who aspired to be better off. They trusted the Republican Party to lead the way by widening opportunity, limiting government intrusion, rewarding initiative and lowering taxes.

Back then, with Reagan at the helm, the Republican Party inspired those people. Today, if some in the party had their way, it would barely acknowledge them.

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Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is ruben(at symbol)rubennavarrette.com