It truly is ironic. The whole republican party was founded by Wall Street and Northern Business Interests after the whig party collapsed. They have been in the pockets of Wall Street throughout most of their existence.

The Republicans were always just the default party to win when the democrats were not supported enough by the public for whatever reasons.

The Yankee republican establishment was actually horrified when elements in their party actually tried to orginally court the Dixiecrats (the Southern Democratic stronghold), they looked down on the South.

It was not until the civil rights act and the collapse of the New deal coalition that the republicans formally started to accept the Southern base by co-opting their cause.

In other words the republican establishment is the heart of Yankeedom business (bought and paid for) and always has been yet these Southern and heartland conservatives actually support the same power structure that many of them have historically despised.

As I understand it, true libertarians and conservatives fear two types of centralized power: that exercised by government, and that exercised by government-supported monopolies — like AT&T.

The Net Neutrality debate is really a debate about what are, in effect, local market monopolies, AT&T and Verizon, whose plans to capture the access market and distort private competition among internet service providers, undermines the core concept of free markets.

That’s why I think even conservatives and libertarians have reason to resist the incursions of a company like AT&T on the internet and its open design.

But don’t believe me (my politics tend towards progressive), Read the take of true blue libertarian Alex Curtis:

http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/304