Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 6/13/14
Download
There was a political earthquake this week. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the Republican representative from the 7th Congressional District of Virginia, lost his primary to an unknown college professor with no political experience and no money.
Cantor’s loss is without precedent. It marks the first time since the position was created in 1899 that a sitting House Majority Leader has ever been defeated in a primary.
Members of the commentariat from both sides of the political divide are holding forth as to what it means.
Liberals see it as great news. It is, by their calculus, evidence of further hijacking of the GOP by the Tea Party. The lefty conventional wisdom holds that the Tea Party will pull GOP primaries so far to the right as to serve up nominees that cannot possibly win in general elections. Whatever happens in 2014, say my colleagues on the left, Cantor’s defeat is but prologue to a smashing Hillary Clinton victory in 2016.
Conservatives see it differently. The conservative hypothesis is that GOP candidates like Mitt Romney lose elections precisely because they fail to articulate a clearly compelling alternative to what the Dems are offering. “Give voters the choice between a Democrat and a Democrat and they’ll go for the Democrat every time,” says the righty wisdom. Against that backdrop, Cantor’s defeat is seen on the right as a clear signal to the so-called GOP “establishment” – decide now as to upon which side of the barricades you intend to stand.
I, myself, think it’s really very simple. We – you and I – are fed up.
If Democrats want a greatly expanded federal regulatory apparatus, federal management of the American health care industry, an exponential increase in the size and scope of the welfare state, a devil-may-care policy regarding the federal debt and an insouciant attitude with respect to the security of our southern border, they’d better show some evidence that such policies actually work and are making the lives of average Americans better. Judging by every available poll, even some Dems are starting to have their doubts.
If Republicans truly believe in smaller government, balanced budgets, free markets and reduced regulation, they’d better make the case that if given control of the levers of government again, it will be different this time. Of the last time the GOP was in charge, I’m reminded of the line from the movie Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. Said Lord Scrumptious to Caractacus Potts, “Had your chance, muffed it!”
The truth is Cantor’s seismic defeat should give comfort to no one in the ruling class. So long as the debt continues to mount, so long as the government’s towering cost is matched only by its cosmic incompetence, so long as health care becomes an even bigger problem than it was before Obamacare and so long as the border remains swamped – now with tens of thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America – party elites from both sides should learn to sleep with one eye open.
Beautifully put and true, oh so true! With fingers crossed, I’m hoping the Cantor defeat is just the beginning of our moving way from a two party system, featuring Democrats on the one hand and Democrats in slow motion (Republicans) on the other. The current Republication leadership is going in the same direction as the Democrats, just taking longer to get there. That needs to change. Maybe, just maybe, we the people are making that change happen.
My husband stands up at rallies we go to & yells ” thow the bums out “.
Maybe now people will begin to believe how fed up we all are.
Maybe the ballot box works after all.
I hope so.
American values are squashed by the day & the media seems to endorse it.
I say ” Yay”.
Paul,
I would love to think that your statement is true: “We – you and I – are fed up.”
Yes, it IS true to the extent that HIGH information voters actually go to the polls and terminate the employment of the “we can better manage” Big Government supporting Republicans, like Cantor. Unfortunately, the entire Republican leadership is beholden to the Crony Capitalist cash support stream (Chamber of Commerce, Billionaire pro-amnesty suicidal Republicans, and PACs) and have no desire to fight for Free Enterprise, Rule–of-Law, and Constitutional Liberties, all of which is an antidote to State sponsored Corruption.
Dave Brat is a courageous pioneer for Constitutional principals of Freedom who was able to make his case, without apology. The main stream Republican leadership is ashamed of the Republican Creed that Dave Brat made popular like Reagan, once again. The main stream Republican leadership has for decades capitulated to the Big Government, Washington culture, and is trying to remain competitive by saying they are better managers of corruption (my words) than the Democrats. How wonderful that they can’t be honest and continue to try to fool us.
For years, I have observed their pathetic arguments against the Democrat’s full-Socialist policies and was never convinced that these Republicans really understood the sacrifice of individual liberty at stake in order to grow Big Government even bigger. I would rather call them the “Compassionate” Socialist Republicans, not Compassionate Conservatives. Conservatism is, by definition, Compassionate. When they adopt the language of the Left when interviewed on Radio and Television, and don’t take those precious moments to proclaim the universal advantages of free-market (rule-of-law) capitalism and its incredible historical legacy of wealth production for all citizens that are willing to work, I KNOW that they don’t believe in it! (For example, they habitually use the term “undocumented immigrants”. Illegal aliens are NOT undocumented immigrants. They are criminal trespassers of our sovereign borders.)
The establishment Republicans just want to maintain their part of the Washington establishment in order to foster their own SELFISH career as a member of the Washington Ruling Elite.
Unfortunately, Dave Brat’s victory is a spit in the ocean and the mainstream Republicans were not converted, only momentarily shaken. The Big Government Republican army simply has had a few casualties in a local battle. The grip of their war machine on the Republican Party, their version of the “not-as-Socialist-Democrat Party,” remains steadfast.
It is what they DON’T say, that is important in the political arena of ideas, which matters. The proof of the pudding is when they are more vicious towards the TEA Party Conservative groups and their sponsored candidates than any of their Socialist-Democrat opponents as they continue to act like victims of the Stockholm syndrome (as captives of the Washington Ruling Elite).
Nothing is going to change until many, many, more Dave Brats are elected to Congress. One thing is for sure, the HIGH information voters can see through the facade of deception that surrounds entrenched Republican corruption that cannot be reformed. It must be defeated, root and branch.
Perhaps it will be a wind to the backs of the tea party supporters in Kansas and Mississippi. If they can win those Senate seats and at the same time McConnell gets defeated in Kentucky, then we could make the rinos listen or resign! Without that, we have the Cantor loss the Graham win—-not a great mixture…..grin…b³
Democrats are gleeful any time a Tea Party candidate takes a primary even though there really isn’t such a thing as a Tea Party candidate. There is no organized Tea Party other than as a loose association of hacked off voters. And, by the way, I thought the Tea Party was dead. Apparently the left has had to resurrect an old ghost in order to frighten people into voting for them again. I agree with you. I don’t think the leadership of either party is capable of sticking their heads outside their snug DC cocoon long enough to smell the stinkbombs. People are very unhappy with them. Certainly, the estimated one of every six working age adults who can’t find a job aren’t happy. The almost 50% of the workforce whose benefits and/or work hours have been cut aren’t happy.
And has anyone noticed that the far left and the far right have gone so far out there that they’ve circled the Earth and bumped into each other somewhere on the backside of the planet? It’s got to where the Ron Paul libertarians have more in common with the fringe left than they do with conservative Republicans. One of the guys, who constantly annoys me with Ron Paul promotional emails and links to Lew Rockwell and Alex Jones, suggested that with the fall of several Iraqi cities, Obama should make Ron Paul secretary of state. Actually, it’s not all that far-fetched an idea. They do share a lot of common beliefs.
Hopefully, one of these days the Tea Party folk are going to rise up and pitch all the politicians into the political equivalent of Boston Harbor. I hope I live to witness it.
Tom King
Yes, we ARE fed up, but like someone said, it is like spitting into the ocean as far as any real victory is concerned. We may have won this battle, but there is a whole war to win! Until that war is WON, I am not getting to excited about this.
EVIL…nothing else than corruption!
It should be obvious, now, given the postmortem of the Eric Cantor (House Republican majority leader) defeat by Dave Brat (pro-small-government Constitutional advocate) that the Republican Establishment is in fact a bunch of self protecting members of the Washington Ruling Elite. In a campaign, they will talk a “Conservative” line of lies intended to fool the Republican base while planning exactly the opposite agenda with their corrupt, Big-government allies and PACs after the election is over. The Republican Party, today, is a Socialist Democrat-Lite version of the full-Marxist Democrat Party. Constitutional conservatives don’t have genuine representation in the Republican leadership, anymore. Today, only a handful of TEA Party supported Republicans exist that are willing to fight for Constitutional liberty and expose this deception.
The drift (now gallop) towards Leftist rule of this country by an autocratic, monopolistic, bureaucracy that is unaccountable to the people or the Constitution is almost complete. The Imperial Obama “Rule-of-Man”, not “Rule-of-Law, has turned this country into an unstable grab-bag of arrogant Presidential favors for his ideological brothers at every level of the federal government. It is obvious he is in a hurry to solidify permanent Marxist control of all the levers of government while the Establishment Republicans hardly raise a voice of protest due to the intimidation of the Leftist press and fear of being called a racist.
Obama has effectively out-maneuvered and out-argued the feckless opposition of the Republicans due to their shallow belief in Constitutional Rights of free men to govern their own lives. Polite talk that gives the Democrats an excuse for “unintended consequences” and Republican willingness to “work across the isles” to “improve” corrupt legislation may, in the end, cause the death of our Constitutional Republic.
In war, the aggressor sets the rules. Obama knows this. Too bad the Republicans never realized that we were in a war that was intended to destroy the Republic, even if they cared.
How bad does it need to get before the citizens of Texas INSIST on the State law enforcement officials from the Governor on down to the local Sheriff, to protect us from the outrageous lawless corruption of the Federal Government to promote and allow illegal aliens free access to our State by crossing the southern border? This includes unscreened people of all ages and backgrounds with unknown diseases, criminal convictions, and welfare seekers with the obvious intent to violate our laws on purpose and receive State and Federal benefits (financial, educational, health care, etc.) This is intended to ultimately change the voting demographics by chain migration and to violate our Constitutional form of representative government and usher in the Socialist/Marxist State (Obama’s real goal).
Why hasn’t the Governor called out the Texas Military Force? This is the three-branch military of the U.S. state of Texas with the charter to PROTECT the citizens of Texas against unlawful activity. Don’t our State laws and sovereignty mean anything to our Texas officials?
Damn the Federal lawlessness of Obama’s corrupt Administration. The Federal courts can’t help us in time, even if they wanted to. Congress won’t help us because the Crapital (Crony Capitalist) Republicans and Democrats are for expanding immigration, both legal and illegal, in order to dilute the Conservative voting base and to keep wages down and protect their Socialist power base.
The true number of unemployed working age Americans now exceeds 100 Million, in spite of the “cooking of the books” by the Obama Administration to portray unemployment at 6.3% as they selectively REDUCE the number of available Americans “out of work” in their statistical calculations. The Socialist/Marxist Media and Press (the propaganda machine of Obama) aren’t going to help us because they are co-conspirators of the corrupt Washington elite establishment. The citizens of Texas must be getting very frustrated with the helpless position they are experiencing as our nation and State permit the eradication of the Rule-of-Law. If lawlessness in government is the new standard, what is to keep us from becoming an uncivil society run by mobsters, in and out of government?