Eric Cantor’s primary loss an ‘apocalyptic moment’ for the GOP ~ Tribune wire services
Of course these days, the crowd in Washington DC appears so out of touch with common folks:
Cantor Spent $168,637 on Steak Houses, Brat Spent $122,793 on Entire Campaign http://t.co/0FjgAzSo3V via @townhallcom
— Rob (@robg_here) June 11, 2014
Again, there many superficial media portrayals of the race up in Virginia but if one digs a bit deeper the complexities come into sharper focus:
Poll: Immigration didn’t doom @EricCantor http://t.co/hCvKseJMZT via @seungminkim
— POLITICO (@politico) June 11, 2014
In my opinion, the Democrats could well benefit from a purge of its career politicos. Instead we’re treated to the specter of the other party watching in horror as certain of the GOP old guard are turned out on their hineys by the voters.
Most of the significant incumbent primary losses that come to mind involve an at least somewhat effective grassroots organized and executed campaign. It’s hard to hear the stampede coming when you are trapped in the steakhouses with your friends, suckups and political pimps. Social media also enables your opponents use this against you real time. The above applies to races which are statewide and US House and Senate seats.
Walter Lippmann had some brilliant insights into how mass public opinion was manufactured. The Phantom Public, published in 1920, described what we are seeing with the Tea Party where every issue is translated into a simple hero vs. villain narrative.
Paraphrasing and quoting Lippmann:
The opinions of large numbers of people are a vague and confusing medley so the way to form a general will is to use symbolism and emotion rather than ideas.
“Because feelings are much less specific than ideas, and yet more poignant, the leader is able to make a homogeneous will out of a heterogeneous mass of desires. The process, therefore, by which general opinions are brought to cooperation consists of an intensification of feeling and a degradation of significance.”
“The public will arrive in the middle of the third act and will leave before the last curtain, having stayed just long enough perhaps to decide who is the hero and who the villain of the piece.”
The public generally is not expert and does not pay close attention as issues develop, but it becomes interested once the events have been dramatized into a conflict, and then the public acts by aligning itself and personalizing the conflict (i.e., it’s us vs. them with both sides represented by exaggerations of the hero and the villain)
Lippmann figured that out in the age of partisan newspapers, long before the use of radio, TV, Internet, and social media to demonize, but things really haven’t changed much in 100 years.
Given Lippmann was an instrument of mis-use of media to manufacture conditions comfortable to the nomenklatura, prior to Eric Blair’s analysis, it is ironic the establishment is hoist on its own petard.
I hope this is a trend for R’s and D’s alike who sit in their ivory towers. You were sent there to represent the people, not your own self-interest and greed.
It doesn’t much matter what Democrats/ Republicans incumbents appear to be in trouble as a great many are going to soon be voted out including Senate Leader Hairy Reid as we currently have a national security issue with children and mothers storming the Mexico border. In 2013 there were 7,000 youth illegals turning themselves in and in 2014 the administration is expecting 100,000.Instead of being bussed back over to Mexico they are being bussed to every major city to live with alleged relatives which no agency is verifying.
Clinton smartly and humanely turned back the massive exodus of boat refugees back in 1994 from Cuba but I think un-American Obama is actually spreading the word and welcoming this tragic security breech with open arms for political conflict purposes to effectively fire up the Latino vote against the GOP, who want a secure border first, in the up coming Congressional elections.
Rome and the Romans fell to foreign invaders and the U.S. is also doomed if the border is not effectively soon sealed with all available U.S. Troops. Our so-called military chief/ leader is actually undermining our national security like no other President before as evidenced by refusing to abide by federal law to first notify Congress and by releasing war criminals to go back to ongoing international religious battleground sites to murder more innocent people and U.S. soldiers.
And in light of the President’s un-American activities the all volunteer military will become more soft and desperate then they were back in 2007 when the Army happily recruited an ex- ballet dancer and 26 day ex-U.S. Coast Guard dissident by the name of Bowe Bergdahl, who within months of active duty proudly displayed his pycho personality by ballet dancing his unhappy ass away from his platoon and dissing his homeland in bizarre tweets.
It’s worth noting that Steve Scalise (R, Metairie) is a favored candidate for the majority whip post in the leadership election to be held next Wednesday. It goes without saying that his candidacy will be a bridge to building a relationship from the more right leaning conservatives as well as the moderate establishment that Cantor came to represent. Despite party affiliation, it will be good for Louisiana and So. Mississippi to have Steve Scalise sitting as the third highest ranking member of the Majority Leadership…… good stuff
He was on the right side of the insurance issues after Katrina, or at least his rhetoric was. I do not see him being tossed out on his ass in a primary like Cantor in any event.
Cantor lost because he is never in his district and constituent services of his district office is horrible. He had his eye on Boehner’s job since 2010.
I’ve been part and parcel to several of Scalise’s telephone town hall conferences and the thing that rubs me wrong with him is how frickin’ stubborn he and other republicans are to increasing tax rates a few % points on taxpayers making over $250,000 to bring down the deficit. The telephone polls he takes don’t even provide possible answers to chose from that involve any compromise with Democratic ideas/politicos.
Its like the U.S. economy would tank if such a tax increase would happen when in fact the economy can’t get any worse then it is right now with the monetary weight of the massive bureaucracy of Obamacare on small business and middle income Americans who already had reasonable priced health insurance; with the planned (NAPTA treaty) loss of manufacturing jobs to Mexico etc. which on paper was supposed to uplift the Mexico economy to prevent future mass illegal immigrant invasion; and the major U.S. corporations moving offshore to China just so CEO’s and stockholders can reap outrageous profits and tax benefits.
Scalise needs to bend a bit, advocate increasing the taxes on the upper taxpayers and legislatively force the return of American made products (like the Fruit Of The Loom factories) and I’ll gladly pay double for my drawers not made in Viet Nam, as well as my next washing machine not built in Mexico/China. Nations, which don’t seem to appreciate American capital but instead imprison Marines who take a wrong turn at the Mexican border, all the while they hypocritically encourage and freely allow massive illegal immigration to America of their poorest. Or like China which is hell bend on either stealing industry /military secrets via cyber terrorism or manufacturing/pirating faux products which falsely bear the name brand of American products.
BEWARE SCALISE – DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE OR YOU COULD BE THE NEXT CANTOR !
Fair point, lock, for the evidence would suggest that hitting up millionaires with higher taxes would hit at the well-off Progressive cadres, given much new wealth depends on State extraction-and-redistribution schemes. How to fine tune this inverted class warfare strategy though is mighty hard, given that eventually, much like the original income tax, the result is to squeeze the middle out of existence as originally intended. After all, it’s no fun being a ruler if you’re no different from those being ruled….
Empire: ” …State extraction-and-redistribution schemes”….
Glad you brought that up- as it has to do with the definition of insanity !
When is the La. State legislature going to pass statutes restricting supervision of the distribution of the U.S. Government funds, dedicated to help the poor, which programs only end up invaded by politicos who appoint/set up their relatives in program supervisory positions to steal the monies from proper distribution to the intended poor
( block grants, housing, neighborhood health clinics, low interest mortgage funds etc.) ?
Like prohibiting the supervisors and/or employees of such programs from having/holding any political office /appointments in past- present and from any familial relationships of any kind to any La. politico or his/her family.
Not only are the monies diverted but then the Feds have to spend more money investigating,prosecuting and jailing those guilty of said diversionary schemes thereby doubling. tripling and multiplying the original wasted funds many times over.
With national tax credits, food stamps, housing, direct State and national medical care,utility subsidies, free school lunches, education subsidies all administered with fair accuracy to those truly in need Congress needs to end these BS political programs to the benefit of only the State politico thieves/ family members now. Even the State auditors of these minority /poor programs are stealing the monies:
http://www.nola.com/crime/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2014/06/louisiana_state_auditor_whose.html
And if the States are powerless then Scalise needs to “whip” the Republicans until they address this national welfare thievery by State politicos which we have seen in Orleans/Jefferson Parishes too many times.