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You are here: Home / Immigration / The Brown Enemy Within / Just try to understand

Just try to understand

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Jim Newell had a very sharp article on Cantor earlier today. It sounds like acts of love are out and building danged fences is in:

As a hobby, scanning the Drudge Report for signals of what rabbit hole the conservative brain has gone down at any given point has lost some of its novelty over the years. Still, it was hard not to notice this morning that Drudge, in the prime upper-left real estate of his site, had listed a full 14 links regarding immigration and a supposed impending push for “amnesty” among the House Republican leadership. (Personal favorite: “Kids Complaining Burritos They’re Being Fed Making Them Sick…”)

[….]

“Eric Cantor doesn’t represent you and he doesn’t represent … the 7th District of Virginia,” Brat has been saying on the trail. “Eric Cantor represents large corporations who want a never-ending supply of cheap, low-wage foreign labor … Eric Cantor saying he opposes amnesty is like Barack Obama saying he opposes Obamacare.”

Whether or not this race was a fluke I can’t say. But it certainly should dispel any illusions anyone had about immigration reform getting done.

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  2. 2.

    srv

    They couldn’t save us from NAFTA, WTO, GATT, New World Order, CRA, Wall Street or the gays – but they can save us from the hordes of brown kids taking our welfare.

    Just needs a little populist spin and some imagery and it will buff right out.

  3. 3.

    Morzer

    It’s not so long ago that Cantor lost a key ally in Virginia – Linwood Cobb who was the GOP Chairman in the 7th district. Supposedly the new chair favored Brat from the getgo.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    No single issue today freaks out old white people more than immigration. Not the atheist Kenyan Muslim in the White House, not abortion, not gay marriage, not guns.

    They’re convinced there are hordes of filthy brown people surging across the Rio Grande every day. The idea that the country will soon no longer be run exclusively by and for asshole elderly white people drives them insane.

  9. 9.

    Morzer

    @Alison:

    I suspect their Hspanic vote in 2016 will be Susana Martinez and Marco Rubio. If Rubio can make his mind up on anything long enough to actually vote that is.

  10. 10.

    GregB

    Drudge is running the very Naziesque line about diseased foreigners over-running America. The R’s are running fast and hard to a very dangerous place. Drudge is becoming Radio Hutu.

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    Yo Dougy Fresh….Operation Hispy was DOA in the hizzy anyway. No chance a bunch of rich old wrinkles in jerry’d distys were gunna rankle their cracker suburbanites and fried raccoon-dining bubbas by allowing some fence jumpers a chance to move out of their Kenmore Estate and make at least minny ducats building roofs….

  13. 13.

    max

    It sounds like acts of love are out and building danged fences is in:

    They did NOT lose the 2012 Presidential election. Karl Rove said so, the polls were skewed… BENGHAZI!

    max
    [‘Holding pattern.’]

  16. 16.

    max

    @GregB: Drudge is running the very Naziesque line about diseased foreigners over-running America. The R’s are running fast and hard to a very dangerous place. Drudge is becoming Radio Hutu.

    The notorious hate group has been attempting to recruit new members – children, in particular – in recent months, and the Loyal White Knights faction has begun preparations for a long-awaited race war. […] “We’re going to do something a little different for probably the next couple of years to try to get our men and women ready for the upcoming battle that we’re about to take upon us, and this is something that no Klan has ever done and we’re going to start it,” said one Klan leader during a rally in Parkersburg, West Virginia. “All our boys are finally coming back home from the military, which is good, and we’re getting a lot more military members to join.”

    ‘Dang it, those people killin’ themselves in Walmart ought to light a fire under our sheeted asses…’

    max
    [‘Anybody you know, Cole?’]

  17. 17.

    David Koch

    WASHINGTON — (NYT) In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, was soundly defeated on Tuesday by a Tea Party-backed economics professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative. The result delivered a major jolt to the Republican Party.

    An informal dinner party at the Georgetown apartment of Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, turned into a celebration.

    HA!

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    @docrocktex26 3h
    It’s cute how the pundits are saying Cantor’s loss is the nail in immigration reform’s coffin as if the GOP was ever serious about doing it.

  20. 20.

    srv

    Dave Brat on Hannity right now!

    Doesn’t know if immigration and all that is right or left, he just wants Free Markets and Constitutional Issues!

    Fannie & Freddie made 2/3rds of all the bad loans!

    Close the border! Put our own house in order! Unfunded liabilities are 127 Trillion! No one on either side is dealing with it!

    Health Care is all about smarter decisions! If you know the costs of having sniffles or getting cancer, you won’t get it!

    Change course, fix problems!

    You know, Hitler was a populist.

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    I think Booman’s take on this is spot on too.

    My Thoughts on Cantor’s Upset Loss
    by BooMan

    …In fact, since it is now evident that it is not sufficient to do nothing about immigration reform, but one must spend all day bellowing about the brown hordes crossing our border, Republican politicians are powerfully incentivized to loudly advertise their disgust with the changing demographics of the country. And they will. The GOP is guaranteed to do much worse with Asians and Latinos in 2016 than they did in 2008 or 2012.

    Think about this. Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce and Agribusiness and the evangelical community all lobbied the House Republicans to pass immigration reform and they got nowhere. That is how incredibly racist the people are in these gerrymandered districts. When has the Republican Party ever before told those powerful conservative interests to go fuck themselves? Normally, when those groups speak, the GOP jumps to do their bidding.

    Eric Cantor didn’t lift a finger to pass a comprehensive immigration bill and he was voted out anyway because he wasn’t enough of a hard-ass on the issue…

    But it’s true that these white, rural, conservative Christian voters have no reason to be happy with the Republican Establishment.

    They have not been delivering in any tangible way.

    Except on guns. Guns, guns, guns. Look where that’s getting us by scanning the headlines over the past couple of weeks.

    The GOP ramps up the hatred of gays and blacks and Latinos and Muslims and “takers” and liberals and academics and teachers and journalists and scientists and urban-dwellers and secularists and…

    …they oversee the biggest growth in wealth disparity in ninety years and offer nothing for jobs but tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy, and…

    then they hand these aggrieved people guns, no questions asked.

    Is it any wonder that every few days a new rivet pops and someone shoots up a school or a mall or Wal-Mart?

    The national Republican Party just lost their only remaining Jewish member because he wasn’t racist enough. I wonder what Jewish Republicans like Bill Kristol and David Frum think about that. I wonder if they still feel at home in a party that is literally foaming at the mouth with xenophobia and is awash with pseudoscientific and anti-intellectual conspiracy theories about climate change and intelligent design and the United Nations and Benghazi!

    I wonder if they still feel safe with this band of loons. Eric Cantor wasn’t safe, so why should they be,,,

  23. 23.

    mdblanche

    @lamh36: Immigration reform has been pronounced dead so many times now I’m pretty sure that it’s the English translation of Francisco Franco.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    He was a go to member:

    Wall Street and the financial services industry are losing a top ally in congressional leadership after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated in a primary contest on Tuesday, a shocking upset that raises questions about Republicans’ agenda for the rest of this year and in the next Congress.
    Many lobbyists on K Street whose clients include major financial institutions consider Cantor a go to member in leadership on policy debates, including overhauling the mortgage finance market, extending the government backstop for terrorism insurance, how Wall Street should be taxed and flood insurance.

    I didn’t even know flood insurance was on their radar, but of course it is.

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    I’m not as much a Weigel fan as some here are, but he’s right about this I think…

    @daveweigel This steak house factoid will define this race http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-thecaucus …

    From the article Weigel tweeted, this really does kinda sum up why Cantor’s defeat really is like David slaying Goliath…

    …One measure of the extraordinary defeat could be seen in the candidate’s finances. Since the beginning of last year, Mr. Cantor’s campaign had spent about $168,637 at steakhouses compared with the $200,000 his challenger, David Brat, had spent on his entire campaign…

  28. 28.

    Hunter Gathers

    Is it too early to crown Ted Cruz as the nominee in 2016? Jeb! and Christie won’t be able to convincingly go hard right on immigration, Rand Paul doesn’t excite the evangelicals, Huckabee and Cain won’t want to give up their Wingnut Welfare, and I doubt anybody else could raise the $$$ needed to get past Super Tuesday. It’s Teddy’s to loose.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @MikeJ:

    I think it’s so crazy that he didn’t know how unpopular he was in his own district. Polling is one thing, but doesn’t he have any sense at all on how things are going?

    It’s one district, and if anyone should be familiar with it, it’s him. They might have a point on the “out of touch” charge.

  31. 31.

    max

    @lamh36:

    The national Republican Party just lost their only remaining Jewish member because he wasn’t racist enough. I wonder what Jewish Republicans like Bill Kristol and David Frum think about that. I wonder if they still feel at home in a party that is literally foaming at the mouth with xenophobia and is awash with pseudoscientific and anti-intellectual conspiracy theories about climate change and intelligent design and the United Nations and Benghazi!

    I believe the correct answer to that question is ‘Yes’.

    max
    [‘Francisco Franco is still dead.’]

  33. 33.

    ? Martin

    @Kay: Flood insurance is a sticky one for them. The problem is that all of this climate change is depleting the insurance pool so they made adjustments to the risk map, and that’s causing rates, particularly across the south where between heavy summer rains, hurricanes, and general storm surges, their rates have skyrocketed. So constituents are pissed. Either they need to subsidize the program with taxpayer dollars (welfare) or convince northern and western states to have their constituents subsidize the folks in the south (which isn’t going to happen either).

  36. 36.

    lamh36

    How Eric Cantor Lost

    …Some observers cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions about immigration, and when the dust settles, it may prove that Cantor’s problem was less ideology and more a sense that he stood more for his own ambition than for any definable policies. He frequently reinvented himself with splashy policy speeches, and toured the country raising money and gathering chits for an eventual run for House Speaker.

    “Was immigration an issue? Yes. Was it the deciding factor to the tune of 11%? Not no, hell no. It’s a fairy tale,” Virginia Democratic strategist Dave “Mudcat” Saunders said. “People talk. And they talk about Eric Cantor. ‘Where is he?’ His constituent services suck. He was never in the district. And when he was in the district and he went out, he had a [security] entourage with him. He was out gallivanting all over the country being a big deal and this is a lesson.”…

  37. 37.

    Hill Dweller

    Everyone can see the Republicans’ extremism, but the Village will still refuse to say it out loud.

  38. 38.

    Suffern ACE

    @David Koch: also I really do find it silly that the “moderates” appear to be throwing in the towel after, what, two losses? Out of how many primaries? Yeah. They just have to surrender and move further to the right.

  40. 40.

    MikeJ

    @lamh36:

    it may prove that Cantor’s problem was less ideology and more a sense that he stood more for his own ambition than for any definable policies.

    If the teabagger manages to win the general his voting record will be indistinguishable from Cantor’s, so that quote is probably absolutely true.

  43. 43.

    JGabriel

    Completely OT, but we’ve been talking about Cantor all night, and, for a change of pace, this cracked me up.

    It seems Netflix has been telling their Verizon customers that the reasons for slowdowns and glitches is congestion on Verizon’s network. Verizon, being the evil cheap-ass customer-robbing bastards they are, decided that instead of fixing congestion on their network, it would be better to send Netflix a cease and desist letter:

    In the letter, Verizon demanded that Netflix stop telling users that drops in streaming performance was the result of congestion on Verizon’s network — and threatened to sue if Netflix didn’t provide evidence backing up its claims.

    Netflix’s response?

    “As an ISP, you sell your customers a connection to the Internet,” Netflix wrote late Monday in its formal response. “To try to shift blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you’re the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour.”

    Heh. That one’s gotta burn.

    Not entirely sure whether the comparison is more insulting to Verizon or Christie, though. I guess Christie and Verizon’s CEO can duke it out when they’re suffering together in the same circle of hell they’ll both inevitably be consigned to.

    .

  44. 44.

    ? Martin

    @JGabriel:

    Not entirely sure whether the comparison is more insulting to Verizon or Christie, though. I guess Christie and Verizon’s CEO can duke it out when they’re suffering together in the same circle of hell they’ll both be inevitably consigned to.

    The comparison is bound to get their response shared much more widely than it otherwise would have been. Well played, Netflix.

  46. 46.

    Suffern ACE

    Way off topic, but I was watching some kind of “Hillary and her book suck” interview on the TV at work today and I was wondering if there has been a book written by a candidate for office that hasn’t been a memoir or platform. Save maybe “profiles in courage”, I couldn’t think of any. I know why the memoir has to be written, especially for candidates no one has heard about before. But there has to be something better out there.

  47. 47.

    James E. Powell

    @lamh36:

    The national Republican Party just lost their only remaining Jewish member because he wasn’t racist enough. I wonder what Jewish Republicans like Bill Kristol and David Frum think about that.

    Kristol will say Cantor deserved it for his insufficient hostility expressed toward the Kenyan Usurper and all his works. Frum will wring his hands a bit, but end up blaming Obama.

  48. 48.

    jl

    @Kay: That is what happens when you hang around low suspicious places like steakhouses, full of winebibbers.

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    @JGabriel: The difference being that Christie closed on ramps and Verizon has shitty network interconnections. Their speed from your house to Verizon’s routers may be fine, but if the traffic ever has to leave their network, they have skinny pipes. If Christie had left the ramps wide open and narrowed the middle of the bridge to half a lane it would be an appropriate analogy.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Kay: That amazes me. I do not believe for a moment Cantor did not know that he was in trouble.

  51. 51.

    Suffern ACE

    @James E. Powell: if Obama weren’t causing problems, Cantor could have spent more time in his home district. Do you know how difficult it is to get to Richmond from DC?

  52. 52.

    max

    @SRW1: The traitor Danton is dead. Long live citizen Robbespierre!

    That was uh, more like 1998. And we already had Le Directoire et Le Consulat and we had le Premier Empire and now we’re on to this:

    La Révolution de Juillet, révolution française à la faveur de laquelle un nouveau régime, la monarchie de Juillet, succède à la Seconde Restauration, se déroule sur trois journées, les 27, 28 et 29 juillet 1830, dites « Trois Glorieuses ».

    Après une longue période d’agitation ministérielle puis parlementaire, le roi Charles X tente un coup de force constitutionnel par ses ordonnances de Saint-Cloud du 25 juillet 1830. En réaction, un mouvement de foule se transforme rapidement en révolution républicaine. Le peuple parisien se soulève, dresse des barricades dans les rues, et affronte les forces armées, commandées par le maréchal Marmont, au cours de combats qui font environ 200 morts chez les soldats et près de 800 chez les insurgés.

    Charles X et la famille royale fuient Paris. Les députés libéraux, majoritairement monarchistes, prennent en main la révolution populaire et, au terme de l’« hésitation de 1830 », conservent une monarchie constitutionnelle, au prix d’un changement de dynastie.

    La maison d’Orléans, branche cadette de la maison de Bourbon, succède à la branche aînée ; Louis-Philippe Ier est proclamé « roi des Français » et non plus « roi de France ».

    max
    [‘Things move a little faster in the 21st century.’]

  53. 53.

    mdblanche

    @GregB: There’s been something very ugly in the air for the last few years. It rises for a while, then falls back again, and then repeats. Right now it’s rising again. And the root source is the toxic bad faith on the right. They’re now denying the legitimacy of anyone not in their circle. The bad faith in governing is more than our constitutional system can safely handle; there is no precedent for it except the 1850’s. As recently as 2007-8 divided government was still minimally functional but now it’s continually a constitutional crisis waiting to happen. Their elderly skew is probably the only reason domestic terrorism hasn’t been more of a problem. I’m beginning to think the only way this resolves short of one party taking firm control of both Congress and the Presidency and keeping it for a while is a constitutional crisis that permanently makes one branch or the other superior and shorn of its traditional checks and balances. I think it could even happen before 2016. If the Republicans manage to take the Senate I’d be more surprised if it didn’t.

    @Hill Dweller: The Village is a bunch of older, richer white folk. They are a part of the Republican establishment that won’t or can’t admit their loss of control.

  54. 54.

    jl

    @Suffern ACE:

    ” silly that the “moderates” appear to be throwing in the towel after, what, two losses? Out of how many primaries? Yeah. They just have to surrender and move further to the right. ”

    I’ve seen enough GOP profiles in courage to not be surprised. Also weak will power. They see that white ignorant and scared racist xenophobic political rump and cannot resist. It has been so easy to work. Enact policies that grind its face just enough in economic disappointment and frustration, blame whatever random thing that can be trumped as a threat. extract money and votes, and repeat. What else do they know how to do anymore?

    They’ve worked the con so hard and so long that now the con works them.

    Edit: Seriously, what else do they know how to do, in the public or private sector, in office or out? Nothing.

  55. 55.

    mdblanche

    @lamh36:

    The national Republican Party just lost their only remaining Jewish member because he wasn’t racist enough.

    I have no sympathy for Cantor, but when Booman puts it like that, it’s downright chilling.

  56. 56.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @max: I did enjoy saying that out loud. I am not sure what effect it had.

  57. 57.

    jl

    @Suffern ACE:

    ” if Obama weren’t causing problems, Cantor could have spent more time in his home district. Do you know how difficult it is to get to Richmond from DC? ”

    Ten or so Northeast Regionals from DC to VA, about two and a half hours. Cantor should have Bidenated back and forth.
    But Amtrack steak and wine sucks. And probably would have killed Cantor politically, coming into Main Street on a commie train from New York City! Even if it might have helped him stay in touch with the locals and improve constituent services.

  58. 58.

    max

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I did enjoy saying that out loud. I am not sure what effect it had.

    Heh. As far as Republicans and Danton go, Danton got beheaded, crucified, incinerated, and then they made a cake out of the ashes and ate it. Sometime in the early 90’s.

    max
    [‘They’re trying to out-Calhoun John C. Calhoun, when they aren’t trying to out-Napoleon Napoleon.’]

  59. 59.

    Chris

    @SRW1:

    The traitor Danton is dead. Long live citizen Robbespierre!

    A noteworthy thing about the Terror is that Robespierre himself ended up guillotined in the revolutionary version of Peak Wingnut.

    @max:

    The thing the teabaggers have always reminded me of in French history was La Fronde.

    In between Louis XIII and Louis XIV, the state had to impose new taxes in order to pay for the previous king’s wars. The aristocracy had enough power to ensure that the new taxes didn’t fall on them, as a result of which most of the burden fell on the people. The result was a popular backlash against the monarchy, which the aristocracy backed all the way in an attempt to regain the privileges they’d lost under the previous king.

    In effect the aristocracy created the crisis and then successfully directed popular anger at their enemies in the central government. Sound like anyone we know? Oh yeah, and “Kenyan usurper” nationalist rage played a role too, since the regent in charge of the throne while waiting for the new king to grow up was an Italian, Cardinal Mazarin.

    History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.

  60. 60.

    Chris

    @lamh36:

    The national Republican Party just lost their only remaining Jewish member because he wasn’t racist enough. I wonder what Jewish Republicans like Bill Kristol and David Frum think about that. I wonder if they still feel at home in a party that is literally foaming at the mouth with xenophobia and is awash with pseudoscientific and anti-intellectual conspiracy theories about climate change and intelligent design and the United Nations and Benghazi!

    I know a couple “establishment” Republicans (e.g. rich Northeasterners) who are horrified at the rise of the teabaggers and will lament how crazy they are and even, occasionally, how wrong they are on X or Y social issue.

    Enough to break with the party? Of course not. They’re just waiting for a VSP knight in shining armor like McCain or Romney or Christie to save them. Because liberals are worse, and those social issues really aren’t that important.

  61. 61.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The Orange Menace has an intresting take on this
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/11/1306055/-Cantor-s-End-A-Cooter-d-Etat

    Finally, we have the curious pattern (and relatively large number as it turns out) of votes in VA-07. Of the four county-level areas that Cantor won, three — Spotsylvania, Orange, and Culpeper — were the most conservative parts of his district. (The other was his tiny chunk of the City of Richmond.) Whereas the large, and more liberal counties surrounding Richmond — New Kent, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, and Louisa — all went for Brat, with Hanover making an especially strong showing.

    Since when does a Tea Partier lose the most conservative parts of a CD and win the most liberal? When large numbers of Democrats are crossing over to vote for him as a way to screw Cantor.

    If true, this make this whole thing truly hilarious

  62. 62.

    SRW1

    @Chris:

    A noteworthy thing about the Terror is that Robespierre himself ended up guillotined in the revolutionary version of Peak Wingnut.

    There is always hope that Peak Wingnut be as ravenous as le terreur..

  64. 64.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    So…the Glibertarian Teabagger is against a neverending supply of cheap labor and low wages? Is this because he thinks brown people should not be paid at all, or because he thinks wages should actually be higher? Neither of those explanations seems at all libertarian, though one seems distinctly antebellum.

  65. 65.

    Morzer

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I think they need to rethink that theory. Note that the largest and most populous areas happened to be the most liberal – but also, given their number of voters, to have a higher number of possible teabagger voters. In other words, Cantor maxed out his voters from a smaller core area – but Brat turned out enough voters from a wider area, even though that area skews liberal for the big game.

  66. 66.

    Redwood Rhiadra

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Slavery is completely compatible with libertarianism.

    I’m not joking – it’s standard libertarian theory (Nozick, among many others) that all contracts are valid, including a contract selling yourself into permanent slavery.

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