In the aftermath of Eric Cantor’s epic, shocking 11-point primary loss to an underfunded xenophobic college professor, Hillary Clinton bestrides the globe like a colossus. There is literally no hope now that the Republican Party can do one thing to improve their performance with the Asian or Latino communities. 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.
The effect of Cantor losing will be more important than the causes of his defeat. Some will argue that immigration wasn’t the only or even primary reason he lost. That won’t matter for presidential politics, because Republicans will behave very counterproductively in response to Cantor’s loss.
But it’s true that these white, rural, conservative Christian voters have no reason to be happy with the Republican Establishment. The Republican Establishment has been a disaster on foreign policy. They have not brought back the lost manufacturing jobs. They have been losing the culture war. They haven’t overturned Roe v. Wade or stopped the march of gay rights. They haven’t stopped the dissolution of the nuclear family. They haven’t prevented a prescription drug epidemic in their communities. They’ve been losing elections.
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?
Yet, Eric Cantor richly deserves his fate. And he’ll be fine. If he doesn’t become a governor or a senator some day, he’ll still make millions in the private sector. The connections he’s made on the Hill assure him of that.
But the party he helped to create and lead will go on without him, dragging us straight to hell.