Eric Cantor defeated in primary.

[RydiaLockheart]

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated by a tea party candidate.

Hmm, Mr. Moneybags Eric Cantor defeated by a guy with no money (politically speaking)? Interesting. Also, Cantor was widely considered to be the most likely successor to Boehner. Does this mean the tea party (is that capitalized or not) has some clout? Or were people just pissed at Cantor? He is kind of a prick.

My first thought when I saw this headline was "Oh, this is gonna be entertaining." It will be. Especially since Virginia has become a purple state.

[Camarohusky]

Sad side note, I am annoyed at how this has gotten more play that this morning's fatal school shooting. Shows where our priorities lay...

[Warforger]

At 6/10/14 09:47 PM, Light wrote: I really hope the Tea Party takes over the Republican Party soon. It'll make it a lot easier for the Democrats to win.

That's doubtful. The GOP has control of many of the state legislatures who in 2010 gerrymandered many the districts to solid GOP seats. So in 2012 when the changes took effect Republican House members got less of a reason to care about what other people think. Now this may spread to the Presidential elections, where State Legislatures are pondering adopting the Nebraska and Maine system where each District has one electoral vote. With Gerrymandered GOP districts a Republican in a swing state could very well take half the votes of a race where statewide he may have gotten a minority of votes. It'd be hard to do this to the Senate since they're more static and rarely affected by state legislatures (the only time they are are in cases of vacancy's).

As for this knocking Eric out? I'm not sure/ Alaska has a similar thing when their Senator wasn't Right wing enough for the TEA party and lost her primary election to a TEA party candidate, but would go on to win a write in campaign and kept her seat. District elections however are much smaller and less eventful given how corrupt the drawing of district lines is, But judging by the voting record of the district, it appears the GOP has been gradually losing its hold on it. We could see another upset by a Cantor write in campaign which appeals to the more moderate voters in the district or hell a Democrat win. That's assuming that the decrease in GOP support in the district reflects a majority who don't agree with the TEA party.

Although it's nice to heard an actual professor of economics is nominated,

[Th-e]

This concerns me. I am a Republican, but I sure as hell do NOT support the Tea Party. These guys are extremists (and yes, the left has extremists as well) and seeing them win tells me we are going to look forward to even more gridlock in Congress, additional government shutdowns, and a possible default on our debt. I may have heard some Tea Party talk about actually allowing a default during the shutdown, but I am not certain.

Futurama actually had an episode (where the alien brains turned Earthlings into complete idiots) with a line edited to mock the Tea Party. The original line is here. Now replace "Reform Party" with "Tea Party."

With all the crap the Tea Party nuts caused these past few years, why would anyone still vote for them? I just might have to root for the Democrat up against Dave Brat.

[MOSFET]

I doubt that the democrat will win in this heavy-republican district. I don't know what this means for paying off our debts, but I hear that this effectively kills immigration reform. The Challenger, David Brat, made negative ads of Cantor being an author of some immigration reform principles, and called him out for supporting Amnesty, a bad word in conservative circles apparently. Some on the left pushing the notion that Cantor lost because the voters were anti-Jewish, My guess is to get this voting bloc to vote democrat in the general.

[Camarohusky]

Now he's blaming his loss on the Democrats...

To quote Buzz Lightyear: What a sad strange little man.

[Feoric]

"The Tea Party's been a tremendously positive input, I think... certainly for our party, you see the benefit."

-Eric Cantor, Nov. 10, 2010

[Warforger]

At 6/11/14 11:50 AM, Camarohusky wrote: Now he's blaming his loss on the Democrats...

To quote Buzz Lightyear: What a sad strange little man.

Obviously the Democrats changed their registration to Republican and nominated the lunatic so that the Democratic candidate was sure to win.....

[TheMason]

I can't wait for RCP to put up their House polling section. It'll be interesting to see how the Econ prof (Brat) does against the Sociology prof (the other guy).

I almost wonder if the Tea Party brand isn't played out on both sides. I think it's become a cliche.

At 6/10/14 11:35 PM, Light wrote:

Not to turn this into another gun topic, but just need to point out a few factual errors (if you want to respond, let's take it to the gun control thread)...

We've just gotten so desensitized to these numerous school shootings. We just expect to hear about them every other week now. I remember when the Virginia Tech shooting got massive press coverage because in those days, school shootings were still relatively uncommon.

School shootings have not increased significantly. They've remained stable for the most part (that is to say, rare). Of the 74(?) that Obama referenced, very few were actual mass shootings. Most were run of the mill criminal activity rather than some nut on a mass killing rampage.

I blame the NRA and their ilk for blocking congressional action to stop these school shootings and persuading so many people to think that passing gun control legislation to stop these murders from happening is "politicizing" these tragedies.

Yet another falsehood. The proposed legislation would not stop school shootings.
* The vast majority of schools are gun free zones (less than 1% of all schools allow any sort of concealed carry by teachers or college students). All schools that have suffered mass shootings are gun free zones.
* About the only mass shooting where background checks were bypassed that comes to mind was Columbine. The vast majority are done by people who obtain their guns legally.
* The dude in California with the mysogyny complex did his rampage using a mix of weapons (knife, gun(s), and even his car). He also accomplished it in a state with gun restrictions higher than what some in Congress were proposing.

Also, avoid looking for corp/special interest boogey-men who block things you're ideologically married to.
* The Left has corporate interests and special interest groups that block/advance legislation along political lines.
* Both sides politicize tradgedy/crisis. Before he was Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanual was Obama's Chief of Staff and he famously said: 'never let a crisis go to waste'!
* There are issues that stir up passions of grassroots on the Right as well as on the Left. Two of the biggest: guns and abortion. It would be a mistake to overestimate the role that industry and the NRA plays in the opposition to further gun control.

Ugh.

For every complex problem there is a simple answer, and it is usually wrong.
-H.L. Menkin (paraphrased)

[TheMason]

At 6/11/14 08:32 PM, Korriken wrote:

At 6/11/14 11:50 AM, Camarohusky wrote: Now he's blaming his loss on the Democrats...

If they have open primaries where non Republicans can vote, it would make sense for the Democrat party to form voting drives to get non Republicans to go to the polling stations to vote for the person least likely to beat the Democrats.

The Dems nominated a sociology prof. Unfortunately, the discipline is under seige by people more interested in radical/extreme Left agendas. He may be too far Left (afterall as a prof he's probably published) to be elected and thus the Dems may prove to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. (Which is actually a Republican competency!

An Econ prof (who was attacked by Cantor as being a Liberal economist), may be just as tough for Dems to take down than Cantor.

[Feoric]

At 6/17/14 11:07 PM, TheMason wrote: The Dems nominated a sociology prof.

His name is Jack Trammell, and he's your standard run of the mill Democrat.

Unfortunately, the discipline is under seige by people more interested in radical/extreme Left agendas. He may be too far Left (afterall as a prof he's probably published) to be elected and thus the Dems may prove to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. (Which is actually a Republican competency!

The Democrats: noted for their wanton support of extreme left agendas such as ????

Fun fact -- both Brat and Trammell are professors at the same liberal arts school.