House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R – VA) lost his primary challenge to relative unknown David Brat, who ran against him on surveillance issues. The real loser may have been the military industrial complex, who had no better friend in the Congressional leadership.
There are a lot of hawks out there, but there were few as outspokenly supportive of deficit-pumping military overspending than the outgoing majority leader, and that had a lot of fiscal conservatives hoping to challenge him for the position. Now, they won’t have to.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R – TX) is one potential new leader in the post-Cantor era, and he and others bring more interest in sequestration and keeping spending under control, something that won’t sit well with the outgoing leadership, or the lobbyists behind them.
Cantor has long been railing against the Tea Party and other advocates of spending cuts as “isolationists” for believing the US could only afford a finite number of wars.
I seriously doubt the mic will ever lose anything. Who seriously thinks Congress will ever gift them one penny less than the year before?
We know very well who the real loser is. It'll be interesting to see who they get next to organize the constant Congressional trips to israel now.
The 1% ioot 50% from you and I, the 99%…………. And are busy dreaming up new wars to keep the protection money flowing…
American people are fed up of wars of choice that the military do not win.
The object, for a long time, has not been to win…just continue and expand.
I knew this Cantor was filth but I never dreamed he was this bad.
Cantor, and other political hacks like him, never really disappear. He'll surface again as
a stooge for some lobbyist outfit in the Beltway. The Military Industrial Complex, and AIPAC
could also (use) him as their flunky to run errands.
'*********************** 'flunky to run errands…………………………….????????????????
More like handler to run their bought and paid for Congressmen, Senators, Judges, Generals and their fifth column et al …………..
Losing face – and that's what he's done, make no mistake – is a very powerful force for one like Cantor. So I wouldn't expect to see him anywhere near Congress (or it's denizens) for a long while.
I would like to believe that Brat represents a real difference in the quest to end endless war, overseas military bases and the U.S. imperial attempt to dominate the planet.
But here is what I read on his Congressional Campaign website:
"National Security/Foreign Policy
"Ronald Reagan said it best: “Peace through strength.” A strong military is essential to the success of our nation. We must secure our borders, support the Armed Forces, both at home and abroad, and maintain a strong national defense in order to secure our country’s future. In addition, I support a full investigation into the Benghazi attacks."
Notice the phrase "support the Armed Forces, both at home and abroad." That does not sound like Ron Paul to me. Too bad.
But unless we start to demand that these candidates affirm Ron Paul libertarian, anti-war, anti-Empire values and support such values with their votes, we are going to end up deceived just the way Obama deceived the anti-interventionist movement in 2008.
So where does Brat stand?
John-thanks for reminding us not to get too excited just yet. For starters, I heard on the news that this guy thanked God for winning. I doubt that believers in Hong Kong or Maputo even knew God was a republican.
I'd wait to see where he stands on military spending (as you pointed out), foreign aid, income tax, debt-based monetary system, drug war, ending not reforming NSA spying, repealing the Patriot Act and NDAA, etc.etc
Thanks for the information, John. I was wondering, but hadn't taken the time to investigate. Sounds like Rand Paul light. I imagine he'll come out as a strong supporter of Israel.
Cantor was and is an Israeli firster .The people revolted against it in the possible way since discussing loyalty to Israel is sacrilege in America.When the opportunity came they booted out a traitor.Simpler