Eric
Cantor is out. This stunning development has provoked post-mortem pundits into focusing
on Cantor’s acceptance of “amnesty” for undocumented aliens as a big factor in
his defeat. After all, the most conservative elements in the Republican Party
are deeply hostile to people who speak Spanish and who come into the U.S.
without proper documentation.
There are
a number of reasons for this hostility. First of all, undocumented immigrants
break the law. Of course Cliven Bundy, the lovable bigot who kept cattle
illegally on public land, also broke the law, but he is a Republican hero. His
case is very different from that of undocumented aliens though, because he is a
white guy. Also, he seems to have an intense love for firearms. White
racist in a cowboy hat clutching a rifle with belligerent determination – GOP logo,
anyone?
Conservative
hostility to undocumented aliens is based on a solid foundation of
justifications including their inherent, siesta-prone laziness, their
willingness to work hard for lower wages than Anglo-Americans, and their
non-whiteness.
A number
of Republicans in the past actually tried to cobble together compromises that
would facilitate the inclusion of immigrants into the American mainstream, but
these were all rejected. For example, when Texas Governor Rick Perry said it
should be possible for immigrant children to attend Texas universities like
normal people, he ran into a firestorm of Tea Party rage. One helpful citizen
suggested that a reasonable compromise might be to let the immigrant students
graduate but then give Tea Party activists an opportunity to beat them up as
they received their diplomas, but this idea failed to gain traction.
In spite
of all the political resistance to Eric Cantor’s “soft-on-immigrant” positions,
my Washington sources* suggest that he may have been doomed not by the
immigration issue, but by the “A Factor.” He may have simply been too much of
an Asshole.
To quote
Time Magazine, “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.”
New York
Magazine quotes Dave “Mudcat” Saunders as saying Cantor is someone whose
constituent services suck and who rarely visits his own district except when
surrounded by a huge security entourage. Mudcat is obviously a Democrat, since few
Republicans would tolerate a nickname like Mudcat. But even Cantor’s fellow
Republicans deem him something of an Asshole.
Again with New
York Magazine:
“And yet for all the loyalty many GOP congressmen
feel toward Cantor, he is surprisingly [sic!] unloved. Even his admirers say he
lacks the social ease and natural confidence of most politicians…”
According to one observer, the typical Washington
legislator has a douche-ometer reading of 6.2, while Cantor’s number clocks in
at a whopping 9.8.**
Perhaps the Republican House member who likes
Cantor the least is Speaker John Boehner, and frankly, I would like to have seen
Boehner’s face when Cantor’s defeat was announced. How difficult, I wonder,
will it be for Boehner to suppress an orangy grin as he publicly expresses his
sympathy for his fallen comrade-in-arms?
At any rate, I believe that Cantor’s real problem
was not merely that he was inadequately hostile to Hispanic immigrants. I
think he was ultimately brought down by the A factor.
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*I do actually have at least one Washington source.
**I am that observer.
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