I agree with much of what the tea party stands for and many of the efforts of leaders within it to elect conservatives. The tea party however, is not one group; it is thousands of major and minor groups across the nation, and it is not possible to agree with all of them or for all of those groups to agree with each other.
Some Virginia tea party groups are leading the charge to oust House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from his 7th District seat. These groups have chosen David Brat, a college professor who appears to lean more toward Ayn Rand than either traditional or social conservatism. Brat was once an appointee of former Democrat Governor Tim Kaine, although that does not automatically make him a liberal. Social conservatives will find a rather lofty but vague pro-life statement listed last among issues at his Internet site. Many of his other positions seem to be libertarian in nature, which makes sense, as many tea party groups are moving in that direction.
The biggest tea party accusation against Leader Cantor is that he is “too establishment.” The fact that he can move jobs and investments to his 7th Congressional District seems to be a liability to him with tea party members. It is in essence the tea party saying: “The fact that Eric Cantor is the second-most-powerful man on Capitol Hill and can bring jobs and benefits to our district is proof he is too establishment, and we need to get rid of him.”
I appreciate a lot of what the tea party does, but in some of the groups there is a real lack of understanding of the Constitution that is waved around at meetings, when it comes to the duties of congressmen. The Constitution calls for congressmen to represent their constituents, which is why we have direct elections rather than voting for a list as is done in Europe. Many in the tea party disagree with that concept and as a result a congressman such as Eric Cantor who thinks of his district and constituents foremost is proof to many tea partiers that he is “bad.”
If elected—which is doubtful—David Brat would be the junior member of the House with no committee appointments and a staff of seven in a basement office. In other words, he would be just about worthless to his district and the state of Virginia for several terms in office.
The tea party wants to toss out of office one of the most influential and powerful conservatives in the nation while doing tremendous harm to their congressional district because he is too “establishment.” So far this year the only success the tea party has had in getting rid of an establishment congressman was the defeat of the only World War II veteran left in the House, Ralph Hall of Texas.
Leader Cantor has a staff of seven in his congressional office and a staff of 30 under him in the Leader’s office. He holds down two full-time jobs in Congress, which I do not believe tea party leaders understand. They are treating the race as if he is just like one of the other 435 congressmen in the House. They point to the fact that he spoke to a moderate group of Republicans in Florida as “proof” he is a liberal. Eric Cantor’s role as leader of the House GOP is to enlarge the party and stop the infighting long enough to pass legislation, not to make long-winded speeches championing Ayn Rand. Part of Cantor’s job is bringing the far right and far left of the party together at least long enough to win enough elections this November for the GOP to maintain a majority of House seats, and he is doing just that.
Is Eric Cantor a real conservative? This is the answer: The Washington Post is running negative stories about Eric Cantor almost every day and he is constantly under attack by the liberal side of the media. He has a zero rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL. He also has a zero rating from the gay activist group Human Rights Campaign. Leader Cantor has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee and Americans for Tax Reform. Cantor has worked tirelessly for reform of the IRS and championed legislation to stop the EPA from shutting down coal production in Virginia. Currently, he is pushing legislation to assist charter schools, as well. He is also endorsed by the NRA.
Leader Cantor is a solid conservative who understands that in the end Republicans in Congress can’t shut down the government without horrible results for the nation and for the GOP. He gets what spending cuts he can, while standing for both the economic and social conservative agenda. But he is not going to lead the GOP into the suicide mission of government closure which many, but not all, tea party activists favor.
William J. Murray is an author, Baptist minister, and social conservative lobbyist who currently serves as the chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C., active on issues related to aiding Christians in Islamic and Communist countries. He is a resident of Virginia’s 7th District.
15 comments
[…] 6/5/2014 Cantor’s fatal flaw? He can get things done […]
http://pjmedia.com/davidsteinberg/the-biggest-crony-cantor-campaign-leader-paid-12-3m-by-virginia-gop/
RINO Cantor needs to be retired so he can spend more time with his Dem/lib wife. He might as well join her party. Vote for Dave Brat!
Does integrity count for anything? Is there a punishment for bearing false witness? Do we have a right to demand honesty from our congressman?
Pastor Murray, did you attend the 7th District Convention? It was the first time that I’ve seen my congressman in my district outside of a fundraiser. It is really rude of you to speak for someone else when you are very wrong about what they think or their motives for wanting to remove Leader Cantor from OUR Congressional seat.
My reasons for wanting Leader Cantor out of my Congressional seat has nothing to do with him being too much or too little or just enough “establishment.” Are you familiar with the term, “slating?” Are you familiar with his voting record? There are many, many reasons he did NOT get a warm reception at the 7th District Convention.
Also, since you mentioned the fact that our congressman is the Majority Leader, and if we boot him out, our representative would be starting fresh as a junior representative. It sounds like you are as inamored with power as he is. I would rather have a representative who actually represents me and cares enough about me to actually meet with me. Dr. David Brat has promised to meet with each county & the City of Richmond every month. Besides, if Cantor is out, maybe someone like Trey Gowdy could become the Majority Leader.
Also, even if I would have supported Cantor before his nasty campaign, his ads have taken any respect I had for him. He is campaigning like a power hungry man who will say or do anything to keep his power. It doesn’t seem to matter how much money he needs to spend.
I could go on and on, but have other things that I need to do.
Dear Mr. Murry: I feel you lack a real connection to conservatives in the 7th district. There is no other explanation for your conclusions. What has Eric Cantor actually done for us? Before you answer remember we don’t want to be showered with tax supports handouts leading to indebtedness. We’re not looking for him to bring home the bacon. I usually ask my Cantor supporting friends this question: What did Eric Cantor (and the rest of the Republicans) do when they had the Presidency and both houses of congress? They did nothing. They did not reduce the size and scope of the federal government. As a matter of fact, it continued to grow apace. George Bush and the republicans are just as responsible for the emergence of the Tea Party as the free spending Democrats. Eric Cantor is part of that crowd. He spends too much time skimming his $500.00 loafers across the expensive carpets of K – Street lobbyists. He represents their interests while shunning the hoi polloi.
I feel a guest contributor response coming on.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/05/Evangelicals-Criticize-Cantor-s-Claim-Dream-Act-is-Biblical
Sir, I will only speak for myself. I consider pork barrel spending (bringing jobs back to the district) one of the most egregious problems in Washington. It is why I, and like-minded individuals, hounded Congress until the agreed to an end to (explicit) earmarking of budgeted funds. When you say “bring jobs and benefits to our district”, I hear “buying votes to stay in power and making deals in Washington that are not in the long term best interests of the average voter”.
I do not consider creating jobs as a legitimate governmental role. Governments do not have the same knowledge that the marketplace does about the most efficient use of resources. When the government decides what the marketplace should look like, at best you get Solyndra and and worst you get Venezuela or the former Soviet Union. What I do ideally expect is for the government not to actively impede free enterprise. That means not benefiting some businesses over others. That means imposing a system of laws that everyone is equally subject to. That means fighting against regulations that strangle existing businesses and make it less likely that new entrepreneurs will risk their capital or their energy on starting new businesses. This also means not spending taxpayer money on things that are not the government’s Constitutional job. The quote “that government is best which governs least” comes to mind. Unfortunately, Eric Cantor seems to have never met a problem that he wasn’t willing to apply a big government fix to.
I will point out that government officials (including congressmen) are as self-interested as the rest of us (google public choice theory). They do not and never will have the best interest of you or me in mind when they make deals. The deals they make, with obscenely large amounts of OUR money, benefits themselves first and foremost. Look at Eric Cantor’s votes to re-authorize the Export/Import bank, his vote for TARP and his amendment to the STOCK act or his support for amnesty as examples of this.
Since you mention ratings, I will point out that Eric Cantor currently has a Heritage Foundation score of 53% (his score averaged for all of his years in congress is 54%). In The last year he voted, for instance, against limiting the taxpayer money that could be used for crop insurance subsidies and he voted for the farm bill that included huge amounts of wasteful spending and goodies for all sorts of special interest groups. He voted to rescind flood insurance reforms that were meant to move the risk of living in a flood plain partially off of the back of the taxpayer and on to the individuals who actually own the properties located in such areas. He voted to completely suspend the debt ceiling until 2015 and has voted for more debt ceiling increases than he has voted against in his career. Government spending is putting us in the poor house… but worse than that, it is putting our children and our children’s children in the poor house too. Eric Cantor has done nothing to change that state of affairs.
I will leave you with Ronald Reagan’s quote… the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help … The current Government, including Cantor, has “helped” us into a recession that will not go away, the smallest percentage of working age adults in the workplace that we have seen since Carter and an immigration problem that is 20 million illegal aliens strong and growing. That kind of help I don’t need or want. We need a change and Cantor represents and advocates for “same”.
Mr Murray. You are an eminently honorable man worthy of respect and serious attention. It is therefore all the more surprising that you cannot see Eric Cantor for what he is – an impostor. Perhaps you are spending too much time inside the beltway and away from your neighbors in the 7th district. Perhaps you’ve allied yourself with some of the leadership in the Baptist Convention (as opposed to rank and file parishioners) who are gung-ho and all-in on amnesty. We can respectfully agree to disagree. But if you are in favor of amnesty for twenty million illegal aliens and are a lobbyist for that in your day job, you should tell us.
I forgot to mention that Eric Cantor went around the state kicking out republicans he did not agree with. I hope the folks reading this realize what Eric and his campaign did is several places, and was beaten in his own district, and was over turned in at least one district. The level of evil this man will use to stay in power does not deserve to have the power.
If Cantor can get things done, and nothing we actually want done has been done, then it follows that Eric Cantor does not want the same things that conservatives do.
For such a busy guy, he didn’t seem to have any scheduling problems spending a weekend with big corporate donors on Amelia Island. Maybe he thinks that serving them rather than us is his job?
Pastor,
Better copy than anything the Cantor campaign has put out.
Bill, I believe that you misstate conservative objections to Eric Cantor. Conservatives believe that Eric Cantor undermines Constitutional conservative governance and advances amnesty, which many believe will render conservative governance impossible.
I guess you really don’t get why some of us who actually work the polls, knock on doors, and go to town halls feel that Dave Brat is more for us than Eric Cantor. Lets start with the obvious. Eric Cantor has not had a town hall to hear from his constituents once. Eric Cantor voted with only a few republicans to fund obamacare. Eric has voted 10 times to increase the debt limit. The last time was without a single reduction in spending. Eric has enriched himself using insider trading as he gutted the STOCK act by exemption of his wife and family. Eric as leader of the ‘conservatives’ could have supported a Right To Life amendment, but he did not. Eric could have brought forward a Traditional Marriage Amendment, but he did not. Eric votes with the chamber of commerce and the business round table to enrich his real constituents, the k-street lobbyists. Eric has continually supported the continuing resolution for funding the government rather than forcing the Senate to pass a budget. Eric is two-faced on immigration, and in the latest flip flop is saying he is against illegal immigration. That is a crock of crap and everyone following the issues for the last year knows that after the election, he will have another flip flop. And lastly just to top off the reasons to support Dave Brat, Eric has written extremely false statements about Dave Brat, and did so knowingly. So Mr. Murray, we think it is way past time for a change.