Why Virginia Democrats Need to Get Out the Vote This Fall in District 7

From left, Democrat Jack Trammel and Tea Party Republican David Brat

If you thought U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor’s views on the budget and other matters were bad, take a look at the guy Virginia Republicans in House District 7 chose instead. Mother Jones provides these nuggets about Randolph-Macon College (student population: 1,300) economics professor and tea party candidate David Brat.

It’s hard to imagine Brat denouncing white celebrities as he has Jay-Z and Beyonce, except everyone knows tea partiers are NOT racist
  • His negative ads criticized Cantor for entertaining the idea of immigration reform and acting to end the debt ceiling crisis
  • He wants to cut Medicare and Social Security assistance to seniors by two-thirds
  • Climate change is not an issue because “rich countries solve their problems”
  • […]

To my conservative friends tempted to find outrageous things liberals have said in order to argue that both sides are equally to blame, I’d respond this way: Find me all the examples of people who shot up a church after reading books by Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman, and then you’ll have a case.

— Greg Sargent, Washington Post columnist, in a splendid piece titled, “How Much Does Right-Wing Rhetoric Contribute to Right-Wing Terrorism?

Tea Party Topples House Majority Leader, Former ‘Young Gun’ Eric Cantor

Brat

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, once one of the self-proclaimed GOP “Young Guns,” lost his seat today representing Virginia’s 7th District to a tea bagger professor, Dave Brat. Hard to believe, but even Fox News confirms it:

In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.

The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.

Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.

Cantor’s loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.

Tea Party Spawns Terror Attack

Gadsden flag, then and now: left, J.B. Stoner speaks in front of the Gadsen “Don’t Tread on Me” flag at a KKK rally in 1964; right: Tea party agitator Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, leads an anti-government rally in October 2013

Let’s call Jerad and Amanda Miller, the Indiana couple who fatally shot two police officers as well as an armed citizen in Las Vegas on Sunday, what they were: right-wing domestic terrorists. To be specific, they were tea party-inspired terrorists.

The national media won’t go there, of course, because they fear offending the Republican Party and of being labeled with the dread word, “liberal.” But facts are facts. The Millers were unlike other recent mass shooters in that they weren’t simply off their meds. It is clear now that they were inspired by tea party racism and anti-government libertarianism, which has been fostered, not just by the GOP, but in the bosom of the media establishment itself, which is to say Fox News.

[…]

Couple That Shot Las Vegas Cops Couldn’t Have Made Their Intentions Any Plainer

The Millers on their wedding day. These are not happy people.

Besides being a cold-blooded act of cowardice, Jerad and Amanda Miller’s unprovoked shooting of two Las Vegas policemen and a Wal-Mart shopper prompts a bigger question: How much rope must a free country give antisocial, violent malcontents with which to hang themselves? Do we wait for the body count? If not, how do we decide it’s time to act to protect potential targets?

The Millers couldn’t have been more forthright in their intentions. Yet their next-door neighbor and self-proclaimed “best friend,” who was “holding documents for the couple that included detailed plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials” said she didn’t realize they were “that crazy.” Really?

Is that how we want it to work in this country? I’m really asking

Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were in their seats at CiCi’s Pizza, 309 N. Nellis Blvd., at about 11:20 a.m. Sunday when suspects, identified by sources as Jerad Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda, age unknown, entered the rear of the restaurant…

The police official said neither officer had a chance to return fire…

Jerad Miller then covered the officers with the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me,” and placed a manifesto with a swastika symbol on one officer’s body.

[…]

Boehner: Tea Party, Conservative Republicans Not that Different

I think the tea party has brought great energy to our political process. You get in these primary elections — they are hard-fought battles and sometimes — listen, there is not that much, not that big a difference between what you call the tea party and your average conservative Republican.

— House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), asserting the tea party and conservative Republicans are basically the same, CNN reports.