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This isn’t supposed to happen: the House Majority Leader defeated in a primary challenge. Especially, in a primary challenge by a tea party adherent. This news is about as shocking as it comes to political Washington, an event that is very rare indeed.

The tea party eruption was midwifed into existence in 2009 and ‘10 with the help of a lot of Republican money and some experienced politicians, like former Congressman Dick Armey of Texas. It wasn’t suppose to turn around and bite the hand that fed it. The Republicans thought all of the benefit would swing toward the Republican party as Obama was taken down, his programs questioned and rumor spread about everything having to do with him, including his birthplace. Then, the tea party crowd was supposed to slink back into oblivion and, perhaps, never be heard from again.

To quote Texas governor Perry: “Oops.”

While the “tea party” is not an actual political party, but rather a noisy faction within the Republicans, it now seems to have staying power that no one thought. In part, this is because the nation’s anger over the Great Recession combined with the confusion born of the propaganda assault on “Obamacare” helped, with gerrymandering, to put a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Those new House members, largely inexperienced in politics, many serving in their first elective office, have tried since 2011 to make a virtue out of NOT making the government work properly. Now, there is every reason to believe they will double down and try to create even more disruption. They will be emboldened.

Eric Cantor, along with Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, are two people who represent the very face of the far right swing in the House, the resistance to doing things the old way, of going along to get along. If Cantor isn’t good enough, isn’t right wing enough, who is? Presumably, no one who has been in Congress longer than a few years would be seen as acceptable.

Only the very far right is likely to celebrate Cantor’s defeat. Those, like talk radio hosts, who make their living trying to keep the pot boiling over will be happy. The more trouble, the happier they become. (Someone should raise the question whether this defeat was planned to take attention away from the “tea party assassins” who killed two police officers and another man in Las Vegas this week. Just sayin’. )

The defeat of Cantor represents a strong signal of just how much trouble the Republican party is in. There is little reason to believe that the party can win through the disruption and discord that the tea party path would cause, whatever that path might be. As the tea party groups gain power, the traditional Republicans are placed in ever greater peril. Since  elements within the party itself largely created the tea party, they now appear to be reaping what they have sowed. Can the Republican party continue to exist or is its end near? The problems it faces just got a whole lot bigger.

Doug Terry, 6.11.14

In the NY Times:

Tea Party Upsets G.O.P. Leadership

Cantor Loses Primary in Major Upset

By JONATHAN MARTIN

The House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, was soundly defeated by Dave Brat, a Tea Party-backed professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative.

Free, non-subscriber link to the Times above provided by Google news.

CLIP FROM THE TIMES ARTICLE:

Mr. Cantor’s defeat, the most unexpected of a congressional leader in recent memory, will reverberate in the capital and could have major implications for an immigration overhaul.

PLEASE NOTE:

The NY Times reported Wednesday, 6.10.14, that the major national tea party groups did not give money to help defeat Eric Cantor. As a result, the idea that his opponent was a “tea party candidate” is greatly undermined. The national media, however, have persisted in calling this an upset by a tea party backed candidate. What does this mean? 14 people gathered in his living room and announced they support him? Who decides who is a tea party candidate and how would we know if they did? The “Tea Party”, capitalized, is something of a myth, but the major news outlets don’t seem to mind. They want to be inclusive, they want to give the right and the far, far right their due, so they treat the tea party as if it is some actual organization instead of hundreds of little groups (which are barely operating, in many cases) and a number of national fund raising groups. That’s not a political party. What it is will have to await the official designation of political scientists.

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