# Down Goes Eric Cantor **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 11, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516 "2014-06-11T00:05:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/141 "2014-06-11T16:48:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > WRT Brat, [don’t get your hopes up](http://www.salon.com/2014/06/11/eric_cantors_victorious_opponent_has_no_idea_how_to_answer_basic_policy_questions/). ☹ If those questions are any indication, he just doesn’t seem very smart, at least not when it comes to thinking on his feet. Should there be a minimum wage? This is something where there’s pretty much a standard Conservative response that anyone who pays any attention to the news should already know. Just saying “blah blah minimum wage hikes kill jobs blah blah less regulation will lead to greater productivity blah blah” would be better than “I don’t have a well-crafted response.” I wouldn’t say “I want to get rid of the minimum wage” because that’s needlessly controversial, but that’s easily side-stepped with “Realistically the minimum wage isn’t going away, but I don’t think we should raise it because XYZ.” As for Syria, something like “We need to proceed with caution to avoid weapons falling into the hands of terrorists” is a safe enough answer. Almost anything would be better than “I thought we were just going to chat about the celebratory aspects…” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/142 "2014-06-11T16:49:31Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Liberals are so gullible… What, you think it’s objectively unreasonable for a very conservative and religious candidate to believe in such things, especially in the Tea Party, especially these days? All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t be surprised, and if he does, that I hope he has the chance to express those views freely, as is his First Amendment right. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/143 "2014-06-11T16:57:47Z")
Oops, I worded the above a little poorly. I meant to say, “you think it’s objectively unreasonable _to believe that_ a very religious and conservative candidate…” etc etc. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/144 "2014-06-11T17:13:47Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > My understanding is that the Dems had no one to vote for. Their nominee was already selected by committee because the could not find anyone to run. Virginia is an open primary state. Cantor lost by what, 11 points? You’re a Dem, you have an opportunity to vote directly against Cantor… That’s a plausible story. But apparently experts say otherwise. “Dave Wasserman, the U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, doubts that Cantor was derailed by Democratic meddling.” Apparently Brat’s largest margins were in heavily Republican districts. Article at TPM: [Cantor’s Pollster Blames Democratic Meddling For Loss - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-mclaughlin-cantor-blames-democrats) > [@BobLibDem](#): > > OK, a Ph.D. in “Philosophy in Economics”, yet he thinks raising the debt ceiling is a bad idea. Do you suppose he could get a refund? Interesting educational path- From a B.A. to Divinity, from there to Economics. > > Not surprised that he went to Hope, although it’s more of the West Michigan Gerry Ford type of conservative than the flaming batshit crazy conservative type of place. > [@adaher](#): > > Remember that economics professors are not political science professors. Philosophy of economics might be closer to that than you think. PS: I pulled his publication list. It’s comprehensive, but edited down. TI: Milton Friedman’s Positivism and the Method of Economics TI: Economic Growth and Institutions: The Rise and Fall of the Protestant Ethic? TI: Adam Smith’s God: The End of Economics PY: 2005 AB: This paper examines the philosophical system that encompasses and supports all the works of Adam Smith. Many academics fail to see the full system which Smith had in mind as they only look at the economic system he constructed. Economics is only a subsystem. To see Smith’s full system requires a start where Smith ends. The ends or aims of Smith’s philosophical system are not hard to find. Smith’s philosophical system involves final explanations, couched in terms of a purposeful nature or God, and this variety of theism is an integral part of his approach to social phenomena. Smith argues that efficient causation produces beneficial results intended by the utilitarian “Author of Nature.” Beneficial results follow from the Author of Nature. Who is this Author of Nature in Smith’s works? And how does this final cause affect his entire system of thought as it surely must? How is God linked to Economics in the mind and world of Adam Smith? This paper attempts to answer that question. TI: Cross-Country R AU: Park, Walter G.; Brat, David A. AF: American U; Randolph-Macon College SO: Eastern Economic Journal, 22(3), Summer 1996, pp. 345-54 IS: 0094-5056 AV: [http://www.palgrave-journals.com/eej/archive/](http://www.palgrave-journals.com/eej/archive/) DT: Journal Article PY: 1996 TI: A Global Kuznets Curve? AU: Park, Walter G.; Brat, David A. AF: American U; World Bank and American U SO: Kyklos, 48(1), 1995, pp. 105-31 IS: 0023-5962 AV: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-6435/issues](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291467-6435/issues) DT: Journal Article PY: 1995 TI: Essays on Human Capital, Religion, and Growth AU: Brat, David SO: Ph.D. American University 1995 PY: 1995 TI: NAEP Scores, Human Capital, and State Growth AU: Brat, David A.; Sands, Kenneth; Dungan, Evan AF: Randolph-Macon College; Randolph-Macon College; Randolph-Macon College SO: Virginia Economic Journal, 14(0), 2009, pp. 21-43 IS: 1085-1046 AV: [http://www.vaecon.org/vae-journal.html](http://www.vaecon.org/vae-journal.html) DT: Journal Article PY: 2009 AB: This paper seeks to explain the factors which have caused some states to grow more quickly than others. As our baseline for research, we use a widely circulated paper by Bauer, et al. (2006) from the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. Most of the cross-state literature uses high school and college graduation rates as a measure of human capital. NAEP test scores, however, are intuitively much better proxies as measures of human capital as they actually measure student knowledge/performance across various subjects. We do in fact find that our NAEP human capital variable better explains cross-state growth performance than the typical high school variables in the literature. The results of this research confirm that education, measured here by NAEP scores, is linked to a growth environment. Not exactly high octane research. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/145 "2014-06-11T17:26:06Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Don’t ever go on MSNBC. It’s good he learned that lesson early. > > He actually handled himself pretty well there, despite the pop quiz they tried to hit him with. The man is a candidate for national office. He’s supposed to have, at least a passing familiarity with the issues of the day. He’s shown himself to be ignorant and unprepared. Although, the GOP is the party who thinks, “What do you read?” is a gotcha question. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/146 "2014-06-11T17:27:03Z")
According to the Washington Post: > [@](#): > > In addition to stepping down as majority leader, Cantor has decided not to run as a write-in candidate in November, according to two Republicans close to him. The Republicans were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal talks. Also says he’ll step down from his House Majority Leader position in July. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/147 "2014-06-11T17:31:52Z")
In turn, Democrats have washed their hands of the race. The candidate is on his own. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/148 "2014-06-11T17:35:15Z")
Hmm? The Dems are abandoning Trammell? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/149 "2014-06-11T17:35:18Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > In turn, Democrats have washed their hands of the race. The candidate is on his own. They should. I doubt he would have even won with a split GOP ballot but he sure ain’t winning now. ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/150 "2014-06-11T17:39:09Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > He actually handled himself pretty well there, despite the pop quiz they tried to hit him with. :dubious: Yeah, it was just really unsporting of them to ask a candidate for national office who makes his living teaching economics about the minimum wage. They should have stuck to the script and just asked “How awesome is it that you won?” over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/151 "2014-06-11T17:41:17Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Hmm? The Dems are abandoning Trammell? Yes, I lost my cite but it’s out there somewhere. No money for him, just a pat on the back. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/152 "2014-06-11T17:48:24Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Yes, I lost my cite but it’s out there somewhere. No money for him, just a pat on the back. [Found it.](http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/11/democrats-challenge-virginia-seat-eric-cantor-refuses-write-in-campaign.html) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/153 "2014-06-11T17:49:07Z")
> [@TheSeaOtter](#): > > :dubious: > > Yeah, it was just really unsporting of them to ask a candidate for national office who makes his living teaching economics about the minimum wage. They should have stuck to the script and just asked “How awesome is it that you won?” over and over again. True, but it’s hard to judge the relative qualifications for office when only Republicans get the “pop quiz” treatment. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/154 "2014-06-11T17:54:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > [Found it.](http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/11/democrats-challenge-virginia-seat-eric-cantor-refuses-write-in-campaign.html) Not nearly a done decision per that cite. They probably ought to wait for some solid post-surprise-factor polls before they decide there’s no chance, that the district’s sanes can’t be coaxed to vote for the sane guy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/155 "2014-06-11T17:55:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Let’s see how prepared Trammell is. I did not mean **electoral** hopes, I meant, don’t get up hope that Brat is going to be a competent Congresscritter. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/156 "2014-06-11T17:56:43Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > True, but it’s hard to judge the relative qualifications for office when only Republicans get the “pop quiz” treatment. Please. I know it’s real tough to tell people what newspapers you read when you don’t read any. So your fearless candidate was a one-issue candidate and that issue was immigration. Is he unaware that there are other issues that people care about? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/157 "2014-06-11T17:58:00Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > I’m not so sure having a TP candidate represent my state is a good thing. Much as I dislike Cantor-this other guy will likely win the election and then where will we be? Exactly where we were before except without Cantor as majority leader. Its not like this guys is going to get two votes or be more influential than Cantor. > [@adaher](#): > > I think that’s true, but only with vastly improved enforcement and a very tough path to citizenship as part of the deal. The Senate bill only offers the illusion of enforcement. > > I think the enforcement will come first, then the amnesty, and then the path to citizenship. Three seperate bills. In what way has Obama’s enforecement been deficient? Hasn’t his enforcement been much more effective than any other president before him? > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. If Republicans move further away from immigration reform, Texas will turn blue, and then it is lights out. Texas is still fairly red. It will be a generation before Texas turns blue and anything can happen in 20 years. > [@GIGObuster](#): > > One not so fun fact: If there is no write in or he gives it up, the Republican party lost its only Jewish member of Congress. There aren’t very many black or Asian Republican members of congress either. The only ethnic minority group that has significant Republican participation are Hispanics and Republicans seem to be doing their damnedest to piss them off. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Apparently Trammell’s website consists of nothing but requests for money. It would be nice if his positions were listed there. > > [ActBlue](https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/jacktrammell) This guy sounds pretty liberal. Too liberal for his district. > [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I am also surprised that Lindsay Graham survived so handily in South Carolina. If any Republican looked and sounded too moderate and too establishment for his home base, it was him. Maybe Graham has some political savvy that we underestimate outside of his state. He worked hard and took his primary seriously. Cantor spent his pirmary season helping out beseiged Republicans in other districts in an effort to shore up his support for speakership. > [@Jophiel](#): > > If your party isn’t running a competitive primary, people just stay home. It takes cattle prods to get people to vote in a primary where it “matters” for their party, trying to convince droves of them to hump on down to the voting booth for a joke is a fool’s errand. I don’t think it was Democrats either but the turnout was significantly larger this year than last election cycle and Brat isn’t that much of a draw. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/158 "2014-06-11T18:18:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I did not mean **electoral** hopes, I meant, don’t get up hope that Brat is going to be a competent Congresscritter. It doesn’t really matter if he is or isn’t. Congressmen don’t run anything and Congress is full of people who do nothing but vote on bills. For most of these warm bodies, they just vote how they are told by whatever leadership they trust. Brat will probably take his cues from the Tea Party caucus. Or he might surprise us. Some Congressmen really work hard when they get there. Brat can be forgiven because he is a political novice who did not expect to get as far as he has. Both Brat and Trammell are obviously really smart guys. Frankly, I think they are both more qualified to be a Congressman than Eric Cantor was when he took office, and just as qualified as Barack Obama was when he first ran for State Senate. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/159 "2014-06-11T18:22:45Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > In what way has Obama’s enforecement been deficient? Hasn’t his enforcement been much more effective than any other president before him? It’s better than it was under previous Presidents, but that’s not the point. Enforcement is still crappy. We have 12 million illegals to attest to that. Many of the enforcement promises in the Senate bill are already law, such as a biometric entry/exit system at all US airports. It’s required by law, and yet it’s nowhere near completed. Passing it again doesn’t tell us anything. Thus the need to actually do it before an amnesty. The voters favor amnesty, but only if we aren’t revisiting this 20 years from now when another 12 million illegals have moved in. We got fooled once. We won’t be fooled a second time. Enforcement first, amnesty after. Even the Senate bill makes gestures in this direction, but the loopholes make it too easy for a President to get around them. Same goes for the “tough” path to citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516/160 "2014-06-11T18:30:19Z")
Cantor hopes spoiled, Brat the nominee. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/down-goes-eric-cantor/690516.md?page=9)