{"id":7165,"date":"2014-06-11T08:14:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T12:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=7165"},"modified":"2016-09-29T12:03:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T16:03:44","slug":"virginians-evict-eric-cantor-nsa-torture-champion-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/11\/virginians-evict-eric-cantor-nsa-torture-champion-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginians Evict Eric Cantor, Champion of NSA and Torture, from Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington political establishment took a whupping last night when Virginian\u00a0voters staunchly defeated Eric Cantor in the Republican congressional primary.\u00a0\u00a0 Cantor’s defeat is\u00a0one of the biggest upsets in congressional races in a generation.<\/p>\n

The obituaries on the Tea Party were premature.\u00a0Washington pundits will have to stop touting Cantor as the future Speaker of the House & presidential timber.<\/p>\n

There were numerous policy issues aside from Cantor’s perceived arrogance:<\/p>\n

* Cantor had championed the National Security Agency’s illegal wiretaps on Americans.\u00a0 His opponent, David Brat, had criticized these abusive searches.<\/p>\n

* Cantor had championed waterboarding <\/a>and “enhanced interrogation.”\u00a0 So Cantor was in favor of freedom\u00a0 – or at least free enterprise – except that the government should be allowed to torture people it suspected?<\/p>\n

* Cantor scorned any Republicans who did not favor perpetual war<\/a>.\u00a0 Cantor was a leader in threatening war against Iran.<\/p>\n

* Brat signed a pledge to repeal ObamaCare, which Cantor refused to sign.<\/p>\n

* Cantor’s campaign against Brat was widely seen as dishonest.\u00a0 This epitomized how Cantor had done so much to undermine his credibility with Virginians.<\/p>\n

Cantor’s defeat is one of the most encouraging political developments in 2014.\u00a0 Perhaps it is optimistic to see his thrashing as a sign that voters are contemptuous of politicians who get too cozy with Leviathan.\u00a0\u00a0 We’ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington political establishment took a whupping last night when Virginian\u00a0voters staunchly defeated Eric Cantor in the Republican congressional primary.\u00a0\u00a0 Cantor’s defeat is\u00a0one of the biggest upsets in congressional races in a generation. The obituaries on the Tea Party were premature.\u00a0Washington pundits will have to stop touting Cantor as the future Speaker of the House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,398,52,397,43,249,12,75,4],"class_list":["post-7165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-congress","tag-david-brat","tag-democracy","tag-eric-cantor","tag-iran","tag-national-security-agency","tag-torture","tag-war","tag-wiretapping"],"yoast_head":"\nVirginians Evict Eric Cantor, Champion of NSA and Torture, from Congress - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/11\/virginians-evict-eric-cantor-nsa-torture-champion-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginians Evict Eric Cantor, Champion of NSA and Torture, from Congress - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Washington political establishment took a whupping last night when Virginian\u00a0voters staunchly defeated Eric Cantor in the Republican congressional primary.\u00a0\u00a0 Cantor’s defeat is\u00a0one of the biggest upsets in congressional races in a generation. 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