Eric Cantor got knocked off his elevated podium by an unknown college professor who has virtually nothing going for him. David Brat, an economist of little academic distinction at Randolph-Macon College, won the primary by a stunning 12 points. Pundits from across the board, left, right and middle have theories from the elaborate to the simplistic citing immigration, economics, the health care reforms, etc. They’re all wrong.
Cantor lost because this was a primary that no one paid attention to. He was assumed to be a shoe-in and Brat nothing more than a minor annoyance. But the right-wing talk-show carnival didn’t see it that way. The wackos of talk radio, led by Laura Ingraham, jumped on the Brat-wagon and it had, because of the nutty nature of off-year primaries, a dramatic impact. The Teapartyers, following their gurus on the AM airwaves, block-voted for Brat.
When only 17% of eligible voters show up a rabid, ideological wolf-pack can have an impact well outside of its true demographic status.
So, chalk one up for Ingraham and her colleagues. They may just have done the Democrats a favor. No more Cantor and, who knows, maybe even a Democrat taking the district. Brat’s going to be a pretty easy target. His first comment on the minimum wage was that he hadn’t yet formed an opinion (kind of weird for an economist) won’t fly in the general election. And just wait till the media gets ahold of his “Princeton” comment implying that he’s Ivy League. He graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary which shares only one thing with Princeton University — they’re both in the same New Jersey town.