step in. and the number three guy in leadership, kevin mccarthy, is sort of the case against him is he may not have that ability. that he may not have the sort of chops on the legislative floor to move stuff if they want to. it seems they move stuff so rarely, it shouldn t be that much of a mark against mccarthy. mccarthy is sort of like the same character as cantor, right? he has focused almost predominantly on this branding and how they can win seats in political battles. and very rarely do you associate a big piece of legislative or ideology with him. and he has had some pretty epic fails when it comes to counting votes. the establishment and party might say, we don t want to risk one of these other candidates, let s go with the safe bet, maybe we can relitigate in a year s time or so, but he has very similar problems to eric cantor. looking a head to the way the republicans shift as a group, obviously a decision about who s going to be in leadership. i think the idea that this
establishment republicans have taken charge again. when mitch mcconnell won, that meant the narrative became again, they ve the establishment has seized it back from these insurgents, but it s just not true. the right in the republican party, in the united states, as a whole, has kept coming back. when goldwater 50 years ago this year lost in landmark defeat to lyndon johnson, the whole republican party was thought to be dead and buried and certainly the conservative movement. but soon after, the reagan revolution began. so we have to stop falling for this same narrative. this group is here to stay. they may not ever run the country or win a national election, but they re a big factor and they re very much empowered now in the current gop. and i wonder if the error was watching to see if there was going to be a tea party revolution inside the right and it turns out there wasn t. there was a lot of people trying, and every time they
majorities in eric cantor s district. and in eric cantor s district, the percentage of people who support that immigration reform, 64% strongly or somewhat support. people strongly or somewhat opposed to it? 32%. 2-1. and then this blunt question to eric cantor s district, how important is it that the u.s. fix its immigration system this year? the number of people in eric cantor s district who say it s somewhat or very important that we fix the immigration system this year, 84%. only 14% said it s not too important or not important at all. eric cantor s district did not vote against him because they hate immigration reform so much. turns out, when you ask them, they kind of love the idea of immigration reform. they love a whole bunch of different ideas about immigration reform. the more liberal the idea for immigration reform, in fact, the more they seem to like it. and by huge numbers. and yes, this is public policy polling, which is a democratic leaning firm, but this does not appear
people strongly or somewhat opposed to it? 32%. 2-1. and then this blunt question to eric cantor s district, how important is it that the u.s. fix its immigration system this year? the number of people in eric cantor s district who say it s somewhat or very important that we fix the immigration system this year, 84%. only 14% said it s not too important or not important at all. eric cantor s district did not vote against him because they hate immigration reform so much. turns out, when you ask them, they kind of love the idea of immigration reform. they love a whole bunch of different ideas about immigration reform. the more liberal the idea for immigration reform, in fact, the more they seem to like it. and by huge numbers. and yes, this is public policy polling, which is a democratic leaning firm, but this does not appear to be an outlier. last year, ppp and another group called harper, which is a republican firm, they also polled virginia as a state on the overall issue of supportin
called harper, which is a republican firm, they also polled virginia as a state on the overall issue of supporting immigration reform in the state of virginia. and they found very similar numbers. again, they asked about two different versions of immigration reform and the support number in virginia, the support numbers were 2-1, 3-1 in favor. 60% of virginians said they d be more likely to vote for an elected official that supports immigration reform. only 23% said the they d be less likely. so how do you make sense of these numbers? contrary to all the beltway norms, all the initial shock punditry last night, this does not appear to have been a frenzy of anti-immigration sentiment in eric cantor s home state and home district that drove what happened last night. yes, immigration is what david brat ran on, but the polling says there s nothing magic about the issue of immigration that allowed him to win that seat. maybe david brat could have run a one-issue campaign on the debt ceiling