VDare’s dreamboat
by digby
As we wait for David Brat to “carefully craft his message” it’s fun to see what some of the more fringy members of the right wing fever swamps think of him. The immigrant haters at VDare love him to death:
It’s … the greatest electoral victory to date for the patriotic immigration reform movement.
Having worked in Republican immigration politics for many years, I’ve seen a very sad and familiar pattern in challenges to pro- Amnesty politicians. It goes like this:
1) Establishment candidate supports amnesty
2) Challenger runs anti-amnesty campaign
3) Establishment candidate pretends to oppose amnesty and outspends challenger by many orders of magnitude
4) Establishment candidate fools voters and wins
5) Chattering classes use election as proof that voters support amnesty
6) Establishment candidate goes back to supporting amnesty
The most blatant example: Senator John McCain suddenly championed SB 1070 and ending birthright citizenship for a few months when JD Hayworth challenged him 2010. Then he proceeded to become one the Gang of Eight. But this has happened many times: Jeff Flake in 2012, Lindsay Graham in 2008 (and again today, but we’ll leave that for another time), Chris Cannon in 2004 and 2006.
For a while, it looked like Eric Cantor was on the same path. As I wrote in my previous VDARE.com column, Cantor has been quietly (and sometimes vocally) supporting Amnesty for some time. Yet, faced with Brat’s challenge, Cantor began sending out campaign mailers stating “Conservative Republican Eric Cantor Is Stopping the Obama Reid Plan to Give Illegal Aliens Amnesty.”
Money is what makes this campaign both stunning and such a win for patriotic immigration reform. Cantor raised over five million dollars to David Brat’s $200,000. Brat responded with a populist campaign calling Cantor a tool of the cheap labor and business lobby.
Oh baby. But they’ve loved and lost before so they’re trying no to let themselves go over the moon:
Brat is not the first primary challenger to defeat a pro-amnesty incumbent. Jason Chaffetz defeated Chris Cannon in 2008. Although Cannon was a solid conservative on all issues other than immigration and Chaffetz made opposition to amnesty to main focal point of his campaign, the MSM portrayed the defeat as rooted in general dissatisfaction with Washington.
Chaffetz aided this perception by focusing on how he won by promoting conservative principles generally, rather than immigration after his victory. Now Chaffetz supports Amnesty.
However, I would be shocked if Brat became another Chaffetz. He shows a real passion and understanding of the importance of the issue that goes far beyond the usual clichés of “secure the border” and “stop Amnesty” you hear from your average conservative shyster. And although Brat focused on Amnesty, he has expressed support for ending birthright citizenship, ending chain migration and reducing overall legal immigration levels.
He’s just sooooo dreamy. But you know wingnuts… they get your hopes up and you let down your guard and the next thing you know they’re eating burritos and hanging around with Democrats.
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