2014-06-10

The U.S. Swings Right: House Majority Leader Defeated in GOP Primary

I have written about how the U.S. is the lone holdout when it comes to moving right on immigration policies. The U.S. had extreme immigration policies in the year 2000, though peak social mood meant these policies were in line with extreme optimism. As social mood decline, most nations began shifting right, but the establishment in the U.S. pushed into more extreme positions such as open borders. In most of the current immigration deals discussed in Washington, there's a combination of amnesty and increased worker visas lobbied for by big business. The result was a leadership far out of touch with public sentiment (generally polls show a majority of Americans want to restrict immigration, far from the current position to increase immigration and grant amnesty to illegal migrants).

Now this widening chasm has been closed by the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. This is the first time a sitting majority leader has ever been defeated in a primary. Cantor outspent his opponent, economics professor David Brat, 20-to-1. The major issue? Amnesty and immigration, and how it relates to low wages.

“The entire amnesty and low-wage agenda collapses if Cantor loses — all the billions of special interests dollars, all the favors, all the insider dealing — all of it is stopped in its tracks tomorrow if the patriotic working families of Virginia send Eric Cantor back home tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the middle class has its chance to fight back.

Tomorrow, the people of Virginia can show up to the polls and defeat the entire crony corporate lobby.

Tomorrow, we can restore our borders, rebuild our communities, and revitalize our middle class.”
Cantor was very heavily funded by corporate interests. He was an otherwise very conservative candidate in a conservative district in Virginia, but voters rejected him due to his position on immigration, specifically amnesty.

This issue in the U.S. is almost exactly like the situation in the U.K. There is no major political party and no major politician discussing this issue. If any presidential candidate takes up immigration restriction as an issue, they will meet the same vitriolic resistance that faced UKIP, but the results at the ballot box will be the same.



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