‘Kaustrodamus’: The L.A. journo who saw Cantor’s demise coming

Mickey Kaus is a very smart L.A. pundit whose Kaufiles was one of the original news blogs that mattered. He now writes mainly for the Daily Caller. In 1992, he wrote “The End of Equality,” a powerful book-length analysis of Democratic economic agenda and social programs that argued presciently that they would not stop the widening gap between the rich and the poor. He’s a liberal — he’s for nationalized health care. But he’s also what might be called a self-hating Dem. He thinks his party’s policies are often confused and poorly thought-out.
That’s why he has a unique niche in American journalism: He’s a liberal who relentlessly argues against tolerating illegal immigration or “comprehensive immigration reform” on the grounds that the last thing a nation beset by income inequality needs is a flood of inexpensive, low-skilled laborers.
This has led him to focus on House Republican leaders’ interest in “comprehensive immigration reform.” Here’s an example excoriating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor as a secret champion of amnesty.
Overnight lots of folks began crediting Kaus for helping obscure econ prof Dave Brat beat Cantor on Tuesday in a Virgina GOP congressional primary and for suggesting it was a real possibility when the conventional wisdom was that the powerful Cantor would cruise to a lopsided win. CNN’s Jake Tapper called him “Kaustrodamus.”
Brat against crony capitalism and bailouts
Kaus likes Brat for his economic populism.
“Notes: 1) This is a pitch — against a ‘low wage agenda’ and ‘crony corporate lobby’ — that can appeal to Democrats as well as Republicans. Maybe partisanship will eventually be transcended, not at the top, with David Brooks, Gloria Borger and Jon Huntsman imposing a Beltway consensus they hammer out at an Atlantic panel, but at the bottom, where less sleek figures like Brat, Phyllis Schlafly and Jeff Sessions, can make common cause with Democratic workers who’ve gotten the short end of previous top-down triumphs such as global trade and Reagan’s 1986 amnesty, as well as of ineluctable technological trends like automation. 2) Perhaps not coincidentally, Democrats can vote in the Cantor vs. Brat primary. …
“Backfill: See also this earlier Brat release, which expands the potentially bipartisan anti-corporate agenda to other issues – like spending, debt and insider trading.”
Will Brat’s stunning victory presage a national populist uprising?
The National Journal’s Ron Fournier, who seems liberated since he stopped being AP’s Washington D.C. bureau chief, thinks it’s possible.
One way or the other, Cantor’s loss shows there’s no such thing as a safe House seat anymore.
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The tea baggers are driving the poor repubs to ruin— the trend will continue—- as a Dem you might think I like it. I do not— we need a robust Repub party, what we have is nothing.
Discuss
Difficult to hold the people responsible when the actual RAGWUS perps are always hidden by the layer upon layer of bureaucracy. It’s part of why nobody ever gets fired from a government job. NOBODY is directly responsible for ANYTHING. Cantor was a RAGWUS Troll, the nation is better off with him removed from office. 🙂
Finally dumbed down service workers voted out a major bootlicker for globalists.
Doomers…..why on earth to you kneel at Republican thrones of power, corruption, slavers and exploiters of the working class.
Finally dumbed down service workers voted out a major bootlicker for globalists.
Doomers…..why on earth to you kneel at Republican thrones of power, corruption, slavers and exploiters of the working class.
Queegy must have been really driven by this post!! 🙂
Donkey and his middle class friends support the uber rich…..when do you share in their wealth?
Trailer park living is only the first step…..redistribution or create high paying jobs now!
Queegy, I have lived the American dream, ran my own business, owned three homes in California at one point, retired with much more than I will ever need. I do however see the RAGWUS as a poison pill, all it does is take, it creates nothing but debt. 🙂
Poor Duncey! He dreams he’s a 1% er instead of a useful idiot to his masters!
Carry on little buddy!
Carry on with your thieving RAGWUS ways TCS, soon it will consume itself and you will become a lot more humble. 🙂
Yep…..the rich guy hoarding his money and telling the rest of us how to live our lives……they will find you Donkey…..the Ragwus or the poor you ridicule relentlessly.
I do not ridicule the poor Queegy, I do however expose the RAGWUS for being the thieves they are in their quest to keep the private sector citizens poor by stealing all their hard earned money for pay, benefits, and pensions. 🙂
Duncey-Doinkey– own up and be a man. Unless as I suspect you are a lady, and then I would say own up and be a woman.— Your posts are 110% RIDICULE OF THE GOV EMPLOYEES AND THE POOR—that’s all you got little buddy.
TCS, making the statement “…ridicule of the gov employee and the poor” is at odds with the truth, I do call out the RAGWUS feeders at all times, but never the poor, simply because the RAGWUS feeder is never poor with todays infestation of government leeches.
The poor are victims of the RAGWUS, prisons, poorly run schools, broken infrastructure, VA medical centers, and most everything else touched by the RAGWUS machine is used to belittle, denigrate, and oppress the poor. 🙂 🙂
It is the state that hates the poor Queegy. The jails are filled with the poor, the schools are filled with poor, welfare is doled out at starvation and homeless levels to keep the poor down, while the RAGWUS feeder lives like a King with endless benefits, vacations, perks, pensions, and pay. You are blind to your real purpose. 🙂