Kaus: Luther Strange Is 2017’s Eric Cantor

GOP Sen. Luther Strange is the 2017 version of former House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who was also defeated in his primary in 2014 by deep public opposition to Washington’s bipartisan support for cheap-labor immigration, says Mickey Kaus, an author and an advocate for reduced immigration.

Kaus wrote after the vote:

Luther Strange is Cantor II. Which House Republicans want to try out for the role of Cantor III by backing the Pelosi/Trump [DACA/Dream Act] amnesty? Not many, I suspect. The pundits may tell them the Alabama race was all about vague anti-Establishment anger, or the failure to repeal Obamacare, or about “local dynamics.”Elected Republican legislators, with their careers on the line, know better.

The “Gang of Eight” cheap-labor and amnesty bill was finally defeated in June 2014 when the GOP primary voters in Virginia’s Seventh District dumped pro-amnesty Cantor in favor of professor and economist David Brat.

Kaus suggested that Strange’s defeat may have been caused by the September 13 meeting of President Donald Trump with Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The two Democrats quickly announced that Trump had agreed to give up funding for the wall and to accept a hugely expensive, record-sized amnesty for 3.3 million younger ‘dreamer’ illegals. Trump’s 2016 base quickly rejected the claimed no-strings, no-walls amnesty, forcing Trump and his deputies to repeatedly deny the Democrats’ claims of a deal.

Kaus notes:

Immigration Amnesty lost big: Two weeks before the Alabama election, some polls apparently showed a very tight race. About this time, Trump held his infamous dinner with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi at which he seemed to cut a Dem-friendly deal to give amnesty to the “Dreamers” — in exchange for a grab-bag of feel-good border security measures that did not include his promised Wall. Candidate Moore denounced the deal. Strange wouldn’t commit. Moore soon opened up a lead that doesn’t seem to have been cut even by Trump’s appearance in Huntsville on Strange’s behalf. I’m not saying there weren’t other big factors in the race, like anger at the GOP’s failure to repeal Obamacare. I’m saying the seemingly impending Trump-endorsed Dreamer cave-in was another big factor. The difference between the two factors is that the mainstream press, which instinctively avoids crediting restrictionist concerns, will tell you about the former but not the latter.

Kaus is no libertarian, but favors economic redistribution to preserve a broad sense of social equality amid a high-tech, unequal economy. He firmly opposed the 2014 Gang of Eight cheap-labor subsidy for employers, and many of his former friends in the Democratic Party then disowned him for his political consistency.

Kaus also wrote:

Moore won without Trump: Only a few days ago it was fashionable to declare “there is no such thing as Trumpism”–there was only Trump, and his changing positions. Trump’s voters would simply follow whichever way their leader led — even, most controversially, into a deal with Democrats to give formal amnesty to the illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers,” who had been protected by an Obama executive action (DACA). But, in Alabama, Trump said ‘Follow Big Luther’ and his base said, ‘No thanks. We’ve found a Trumpier candidate.’ Turns out there is such a thing as Trumpism without Trump:

Read it all here.