Elections have consequences, and the stunning defeat of the heir apparent for leadership of the Republican Party, Eric Cantor, continues to reverberate throughout the political world. Completely caught off guard by this spectacular upset, the liberal media are scrambling to try to spin the story as something other than what it obviously was.
The message of the voters to Eric Cantor and the entire Nation was this: “no amnesty.” This was a slap in the face of the Chamber of Commerce that has been demanding so-called “immigration reform” as a way for big business to get cheap labor from illegal aliens, while able-bodied Americans are left on unemployment and while the rest of us have to deal with the crime and other costs caused by rampant illegal immigration.
Eric Cantor did not merely lose a tight election, but lost by a landslide of 11 percentage points to a virtually unknown challenger in a race that no one thought the Majority Leader could lose. Cantor became the first Majority Leader to lose in his own primary in U.S. history.
The media did not think the race was even worth covering, and they did not bother sending anyone to do exit polls of voters. But they need look no further than what Dave Brat says on his website, what he said while campaigning, and what he has said in the few interviews that he gave after his extraordinary victory.
“Dave believes that we need to secure the border before addressing immigration reform. Dave is opposed to amnesty,” his website boldly declares, while sharply contrasting his position with that of Eric Cantor, who favored amnesty for most illegal aliens up to age 30.
The support of amnesty for kids by Cantor, which Dave Brat sharply criticized shortly before the election, has apparently been heard loud and clear south of the border. Tens of thousands of children from Central America have recently swarmed over our border, giving Homeland Security a colossal problem.
In the past, the number of children crossing our southern border have totaled about 7,000 to 8,000 annually. But that quantity increased to 13,000 in 2012, then to more than 24,000 in 2013, and government estimates for this year of the number of illegal crossings by children was 60,000 before the recent surges indicate it could be even more, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
More, indeed, as the number of illegal crossings by Central American children into our country reached 47,000 by last month, making it likely it will exceed 100,000 in this year alone.
This pathetic tragedy has resulted in placing many children in harm’s way. Even the Obama Administration is obviously unable to fully protect all these children, and lacks proper facilities for housing them.
With all the investigative reporters standing by to try to find some dirt on Republicans like Dave Brat, hovering outside his family home all day to pounce on him whenever he emerges, why hasn’t anyone determined how so many children have made it to our border? They obviously didn’t walk across Mexico alone.
No one seems to know how they got here, or those who do know are not telling us. But it is clear why tens of thousands of children have suddenly shown up at our doorstep: their families want the amnesty and citizenship that Eric Cantor and big business donors were quietly promising them.
One thousand of these of these poor children are being housed in a facility in Nogales, Texas, but there are far too many additional children who are crossing the border into Texas even for that large state to accommodate. The Obama Administration is transferring many of these children to Arizona, but officials there are furious at being burdened with this immense responsibility.
Why are we surprised by this avoidable tragedy? If a border fence had been built as promised, then this dangerous wandering by children across our southern border would not be occurring.
Dave Brat, fresh from the biggest political upset in a generation, explained again to the public how wrongheaded amnesty is. “If you really want to help the rest of the world, what you’ve got to do is encourage free markets, private property rights and the strong rule of law and get rid of the dictators in a lot of these countries” that are sending children to us.
Liberals do not like that approach because they expect illegal aliens to become Democratic Party voters. The Chamber of Commerce does not like Brat’s approach because big business expects illegal aliens to become cheap, controllable labor for their companies.
But American voters accept the obvious truth against amnesty that Dave Brat articulates. Every Republican should heed the clear message sent by the voters in retiring the Majority Leader of the House.
Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books. She is the co-author, with George Neumayr, of the New York Times Best-Seller titled “No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.” She can be contacted by e-mail at phyllis@eagleforum.org. To find out more about Phyllis Schlafly and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Website at www.creators.com