Washington DC still does not get it.
Eric Cantor was thrown out of office by Tea Party voters after ignoring his constituents for years. Even that jolt failed to wake a comfortably drowsy Republican leadership team into representing the people’s will. In fact, the first rule they told newly seated Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) in DC was to not buck the system.
Brat and Cantor (Richmond Times)
As a member of the House Freedom Caucus, Dave Brat has unapologetically failed to heed their advice. Brat fights against their failures, and says leadership’s unresponsiveness to issues close to voters’ hearts and minds is the reason Trump is resonating.
The Daily Signal reported:
Over Brat’s first year in Congress—Cantor stepped down in August, allowing a special election to coincide with the 2014 November midterms—not much has changed.
Congress, just as in 2014, has a fast approaching deadline to fund the federal government and is likely to pass a short-term bill that funds the government at current levels until December.
Conservatives have outlined their priorities for this year’s bill—defund Planned Parenthood, keep the Export-Import Bank closed, and repeal Obamacare—but just like last year, they fear that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will shun his Republican colleagues and pass a bill with assistance from House Democrats.
And though Republicans have control of both the House and the Senate, conservatives still feel as if Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is at the helm of the upper chamber.
“We’re in the same position as last year,” Brat said. “The American people see this degree of budget—what?—chaos year after year after year, and when we own both chambers and are responsible for an orderly process, I think everyone should be getting the memo when you see [Donald] Trump at 30 percent and Bernie [Sanders] at 30 percent, that the American people are catching on, and they do not like the D.C. process.”
