I have categories for ideas. One is Things You Know You Can Do But Shouldn’t. Sometimes I can explain what will happen when you do these things and other times I can imagine some of the unintended consequences. Mostly “Things You Shouldn’t Do” is followed by a list of possible unintended consequences. Too Big to Fail is easy to imagine bad outcomes. Playing to your base I rate as Easy to Not So Easy.
Eric Cantor just lost his Republican primary election in God fearing Virginia to an even more conservative new-comer. I can say that this is just desserts for playing to the radical right of the Grand Old Party with his rhetoric, but I suspect his loss is for a disturbing reason. Eric Cantor was openly Jewish and the good christian people in Virginia, all members of the GOP finally got rid the Jew. Never mind that their God’s only son is Jewish, the Republican party needs to be white and christian. Right?
When politicians start catering to the fringe elements in their districts, bringing the fringe ideas into the center or at least more toward the center of political argument, these politicians give credence, value and legitimacy to what should be crazy views of what should be and what should not be in government. Add to that that Mr. Cantor was living his own Too Big to Fail, his forgetting that the little people of his district were the ones that gave his his office and were the same people to take Mr. Cantor’s office away from him. That’s the problem with radical positions: There’s always someone crazier than you are or at least some one who will pander to even crazier people than you are willing to pander to.
