The Fundamental Flaw in Eric Cantor's Argument

There's a fundamental flaw in Eric Cantor's core argument, which he makes again and again to anyone who will listen (note: why is anyone listening to Eric Cantor?). Here's the argument:

"What we want to be able to do is put back those principles that the party was built on and what this country was built on."

And what are those principles? According to Cantor, they are:

"...liberty, opportunity and the devotion to the individual and free market"

My god, where do we begin? First off, let's consider the fact that Republicans were in control of either the White House, Congress or both beginning in 1981. During that period, they implemented their "principles," or at least claimed to be implementing their "principles," of what they define as "liberty, opportunity and the devotion to the individual and free market." The results? Huge budget deficits. War. A housing bubble that has now burst. Corporate crony capitalism run amok. A rapid - and potentially dangerous - widening of income disparities in this country. A neglect of the public and common good - the environment, health care, education, other infrastructure - for private greed and rampant consumerism.

Second, as to the supposed principle of "liberty," for much of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the Republican Party stood for RESTRICTING liberty. Whether we're talking about a woman's right to choose what to do with HER OWN BODY, about two gay citizens' wishes to marry or to form a civil union, about your right to be protected from government intrusion on your conversations (or life in general), about your right to believe - or not believe - as is your wish, the Republicans from 1981 through today have been the anti-liberty (and anti-libertarian) party of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and their narrow version of "family values."

Third, with regard to the supposed principle of "devotion to the individual and free market," what we've instead had is a party that never met a subsidy - for corporations or rich people, that is - it didn't love. Whether we're talking about tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs, massive subsidies for corn-based ethanol to companies like Archer Daniels Midland, tax "incentives" to oil companies making record profits in the history of mankind, loosened government oversight of the credit industry or Wall Street, protection of the health-care-for-profit industry at all cost, continued efforts to weaken the power of labor vis-a-vis corporations, etc., etc., we're talking about a party that is all about giving more powerful to the powerful and for INTERFERING with the functioning of a true "free market" by tilting the playing field at every turn (through subsidies, tax policy, lax oversight, etc.).

Finally, as far as "opportunity" is concerned, what the Republicans crazy "trickle down"/"supply side" economic theories mean is simple: less opportunity for the vast majority of Americans to move up the economic ladder, more opportunity for the super-rich and super-powerful to get richer and more powerful. As Jim Webb says, during the past couple of decades, under Republican economic (and health care and other) policies, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class has gotten squeezed. Now Eric Cantor comes along and tells us he wants to "put back those principles?" Who in their right mind would fall for that?!? Obviously, Eric Cantor would. But hopefully not many other people.