Who Spoke in Eric Cantor’s Primary Loss?

"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble opinion, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution." -- John Adams

My simple answer to the header question is “We the People”.  But obviously there is much more to it. Our two party system can be a detriment to our politics, as John Adams suggests in the opening quote, but it doesn’t have to be if Americans pay attention. In a surprise upset Eric Cantor lost his primary bid, after seven terms in congress and the current House Majority Leader, to a virtual unknown, David Brat. There are those who will claim that Cantor's loss was about immigration but though there is an element of truth to that claim, it only points as an indicator to a more fundamental truth. Our republic works best when the people understand their duty to vote for those who work for our interests and then make sure to hold them accountable to that trust.

David Brat makes an interesting statement on Hannity. “Although I had tremendous Tea Party support and just wonderful people in the Tea Party grass roots helping me out, and they're clearly responsible for the win, but I ran on the Republican principles.” People are beginning to understand we need to vote politicians in office that hold our principles. It may be Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or other, then defined by how we stand in it; such as conservative, liberal, progressive or constitutionalist. Many of us will find ourselves an odd concoction of a few or all of these labels. The point being, we need to know who we are before we can elect those who can do what we need and want. A majority in Virginia managed to do that and changed how they are represented in Congress and maybe what Congress may decide to do in the near future.

Can it be done on a larger scale? Ben Carson is man who is not a politician or tightly affiliated with any one party. But he is a man of great principals and integrity. He is a man who believes in One Nation and would lead America back to its roots and founding to again be a great nation and envy to the rest of the world. But we need to decide if “We the People” is who we are and hopefully convince Ben Carson that we believe he represents us no matter what political party we associate with.

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” - George Washington, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796