Cantor: Republicans Need to End the Fear Campaign

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Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Eric Cantor was one of the “young guns” of the Republican Party until 2014, when he was suddenly deemed insufficiently conservative and lost to a fellow named Dave Brat in a primary challenge. Today, in the Washington Post, Cantor warns that Republicans are in trouble because they aren’t willing to tell their constituents the truth. But it doesn’t have to be this way:
If the majority of Republican elected officials work together to confront the false narratives in our body politic — that the election was stolen (it wasn’t), that there is a QAnon-style conspiracy to uproot pedophiles at the heart of American government (there isn’t), that a Democratic-controlled government means the end of America (it doesn’t; it may produce worse policy, but the republic has survived 88 years of Democrats occupying the White House) — all Republicans will be better off. If instead most elected Republicans decide to protect themselves against a primary challenge through their silence or even their affirmation, then like the two prisoners acting only in their own interests, we will all be worse off. (The same holds true for Democrats.)
Cantor is right: there is a widespread belief among rank-and-file Republicans that Democrats are deliberately trying to ruin the country because they hate America. This needs to stop if our political system is to have any chance of thriving.
Of course, Cantor doesn’t mention why so many Republicans believe this. Maybe he still has too many friends who like to appear on Fox News.