A Fitting Name

Sometimes synchronicities are so obvious they’re like the literal elephant in the room. You can’t miss them. But sometimes we do. That was the case in 2014 when an obscure economics professor shocked Washington with a startling upset victory over Eric Cantor, a prominent Republican congressman who was in line to become speaker of the house. The troublemaker’s name: Dave Brat, the perfect surname for the guy who rattled the Republican establishment by bouncing Eric Cantor out of the house. An economics professor, who touted Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman in his classes, Brat said Cantor wasn’t conservative enough for his Virginia district.

The New York Times called Brat’s victory “one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history.” Brat went on to an easy victory in the general election and has remained one of the most conservative and doctrinaire members of congress. In mid-October, Brat showed that he has remained an outsider of sorts on the inside when he welcomed the call by former Trump aide Steve Bannon for conservatives to take on at least a dozen Republican incumbents in next year’s primary election. Brat told MSNBC reporter Katy Tur that he would favor ousting some of his Republican colleagues in favor of more conservative candidates. Apparently, he is still living up to his name as some Republicans fear that Bannon’s divisive efforts will tear apart of the Republican Party.

There’s one other interesting thing about Brat that caught our attention. In one of his academic papers written years ago, he made an interesting prediction about the future of the U.S. He wrote, “…We appear to be a bit passive. Hitler came along and he did not meet with unified resistance. I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily.”

A lot of people now think the same about DJT. But Brat is like most Republicans regarding Trump. He and the rest of them – with one or two exceptions—“appear to be a bit passive,” to quote Brat’s paper. In fact, Brat calls himself a strong Trump supporter and notes that he has voted with him 90 percent of the time. It might be time he read over his old paper!