New Chapter for “Profiles in Courage”
Eric Cantor is a rising Washington star, as JFK was when he published his 1955 best seller about political fortitude. But sadly Cantor doesn’t have a stylish collaborator like Ted Sorensen, and his turgid essay on American success was scheduled for more turbulent times, producing a chapter to qualify for “Profiles in Caution.”
At the Wharton School of Business yesterday, the House Majority Leader was to enlighten future tycoons about income inequality when his staff made the discovery that the lecture would be open to the public, which could include a few Wall Street protesters.
Cantor was a no-show.
The Wharton students missed his family story: “My grandmother and her family fled religious persecution to come here at the turn of the last century…
“But our country isn’t like that. America offered opportunity. My grandmother eventually made her home in a working class section of my hometown of Richmond. As you can imagine, in the early 20th century, the South wasn’t often the most accepting place for a young Jewish woman. Widowed by age 30, she raised my father and uncle in a tight apartment above a tiny grocery store…She worked day and night and sacrificed tremendously…
“All she wanted was a chance–a fair shot at making a better life for her two sons. And if she were still alive today, I know she would be blown away to know that her grandson is not only a Member of the U.S. Congress, but now the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
An inspiring, albeit familiar American story, from which Cantor draws an odd lesson about a generation that produced scientists, scholars, Supreme Court justices, statesmen and philanthropists who gave back so much to their country.
His father made a ton of money in real estate, and now Cantor is protecting his version of the American dream by sabotaging even tiny tax increases for billionaires that might ease the pain of the poor and helpless while backing Tea Party proposals that, according to economists, ““would quickly destroy millions of jobs while creating enormous economic and social upheaval.”
MORE.
8 Responses to “New Chapter for “Profiles in Courage””
Since per your link OWS members were lining up at 9 AM for a 4:30 speech, the crowd would probably have have contained more than just “a few Wall Street protesters”. This was a no-win for Cantor, either he cancels and looks like a wuss or shows up and gets shouted down.
Overall I would have liked to have seen him go through with the speech, or at least attempt to. If he has convictions in what he is saying he should be willing to say it to people who vehemently disagree with him otherwise it is just hot air, which I think is the case.
Cantor is a coward. All capitalist are cowards. Long on mouth, short on deed. If it is not about them, then it is meaningless.
Cantor, and, his brethren in greed, would squeeze the last bit of effort from the rest of us for gleaning the last bit of profit for themselves, then discard us all.
Stand before your accusers and speak Cantor. Coward.
Cantor is a douche bag that can only survive in the House. Like most House Reps, he is an extremist that appeals to the worst in our society…worst voters that is…
All capitalists are cowards ?
So anyone who if self employed, owns a small business, tries in any way to succeed in life is bad ?
All Republicans are bad ?
I was just lamenting the intolerance of the right and here it is from the left.
Sigh….
Capitalism is fine Allen, the problem comes in when capitalism is no longer tempered with social responsibility. As for your belief that all capitalists are cowards? What an absurd and ridiculous notion.
What Robert Stein, DaGoat, ShannonLee, Patrick Edaburn, and JSpencer say.
Edit to add: I don’t get to say that very often… It was kind’a nice.
Agreed, nice to have some consensus.
Capitalism has nothing to do with feel-good liberal economic and social policy goals, which don’t even merit the term adjuncts to, let alone be claimed to be part of, a “better” kind or mere variant of capitalism. The two things, capitalism and the welfare state or concerned, paternalistic government, are wholly separate. (So is much which passed under the name of regulation.)
If you want a safety net, or cradle-to-grave entitlement bliss, fine, but don’t say it is part of or (stretching more into nothingness still) that it needs to be a part of capitalism. Of our economy and society, maybe, sure, but not part of capitalism.
As for the weird charge that capitalists are cowards — it’s weird as well as wrong.