Eric Cantor’s Poker Strategy: Bet the Pot

In the bitter struggle over the U.S. debt limit, the sharpest lines of conflict aren’t between Democrats and Republicans. The most withering gunfire occurs between members of the “Grand Old Party” itself. In view of this merciless political battle one is tempted to ask: A bankrupt United States or a Republican Party co-opted by extremists — which is the greater evil?

Such a decision is about as hard to make as choosing whether you would rather contract plague or cholera. One thing is certain: If the extremists are successful in their takeover bid, those unruly children will replace the somewhat-open-to-compromise John Boehner with the dashing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor as Speaker of the House. In that case, there will be no hope of government ever functioning. Politicians like Michele Bachmann, the ideological Lady Gaga of the tea party movement currently running to be the Republican nominee for president, would then be making the decisions. These are the people who suspect that the United States going into bankruptcy would have no consequences whatsoever.

Cantor recently wrote a bestseller in which he argues for more public spirit for the good of society as well as a return to the old Republican values. Cantor may be insane, but he’s not quite that insane. Nonetheless, he risks damaging his party permanently. If Ronald Reagan, the pragmatic unifier of fiscal, moral and security-minded conservatives as well as being an icon of his party can see all this, he must be spinning in his grave.