In a piece that appeared in the local opinion section of Sunday’s Washington Post, writer Peter Galuszka took to bashing conservative Congressman Dave Brat (Va.) for holding beliefs that provide “eerie allusions to the nation’s xenophobic past” that Galuszka characterized as the U.S. embracing “Judeo-Christian religious tradition, rule of law and free markets.”
Using a Brat fundraiser called “Brats and Beer With Brat” for his backdrop, Galuszka set the scene and described the geographic makeup of Brat’s district before making this pun:
Brat is on a roll, so to speak. The hard-line conservative had just trashed Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) on “Meet the Press.” Since he beat then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a stunning primary upset in June 2014 with strong tea party support, he has been ripping up the traditional GOP hierarchy.
After a quote from Brat telling supporters about how Washington D.C. is “out of whack,” Galuszka lamented that Brat’s “latest coup” was the Freedom Caucus’s taking of Congress “hostage” that included the departure of House Speaker John Boehner.
Continuing to malign the conservative, Galuszka lashed out at Brat for his opposition to illegal immigration and rather straight-forward endorsement of the country’s First Principles:
Brat’s message is one of resentment and frustration. Hitting “illegal” immigrants is good material even though his district is mostly white and rural. Its Hispanic population is only 4.9 percent.
He draws eerie allusions to the nation’s xenophobic past when he proclaims that the three essential ingredients for a successful nation are following the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, rule of law and free markets. He doesn’t talk about his pet issue — overwhelming federal spending, debts and deficits — because “that’s on my Web site,” he tells Bratfest attendees.
After interviewing a few of the attendees and providing a short biography of Brat prior to his election to Congress, Galuszka wrapped things up with a few more doses of snarkiness shot in Brat’s direction:
So what does Brat stand for other than the politics of resentment and bromides about limiting government power and spending?
It’s hard to tell from the sometimes bizarre statements he makes. Brat challenged reauthorizing $14 billion in spending to teach low-income children with this thought: “Socrates trained Plato in on a rock and then Plato trained in Aristotle roughly speaking on a rock. So, huge funding is not necessary to achieve the greatest minds and the greatest intellects in history.”
Ouch!
