American politics has seen the middle ground abandoned, for the moment

By Jack Waterford
Updated April 23 2018 - 10:09pm, first published June 17 2014 - 10:07pm

The sheer thrill and excitement in Washington of a visit last week by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was muted by news from next door in Virginia that a senior member of the Republican First XI in the House of Representatives had been clean bowled at the Virginia Republican primaries by a Tea Party candidate no one had ever heard of. This candidate spent 5 per cent of the money Eric Cantor had spent on his campaign; he argued that Cantor should be thrown out for capitulating to Obamaism, big government and advocates of immigration reform.

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