Eric Cantor's primary defeat

That Eric Cantor was defeated by a more conservative opponent is really not particularly surprising. There are however two things that were shocking.

First that the right, science deniers in particular, who have little time for book learning, voted for an academic.

Second, that the Dave Brat accomplished this spending less that 5% of the money Cantor spent. This is truly astounding; and strangely both give me some cause for cautious optimism.

If issues do matter to voters more than the slurs and character assassination that campaign advertising generally engages in, then there is hope that our democracy will represent the people's views, and not those of wealthy interest groups.