Tuesday night, David Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College, right outside Richmond, accomplished something stunning: defeating the House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, something never done before in American history.

Some are trying to pigeonhole Mr. Brat as a Tea Party candidate, but the truth is that, while he appeals to the Tea Party constituency, he is what a bread-and-butter Republican is supposed to be: a believer in free markets, limited government, strong defense, and a morality based in our Judeo-Christian ethos. 

I first met Mr. Brat years back when he invited me to speak at Randolph-Macon College on the topic of “The Morality of Capitalism” based on an article I had published in the Wall Street Journal. He is well grounded in the fundamentals of American political philosophy.  

The issue of immigration played heavily in the last two weeks of the campaign: specifically, the unacceptable daily phenomenon of illegals walking across the border and almost immediately becoming wards of the state by taxing hardworking American citizens and too-quickly finding loopholes for them to vote and determine America’s destiny. Americans are afraid they are losing their country and are being made powerless to stop it.

Mr. Cantor, as House Majority Leader together with Speaker Boehner, did not seem to share the alarm that many of us do. In effect, an invasion is happening to America and the weapons are not bullets but the ballot box: Democrat leaders are orchestrating an influx of illegals to use the ballot box to install socialism and permanently maintain the power of the Democrat Party. Their eligibility to vote is often suspect, but legitimate challenges are shot down by invoking the tried-and-tested accusation of racism.

The boast by Mr. Obama that he would transform America is happening through a willful demographic invasion designed to nullify the votes of hardworking, patriotic Americans in their own land. People want to know: Who is orchestrating and masterminding the illegal influx of tens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents across the border into America?

Mr. Cantor lost not because people decided to “throw the bums out.”  He lost because he, in this particular primary race, became the national symbol of a Republican Party unwilling to represent our people in our need to stop a corrupt and dictatorial President and his party. 

Never in our lifetime have we witnessed such atrocious violations of the Constitution and assaults on freedom, decency, and the sacred code of American fair play than in the last couple of years wherein the IRS audited the president’s enemies, our people were killed in Benghazi and the circumstances covered up, the failure at the VA, the green light for Iran to go ahead with its bomb-making, and the willful release of five Taliban terrorists who certainly threaten our safety.  During all this, while conservative Americans looked for leaders to vigorously and passionately stand against such tyrannies, the two men most entrusted to do so, Mr. Boehner and Mr. Cantor, did not lead, did not fight, and let us down. Not for weeks, not for months, but for years. 

Their inaction made us feel powerless. Their dispassion made us wonder if they were on our team. The country is burning and they seem oblivious. Their career goals do not seem to coincide with who we are, what we cherish, and our principled beliefs in Americanism.

Tuesday night, Republicans decided that Mr. Cantor was no longer the man who would protect us and our liberties from Obamaism. He, Mr. Boehner, and other men elected to be leaders appear afraid or unwilling to provide a strong opposition to Obama's daily march toward tyranny. The sense is "we the people" can't count on them to fight the Good Fight.

Rabbi Spero is author of Push Back and president of Caucus for America.