Eric Cantor: Democrats Taking Advantage of GOP Divisions

Republicans must become unified if they expect to regain power from the Democratic Party, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says, and lawmakers must "begin to offer solutions to the problems that people face every day."

The Virginia Republican, speaking to about 500 party activists at a luncheon Saturday, said the GOP doesn't need to step away from its core principles, but it does need to work together, reports Politico.

"We have not done this recently and it has allowed the Democrats to take power, it has allowed them to pursue their politics of partisan division, and even worse, it has allowed them to enact their leftist agenda," Cantor said.

In more strong words to the GOP leaders, Cantor said there can be no "sugarcoating" the party's losses, especially in the state of Virginia. Last month, tea party favorite Ken Cuccinelli lost the governor's race in a hotly contested challenge against Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Just after the election, Cucinelli's top strategist, Chris LaCivita, complained his candidate lost because the mainstream Republican Party did not back him.

Cantor said Saturday that the last time Republicans failed to hold any of Virginia's statewide offices was back in 1969, "so these recent defeats have inflamed a lot of tension."

As a result, Cantor said, "we’ve been seeing a lot of finger pointing and a lot of blame and feelings of resentment. Now we’ve got to commit to ending that. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t win elections."

Republicans can still show voters that they care about their issues, by taking conservative principles "directly to the kitchen table," said Cantor.

"If we speak directly to the people and explain why our conservative solutions work and why liberal ideas are set up to fail, there is no beating our Republican Party,” he said.

But when the party is not united, "and when we fail to offer a plan that connects with people and the problems that they’re having, we lose at the ballot box. And when we lose at the ballot box, we get policies like Obamacare."

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