SPOOKY: Cantor To Try Speaking On A Campus Again, This Time on Halloween

Protests are already brewing for the Halloween night speech by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, which comes just a week after he canceled a talk on the University of Pennsylvania campus due to scheduled protests.

Cantor was booked to speech last week about income equality, but he backed out after learning hundreds of protesters planned to demonstrate at the event. The move was seemingly Cantor the Canceller’s way of avoiding confrontations with dissenters.

(The Five Most Vapid Lines From Eric Cantor’s Would-Be Speech)

Now, several demonstrations have been planned for his latest gig, and they’re taking on decidedly spooky themes.

One protest is called “A Funeral for the Middle Class” and implies that Cantor will “conduct a public funeral for the middle class—finally done in by the regressive tax policies, health care cuts, and special favors to CEOs that he has advocated.” The Facebook posting asks people to show up in “spooky costumes” because “Eric Cantor's vision for our nation is SCARY!!!!!!”

Organizers of that protest also plan to collect donations for Occupy Ann Arbor.

Another planned protest looks to “Occupy” the university’s Ross School of Business building—in tune with Occupy protests across the country that, in part, work to raise awareness about income inequality—after dressing as vampires and descending on Cantor’s speech. The Facebook page reads:

WHO IS THE ZOMBIE? The zombie is the mindless investment banker, the bitten bigwig, the politician who has forgotten the humans they represent.

On Monday, we humans dress as the zombies--not to be zombies but to expose them.

Zombie love corporate personhood.
Zombie love 1% membership benefits.
Zombie love bite other to perpetuate zombie cycle.
Zombie love BBM.

Come dressed in your bloodiest business professional wear. We will provide the fake blood (choco-flavored!), you provide your ideas for change and vision for a zombie-less future.

Human love people-powered policy.
Human love non-factory education.
Human love life motivated by more than just money.
Human love hug.

It's a people-powered movement against the zombie-dominated 1%.

Other protests are also forming, including one organized by graduate students, and the Halloween theme seems to be taking hold, complete with zombies, coffins, and spooky costumes.

It could be a frightening Halloween for Cantor—if he shows up.

Brian Stewart is the journalism and online communications manager at Campus Progress.

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