The knock against Rand Paul in the game of, “Is the Conservative Crazy, Stupid, Evil, or Senile,” is most definitely the evil tag. We’ve been inundated with he hates Jooooooos smears, and by the way, not a single one has yet turned out to be true. Such is the fate of those of us who reside on the right side of the aisle and have the temerity to stick to our principles. For Ted Cruz, now that he has gained national notoriety, early indications are that the establishment class is either going to go with the crazy or stupid meme. I’ll give the bid of crazy the early edge here, as Cruz has a pretty solid pedigree in terms of smarts, having successfully argued a number of cases in front of the Supreme Court.
In any case, Rush says it far better and more eloquently than I ever could in this bit, so let’s give him a listen. He’ll intersperse his comments with some made by David Brooks, the, “conservative,” voice at the New York Times. Brooks it seems, has taken exception to the fact that Ted Cruz is not simply capitulating his principles to the greater glory of helping Barack Obama get his agenda inflicted upon the rest of us. It’s the same tired refrain of, “we can only win elections anymore by becoming Democrat Lite.”
Ted Cruz is receiving this treatment for two reasons. One, he is opposing the Republican leadership which has long forgotten that at some level, the Republican brand is supposed to represent smaller government, free market economics, a government constrained in its authority by the consent of those governed, decentralized power, a strict adherence to our Constitution as originally written, and other crazy concepts like that.
Two, and more subtle in the scheme of things but just as important, Ted Cruz ran away with a recent national poll identifying Republican Nominee front runners for 2016. Cruz scored an eye popping 37% in a recent PPP effort, while establishment favorites Chris Christie and Jeb Bush failed to even place themselves into a position that would force their names to receive mention. While it is true that polls this far out are meaningless, it is also true that the establishment will without fail destroy any front runners not approved, no matter when they are identified.
Cruz is popular with the Republican base for one simple reason. He is willing to make the argument. He is stating our position on things without apology, with passion, and more importantly, eloquently. Even more important than that however, (and I have literally hundreds of financial solicitations to prove this point,) they are angry with Cruz because he actually went to Washington and governed as he promised to govern. That to me is the most important quality in any political candidate. Week after week, I get dozens of letters from every Republican politician and his brother with one simple message, give me money so that I can put a stop to Barack Obama’a insane radical agenda. When running for office, there is not a single GOP politician in April through July who will not promise to govern somewhere to the right of Barry Goldwater. Once September hits however, the GOP base is suddenly filled with crack pots and loons.
Cruz never made that shift, and had the unmitigated gall to believe that doing what he promised to do while campaigning would actually be appreciated by the people who sent him to office in the first place. Exactly how long the Republican Party establishment feels that they can wage a war against their own base and not have us realize it is a closely guarded secret, probably being held in Al Gore’s magical lock box. One thing is certainly true however, that time and the time dictated by reality are most definitely not the same. Barack Obama didn’t win two national elections. The Republican Establishment lost two elections.
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Ted Cruz
