Everyone in respectable society seems to be piling on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). They didn’t like his Obamacare filibuster back in September 2013. They didn’t like his shenanigans over raising the debt ceiling last week.
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Sen. Ted Cruz forced a 60-40 vote on the debt ceiling in the Senate when the Republican leadership just wanted a 51-49 vote. Republican senators didn’t like that: Cruz forced some of them to vote for increasing the debt ceiling to pass the procedural 60-40 vote before final passage, and that could create political trouble for them at election time.
You can script the attack ad yourself: “Senator Flip-flop voted for increased debt before he voted against it.” Even Thomas Sowell is concerned.
Senator Ted Cruz has not yet reached the point where he can make policy, rather than just make political trouble. But there are already disquieting signs that he is looking out for Ted Cruz — even if that sets back the causes he claims to be serving.
No! A politician out for himself?
What is the problem here? Ted Cruz is running for president in 2016 and he needs to stand out from the crowd. He and his staff evidently feel that the number one thing to do is to stand out as the candidate willing to fight for the people against the powerful.
His strategy is particularly resonant right now because if you are a conservative voter you probably don’t think that anyone has been fighting for you since, oh, the failed impeachment of Bill Clinton back in 1998.
I understand the fears of the critics. They are afraid that liberals will get to define Ted Cruz as a mad bomber, and make him radioactive and unelectable. They could be right.
Let us give some credit to Ted Cruz and assume that he and his staff are well aware of the definition problem. But from their point of view, the first thing to do is to establish Cruz among Republican primary voters as a fighter, a man who will stand up to the Washington, D.C. establishment, the spineless RINOs, and the liberals.
Once Cruz is established as a fighter and has won the support of the conservative base, then he can adjust his tactics and start reaching out to the squishy middle.
Here is a thought that maybe the conventional thinkers haven’t thought about. Maybe the squishy moderates of the last decade won’t be so squishy in 2016. Maybe they will be hopping mad. In my mind, squishy moderates are the kind of people that believed the president when he promised them they could keep their doctor, and now are shocked to find that they have lost their health insurance.
It’s just a hunch, but I think that the squishy moderates will never forget, not for the rest of their lives, that President Obama lied to them and took away their health plans.
If that is true then Ted Cruz is setting exactly the right tone for his presidential campaign, all the way through to November 2016.