Posted on 06/17/2013 12:57:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Via the Examiner, a short but noteworthy clip insofar as it exposes a potential fault line between Cruz and Rand Paul. McCain lumps them together as “wacko birds” but I’m not so sure that’s true of Cruz on national-security issues. His alliance with Paul interests me because it strikes me as a personification of the uneasy libertarian/tea-party alliance. The groups overlap heavily on spending issues, and both are deeply suspicious of Obama’s expansion of government. The master stroke of Paul’s drone filibuster was that he found a sweet spot for both, making the philosophical case for due process while humiliating O for having turned into such a hypocrite about it. Even so, no matter how much Paul sometimes likes to pretend that the tea party is synonymous with libertarianism (for his own strategic reasons), various polls show that it just isn’t so. Tea partiers are more socially conservative than doctrinaire libertarians, they’re more likely to support entitlements, and they’re more traditionally Republican on defense/security issues. That’s not to say that they’re not becoming more libertarian — polls lately show Republicans are more skeptical about NSA surveillance than Democrats are, although that’s probably for partisan reasons — but they’re not all Ron Paul fans either. That’s why Rand is usually quick to claim the tea-party label. The more he gets TPers thinking of themselves as allied with him, then theoretically the more receptive they’ll be to his libertarian ideals.
McCain doesn’t seem to understand the difference between them but comparing Paul’s reaction to the NSA revelations to Cruz’s is instructive. Paul’s first instinct was to organize a class-action lawsuit and accuse the NSA of an “extraordinary invasion of [Americans'] privacy.” Cruz, by contrast, says the revelations are “cause for concern” but urges Fox viewers to reserve judgment until we know more about the programs. And from the looks of it here, his chief objection seems to be that this particular administration can’t be trusted with NSA’s surveillance tools in light of the IRS scandal, not necessarily that any administration can’t be trusted with it. He may very well end up joining Paul’s lawsuit, but I suspect that’ll be aimed at impressing libertarians whose votes he’ll need if he ends up running for president someday just as Rand often tempers his own libertarianism in order to impress more mainstream tea-party conservatives. Cruz’s ally, Sarah Palin (who returned to Fox this morning, although she doesn’t speak in this clip) seems to be taking a position similar to his lately. From her speech at the Faith and Freedom Conference on Saturday:
“The scandals infecting this city, they are a symptom of a bigger disease, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat sitting atop a bloated boot on your neck, out of control government, everybody gets infected, no party is immune,” Palin said. “That’s why, I tell you, I’m listening to those independents, those libertarians, who are saying, it is both sides of the aisle, the leadership, the good ol’ boys in the party on both sides of the aisle, they perpetuate the problem.”…
Palin also took on the “pandering, rewarding the rule breakers, still-no-border security, special interest written amnesty bill,” especially ribbing Jeb Bush for his fertility comment yesterday. “I think it’s kind of touchy territory to want to debate this over one race’s fertility over another, and I say that as someone who’s kinda fertile herself.”
Obama didn’t evade Palin’s lashing, either. “Where is our commander in chief?” Palin asked. “We’re talking now more new interventions? I say, until we know what we’re doing, until we have a commander in chief who knows what he’s doing—well, chief, in these radical Islamic countries, aren’t even respecting basic human rights, when both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line ‘Allah ak-bar’—I say, let Allah sort it out.”
I suspect Cruz would agree with every word, and that her former running mate would disagree with most or all of it. (Palin advocated “Cruz control” for Washington in the speech, in fact.) She doesn’t want any more interventions under a strategist as poor as Obama — but she’s not against intervention in principle. She wants America to listen more to the libertarians, but when it comes to the lousy Gang of Eight bill, she rightly opposes it for its weak border security — even though libertarians are famously comfortable with weak borders. None of this is contradictory; most tea partiers would, I take it, agree that America needs more libertarianism while maybe not quite so much as Ron Paul supporters would prefer. The point is, though, there are real differences between Cruz and Rand Paul and I think we’re getting a hint of one in the clip. And the longer the national debate stays stuck on liberty-versus-security issues, the more obvious I think those differences will be.
Exactly. It isn’t necessarily that they spy on our most private moments in life which should upset us in the first place, but it is that some court, employer, or government agency will hold their information as gospel and we can be convicted on bogus data. He who controls the information controls us.
I hope Ted can stand through all this. I, for one, keep mixing Cruz with Rubio, and admit my sin. Rubio is the devil. Cruz is the Saint.
I first heard of Cruz on Mark Levin’s radio program last year and I had to pull over and listen to every word Cruz said, as he was spot on. I even went home and made a donation to his campaign.
They've always been tracking us...however if our Gov. doesn't stay active with tech updates and utilizes them...well...you can bet other countries ARE and will proceed without us....thus leaving us all the more vulnerable.
I don't think the NSA is ignoring the data....I do think their hands are often tied, just like our police and military.
I have friends in the police force as well as military...it's disgusting the regulations they have to abide by.....while the criminals and our foreign enemies have none... We muzzle our people for the sake of some idiot complaining because they fell and sued while taking a breathalizer test. At work i can't interfer if i see an individual pounding on his kid....because of lawsuites. Our military has lawyers with them to determine if or not firing on the enemy is legal or not. And now we have the american people who refuse to see we ARE no longer free from the attacks and invasions other countries have had to deal with all along....yet we clamor for that freedom...
They've always been tracking us...however if our Gov. doesn't stay active with tech updates and utilizes them...well...you can bet other countries ARE and will proceed without us....thus leaving us all the more vulnerable.
I don't think the NSA is ignoring the data....I do think their hands are often tied, just like our police and military.
I have friends in the police force as well as military...it's disgusting the regulations they have to abide by.....while the criminals and our foreign enemies have none... We muzzle our people for the sake of some idiot complaining because they fell and sued while taking a breathalizer test. At work i can't interfer if i see an individual pounding on his kid....because of lawsuites. Our military has lawyers with them to determine if or not firing on the enemy is legal or not. And now we have the american people who refuse to see we ARE no longer free from the attacks and invasions other countries have had to deal with all along....yet we clamor for that freedom...
Caww I think each of us can see instances where data collection is necessary. The problem is, it’s a give and take topic. They push. We push back.
How much data collection is too much? Since this data is subject to extreme abuse, it can be used to control just about anyone it amounts to massive danger.
With this information, just about anyone is subject to blackmail of some sort. Business secrets are available. Secured communications can be captured and deciphered.
We are messing with total destruction here.
I like Cruz. As for Rand Paul don’t forget he voted to confirm Kerry and Hagel. His plan to filibuster Brennan was political grandstanding. He should have voted against all three. Also, Paul said we have to give the president some leeway. Oh NO we don’t Rand.
Et tu, Ted?
<....”We are messing with total destruction here”...>
Yes...and why are we in this position?
I will say again...we ask for good men and they rise...we fight to get them to Washington and they go. But when they get there they learn that they are up against... a mighty ‘stronghold’ of men and woman from both sides of the aisle who are not going to even allow them a place if they can’t make some concessions....that’s how it works.
... ..and if they aren’t willing you can be certain they are left out of the loop on the sidebar. They MUST get a foothold but we slam them and stop supporting them as soon as they attempt to position themselves for the Bigger Prize of taking these people out!
If WAshington doesn’t have the Representatives we need there to upend that stronghold...it’s not going to make one bit of difference what the people think about anything..let alone privacy....and we are currently seeing how very much those in control could care less what we know they are doing.
Fair enough. I should have known better than to have gone off half-cocked. Thanks for the context I should have looked up myself.
Cruz, Rubio, Boehner.......we have such great leaders in the GOP.
Not so. The loony left also has government employees, including Presidential cabinet & puppeteers, the voting dead and maybe not all, but most, of the alphabet agencies.
Not to mention the government indoctrination centers, higher "education", the so-called news "media" and the RATagandists in the entertainment industry.
Did I leave anything out?
What type of flippen cowflop is this?
Since we've had enemies and bad guys for hundreds of years, and since bad guys/terrorist use the postal mail to communicate, should the U.S. Government be opening, reading and examining the contents of mail of all Americans?
>> I don’t trust ANYONE is DC. Cruz is becoming one of ‘them’.
Because he’s not hyperventilating over the NSA?
If Palin is just like/same race as Latinos/Hispanics, do Latinos mark X for "White/Caucasian" on government forms?
Agreed! I wouldn’t take my eyes off of Mike Lee, either. He, Ted, and Sarah are in this to the end. Pray for them.
Tagline ...
WTF, over?
San Antonio jobs?
A confuZed...I haZ one???
Oh great, can’t wait to see all the people here throwing Cruz under the bus. Seems there is no one who can satisfy conservatives except the conservative who is complaining about everyone else.
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