Posted on 08/02/2015 4:53:23 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Need to be a hero, but don’t have any really scary enemies? Invent an enemy – in this case the government – and appoint yourself the champion who rises up against the dreaded foe just in time to save the people, all the while working for your enemy in the largest immorality tale of them all.
That’s Ted Cruz in a nutshell, with the emphasis on nut.
The Texas Senator criticizes President Obama for “throwing around” rhetoric without talking about the actual substance of the issue in question, meanwhile throwing around such terms as “Washington Cartel” and “Jihadist Stimulus Bill,” to name just a couple of recent examples.
Yes, Ted Cruz is a man who knows a thing or two about empty rhetoric.
According to Ted Cruz, Washington, D.C. is run by the #Washington Cartel. And, significantly, having created his strawman, he can say to CNN’s Jake Tapper, as he did in a June 30 interview, “I’m not a part of the ‘Washington cartel.'”
Right. Well, you designed it around your non-membership to designate everyone who is Not Ted Cruz. We could take a cue from John McCain and say the GOP is fueled by the #Wacko Birds, and that Ted Cruz is on the leadership team. That, at least, would have the virtue of being true.
On June 24 he gave a little talk at the Heritage Foundation, one of those groups engaged in inventing an American history more congenial to the Republican agenda, called “The People vs. The Washington Cartel: Restoring Liberty in the Age of Cronyism.”
The enemy here was not the obvious target: Crony Capitalism, which is indeed a serious threat to American liberties. No, his enemy was the federal government. As the Heritage Foundation put it,
Despite gaining massive majorities on a conservative anti-Washington wave in 2014, the new Congress has quickly returned to Washington’s business-as-usual. The Washington Cartel of powerful politicians, well-connected lobbyists, and media elite continue to benefit from big government at the expense of Main Street and ordinary Americans. Now is the time to break the Cartel.
How funny is this, when the Kochs are among those lobbyists, spending $5.4 million lobbying from January through June 2014 alone.
In fact, guess who is spending the weekend with the Kochs at their Orange County, city of Dana Point ocean-side retreat as I write? Ted Cruz, along with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who together make up the Koch Primary.
Yes, Ted Cruz is sleeping with the guys he has identified as his enemy: the guys who pay the lobbyists he says are destroying “main street.”
It’s a good racket if you can get it, as Cruz well knows.
In his Heritage talk, Cruz told a huge whopping lie, what is, in fact, a complete reversal of the truth, that “Big government benefits big business and small government benefits small businesses and the little guy.” This is kind of funny because what big business hates is big government, particularly because big government (Republican-speak for liberal government) regulates big business. Less profit for big business means less money to buy congressmen like Ted Cruz.
You can see where that would be a problem for this self-proclaimed “firebrand” who dreams of having his soul in the possession of the Koch brothers, if he can just pry them lose from that competitor for its affection, Scott Walker, who is probably seen as less intelligent and therefore more pliable by the conservative cartel that plans on finalizing the purchase of the federal government in 2016.
The Koch Cartel already owns Congress. It just lacks the Executive.
Like the author who pretended to be Paul when he wrote the Pastoral Epistles telling us that every scripture passage is inspired by God (see 2 Tim 3:16), Ted Cruz the liar attacks lying in his Heritage Foundation speech: “Speaking truth is deemed the rudest and most unacceptable act of all” in Washington, said Cruz. “In times like this, speaking the truth is a radical act.”
Funny thing to say when every other word coming out of your own mouth is a lie.
Cruz’s “victory” over the Export-Import Bank was, in his eyes, a victory over the so-called Washington Cartel, of whom both Reid and McConnell are a part, in his eyes:
Yesterday was a major win. Just one week ago, the #WashingtonCartel was certain that Ex-Im would be reauthorized. http://t.co/lbbNQ0uIvM
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 31, 2015
And,
If the House continues to stand against the #WashingtonCartel, together we will make permanent a major victory for hard-working taxpayers.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 31, 2015
Cruz tells us on his website that the “Corrupt Ex-Im Deal Proves We Have Government Of, By, and For the Lobbyists,” and he presented his conflict with Mitch McConnell over the Export-Import Bank as a “collusion” by Senate leadership with “big business and career politicians against the American taxpayer.”
Of course, career politicians can be a problem (so can single-term politicians who haven’t a clue what they’re there for) but the Ex-Im Bank wasn’t the problem. The problem is corporations being treated like people and owning Congress – Ted Cruz included. Of course corporations like to push the anti-government rhetoric. Where does Ted Cruz think these lobbyists come from?
This is a lot like the long Republican war against the mainstream media that is, in fact, a corporate media, and one that almost wholly supports the Republican cause. It’s all sleight of hand, a play of light and shadows to distract the American people from where the problem really lies.
Cruz said in his July 24 speech against the Export-Import bank that, “Sadly, today we have government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, and for the lobbyists. That is not how the United States Senate is supposed to operate…”
But as we know, what we really have is “government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.” The lobbyist are a symptom, not a cause, and they’re not a symptom of government, but a symptom of corporations and other groups who want to manipulate government to benefit their employers.
There is no doubt power corrupts, whether that power is centered in a corporate board room or the hallowed halls of Congress. Even occupants of the Oval Office have not been immune, as we saw from the example of another Texan, George W. Bush. But few politicians have been such brazen liars as Ted Cruz, attacking big corporations while auditioning on hands and knees to make himself their paid whore on Capitol Hill.
Unfortunately you may both be right... But it still bothers me.
Joy to the world! My bud, Hrafnkell Haraldsson is back. What a boon he is. I can read one of his diatribes and have my mind as twisted as if I’d toked a joint all by myself....and yet I could pass a breathalyzer or blood test with zero evidence against me. Thanks Hrafny, old sod.
Oops, sorry. I retract all. You certainly are not a primary offender of the source of my wrath. Mea culpa, no mas.
In 2010 the $12 million spent on the race for my congressional district was the most ever spent on a race in my district. The papers insinuated that it was “Big GOP” money but when the funding was examined, my GOP congressmen spent $4 million to the Democrat’s $8 million (Most of which came from unions)
I never thought I would live to see the day when “conservatives” wanted republicans to turn down funding and give every race to democrats without a fight.
Who are George Soros’s paid whores?
Shhhh.. you’re not supposed to ask that question.
I’m not even going to read through this crap.
The Koch brothers are akin to scumbag Soros is what way, exactly? WTH are you talking about?
They of course are not at that level.
My post’s point was misunderstood. The fact that some of them make a trip to see the Koch brothers though speaks volumes.
It really bothers me also. Anytime someone donates millions of dollars they expect to be heard down the road. What’s the politician going to do if they don’t like the suggestion/request? Say, here, have your 10 million back?
The pol can simply say no to the request.
I don’t think saying no would work if they want more money down the road for the next election. That person wouldn’t give them more and word would get around, making the possibility of getting other very large donors much harder.
You seem concerned.
Why don't you get John McCain, the MSM and the Democrats to further regulate our first amendment rights.
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