Posted on 03/24/2015 7:06:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There are few people I do not take seriously in politics. Or to put it more specifically, there are few people I fully discount in the context of national elections. Ted Cruz is one of those people. By contrast, I think it is highly unlikely that Rand Paul can make it in the GOP primaries, let alone a national election. There are so many intra-party disputes, so many iffy stories lurking in the background for him and his father and a lot more. But there are enough unexpected and cross cutting aspects to Paul that I can't be sure. Always important, many people who don't agree with anything Paul says find him somehow appealing. Cruz is entirely different. It is hard to think of someone who has been accorded such press attention as a presidential contender while being so certain to go down to defeat. It is extremely unlikely that Cruz could ever win the GOP nomination. And as certain as one can ever be in this fallen world that he cannot win a national election.
This is for three reasons.
Starting with most obvious, Cruz would not survive first contact with the range of blue states and swing states where a Republican must compete. Some say, they didn't think he had a chance in Texas either. Well, Texas, as they say, is a whole 'nother country. Both on the issues and temperamentally Cruz embodies the caricature of Republicans which nominees studiously work to dismantle in the general election phase of the campaign. Indeed, Cruz would run so poorly in many blue "reach" states that he would probably bring down a non-trivial congressional Republicans because he is so toxic to non-right wing ideologues. He won't win a national election. Not at the top of the ticket.
Second, no one wins the presidency who does not come off as a good guy, someone you would like, to a majority of the population. The one possible exception is Richard Nixon, though a significant part of his 1968 success was combating this problem. Lots of people hated Clinton and Bush and now Obama too. But most people liked them. Likable guys, not, in a word, assholes. People who come off like assholes don't get elected president. From college and law school to the Senate and seemingly everywhere in between, Cruz has found small groups of admirers while convincing the vast majority of people as a consummate asshole.
This isn't just me sounding off; it's not trash talk. This is a really basic dynamic of presidential elections. There were plenty of Democrats who thought W was an entitled jerk. Most of the population did not feel that way. Many republicans felt Clinton was a slippery charlatan. But even many of them found it difficult to resist his charm. Indeed, that was one of the reasons they hated him.
Most people, including most Republicans, find Ted Cruz grating, divisive and arrogant. That makes it extremely hard to make the kind of emotive connection with voters who come to elections without strong ideological moorings. Cruz's great strength, albeit with a small but intensely devoted slice of the national conservative electorate, is that he has taken the unbridled self-assertion and norm-breaking which make him intolerable to many up close and cast them as the ultimate expression of the right-wing id. Also another thing, people don't like assholes.
Third, establishment Republicans: Ted Cruz does not play ball. He is arrogant. He causes lots of damage for Republicans who either have moderate views or are in the business of politics. Ted is not good for business in either the good or bad senses of the term - whether that's people who simply want to govern or those most focused on delivering goods for constituents (or getting people who are not named Ted Cruz elected). Ted will never be elected president. And I think it is very, very unlikely he will get the GOP nomination. The most likely outcome is that he will pull well with far right Republicans and pull the field to the right.
To summarize, pass the popcorn.
Do you not think Reagan came across as likable?
Here Here!
I recall it as well..stayed up as late as I could watching. I also recall politicians wafting in and out (from their cocktail parties) like they owned the place thinking they were going to show this Cruz guy a thing or tow only getting their asses handed to them and walking off in disbelief.
This guy strikes fear because he has walked the walk. He’s no groomed idiot ergo obama. He’s a sharp razor and that disrupts the go along to get along crowd who have been partying it up hard for six years to the tune of 7 Trillion dollars of OUR debt.
Ted has the unmistakable mark of Authenticity . Even the lowlife’s sense that!
I will be UNDERSTANDING as they throw their foam rubber darts and stomp their widdo feet, and chuckle under my breath!
I don’t think most voters who Ted Cruz is. I don’t think he comes off as an asshole to anyone but beltway losers and leftists. The only question is if he can circumvent this false charge. Few on our side are able to defeat the pop culture attacks.
I find Ted to be intelligent, unifying and articulate.
The author of this screed is just another nobody liberal buffoon.
Yeh you have to be a real Ahole to stand up and defend the Constitution and the Free Enterprise system. :-)
Of course, but perhaps we are misunderstanding each other. I thought you were saying Cruz was unlikable, not like Reagan.
The misunderstanding could be mine, not getting your original post.
Reagan inspired both of my now-adult sons to serve, one Air Force, one Army, and he inspired them. I am so happy that he was their president when they came of age, and it made all the difference in their adult lives.
I feel sorry for those late teens and young adults now. They are coming of age in a society engulfed in corruption, immorality, and graft.
There are no leaders in either the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government to inspire them to hold themselves to a high standard.
Only a scattered and marginalized group of parents are left to hold back the flood of social sewage that threatens to wash us all away.
I pray that there are enough of us to keep the idea of honesty, morality, integrity, and social responsibility alive, once this tsunami of decomposition passes.
Unfortunately, we must face the possibility of a breakdown of everything we take for granted, for we are living through a reprise of Matthew Arnold’s poem, Dover Beach.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172844
I can’t wait to see Cruz in the primary debates. All he has to do is lean on the Constitution and convey its message of individual freedom.
If memory serves, Cruz has been before the Supreme Court 40 times and clerked for Justice Rhenquist. His resume is very impressive.
BTW..nice tag line.
Been waiting for this day a loooooong time.
I’d vote for Cruz in a heartbeat. I think he’s a legit contender among a few others. But he just doesn’t have Reagan’s charm. To be fair, none of the candidates do. Actually not one current politician I can think of.
Maybe Sarah Palin, in a different way.
I’m sure Ted Cruz will shine in the debates.
I sure hope, more than ever, that we stop using that castrated bland phrase, Private enterprise.
It conjures up sinister images of cigar-smoking opportunists who successfully exploit the helpless, the clueless, the losers of life's lottery.
Whoever invented that new label was a genius. Right up there with Saul Alynsky, and it has had the desired effect for many more decades than it deserved.
But now, there seems to be a resurgence of common sense. The antipode of that old shopworn trite phrase, easily ignored and forgotten as the BS that it is.
That better name, that real description of the foundation of our republic is actually two phrases :
Private Enterprise, and Free Exchange
Read it and weep because once you realize what Obama, Jarrett, Soros, Pelosi and Soros have in common is the determination to kill those two concepts.
Everything useful that Obama has been systematically destroying for over six years:
Private Enterprise - the ability to make contracts and agreements, the ability to solicit or offer services without the interference of corrupt governments with the power to tax and to destroy. and
Free exchange - The power of total freedom of association willing entered into or freely rejected.
The very foundation of the dynamism that created the country that Omugabe is determined to destroy.
The way things are now if Cruz looks like he might actually win I would expect a massive smear campaign or outright assassination or accident to befall him. The establishment is simply not going to suffer a major setback at this point in time. I’m not convinced Zero will even be leaving so...interesting times ahead for sure.
Most people who write stuff like this: "Cruz has found small groups of admirers while convincing the vast majority of people as a consummate asshole," are the kettle calling the pot black. Nowhere does this pompous pinhead justify with even one example his assertions. He could have said that Senator Ted Cruz was born on a mother ship from the planet Gliese 876 d. No example, no photo and no witness named. So, this leads me to conclude that Josh Marshall has not heard a thing that Senator Ted Cruz has said, read a thing he has written or knows the front end from the back end of Cruz. He may have even thought "Ted Cruz" was a new innovation from the auto industry. This Mr Marshall is just spouting trash talk to gain admiration from his peers--something Lefties make it a practice in doing.
Heheh. almost feel like I should spend a little energy and develop one of those relationship graphs to help infer who's spreading the memes.
I did, signed up for $25/month indefinitely. He's got my attention. I will contribute the max if he gets the nomination. Only Palin was able to get me to make that commitment before, but she didn't run and the money is waiting for the right person to come along. RINOs need not apply.
The smell of the abject terror of the Left is in the air!
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