| Beautifully written and well-reasoned points. Your words have brightened up a few "grim" corners of our world. By the power vested on me, I hereby bestow on you the H.L. Mencken Iconoclast Award for Fine Political Commentary. Congratulations.
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Posted on 05/20/2016 6:30:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Ted Cruz and his most determined supporters are likely still licking their wounds and mending their broken hearts. Such a sudden end to his primary campaign for president has left marks that will heal but slowly.
Soon, though, Cruz will see that he has come through the hurricane of his first presidential campaign with his prospects enhanced, rather than retarded. We hope that knowledge gives him confidence and patience to reconsider his approach to the job he is returning to, as the junior senator from Texas. That’s the work, after all, that Texas voters singled him out for in 2012.
We’d like to recommend two courses of action as Cruz considers his immediate future, and begins to mull whether — or how soon — he’ll try again to become president.
We don’t offer these suggestions because we, too, mourn his defeat. He was not our candidate. But he is our senator, and we believe he’d gain much if he learned to be a good one. We think these suggestions will make him a stronger, more capable public servant and more attractive candidate no matter how high his ambitions soar.
First, become the second senator Texas needs. Cruz did not arrive in the Senate in 2013 with the goal of being a good senator. His goal, as his fellow Texan Sen. John Cornyn remarked recently, was to run for president, a goal he took further than nearly anyone anticipated. At 45, he may well run again someday. But for now, his focus and his efforts belong to the Senate.
Instead of using his high office as a perch and a platform, he should use it as a tool to pass good bills that help Texans and to block bad ones.
He has a model nearby. Sen. John Cornyn can be as partisan as the next senator, and often his job as deputy leader requires it. But along the way he has steadfastly worked to advance legislation — sometimes compromising and sometimes not — aimed at making life better for people who count on him to help. From criminal justice reform, to advancing the nomination of our ambassador to Mexico, to the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act, Cornyn has worked hard at being a good legislator.
Cruz should pick his own priorities and then go to work building bipartisan relationships on Capitol Hill so he can pass his own laws. Such a path will require humility. Like it or not, success as a senator will require allies.
Come 2018, he may just be able to offer Texas voters something he’s not yet been able to — a record of achievement, measured in what he has done for Texas and not just what he has done for his ambition.
Secondly, we recognize that Cruz’s ambitions will continue to stretch beyond the Senate. And we suspect he’ll continue to be voice of protest against the White House, no matter who wins November. But we urge him to broaden his appeal beyond the evangelical voters he initially promised would make him president. If he cannot, his path to the White House will never get any easier than it was in 2016. And his influence on history will remain small.
This will require profound introspection. Cruz and his allies may be tempted to see in his near-miss reasons aplenty to continue again in the same vein. But for Donald Trump, they will counsel, this path might have succeeded!
That’s a seductive falsehood. Trump did him favors this time around, clearing out all the better-known GOP rivals early on. Cruz shrewdly stayed on the sidelines, waiting for Trump to implode. That never happened, and by the time he engaged with Trump, it was too late. Trump was too strong and Cruz, having built no bridges beyond the evangelical camp, found himself stranded on his own island.
By broadening his base, and developing a track record in the senate, Cruz can grow in stature between now and the next time he runs for president. But whether he ever wins that higher office, he owes it to Texas to do a better job in the office he already holds.
Cruz was reciting leftist talking points about violence and "thuggery" from Donald Trump, and was defending Chinese manufacturing on the debate stage, among other things. Cruz was also always unserious in his immigration position. Before December, he didn't believe any of it, and advocated for amnesty.
Cruz is a Ryan Repubican. Which is to say, a sleazy RINO and con-artist. The only thing that makes you think he is conservative is that he panders hard to Evangelicals.
Quit reading when article suggested that Cornyn was a model for Cruz.
Ted Cruz has done everything humanly possible to burn that bridge.
For someone who couldn't stop talking about Donald Trump during the primaries, suddenly Ted Cruz can't even utter the man's name to congratulate him for winning Indiana and for being the presumptive GOP nominee.
Trump already gave Ted Cruz credit for what a great fighter he's been and said that he has a bright future.
Has Cruz said anything whatsoever complimentary of Trump, who has pulled off an incredible feat?
No. Not one word of congratulations, respect, or credit.
Oh, and, if I recall correctly, Ted Cruz and every other GOP candidate made a pledge to support the party's eventual nominee. I haven't seen any indication of him doing that yet either. Apparently delaying or denying party unity is what Ted Cruz wants. Cruz is in the same camp as Jeb Bush until he demonstrates otherwise.
Just classless. And in 4 or 8 years, GOP voters will remember. Hopefully by convention time Ted Cruz will have finally come to his senses.
Vote Trump!
Oh, and, if I recall correctly, Ted Cruz and every other GOP candidate made a pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee. I haven’t seen any indication of him doing that yet either. Apparently delaying or denying party unity is what Ted Cruz wants. Cruz is in the same camp as Jeb Bush until he demonstrates otherwise.
Excellent post Diana!
“Has Cruz said anything whatsoever complimentary of Trump, who has pulled off an incredible feat?”
He did early in the campaign when he thought that Trump would eventually self-destruct. When he finally realized that wasn’t going to happen, he dropped the gracious act like a hot potato, and never looked back. I’m glad Trump was able to expose this fraud for all to see.
I had not heard he was on vacation in Mexico. Where did you hear that? Seems he was reportedly spotted in a hotel pool there, by someone who recognized him, according to a Google story I looked up just now— and one that was rather unfriendly towards him.
If Cruz wants a future, he needs to grow up and become a patient, constructive senator. If it's meant to be, his time will come.
And for God's sake, he needs to stop the preachy style of speaking. He's such a know-it-all.
A know-it-all who got his butt handed to him by an almost 70 year old genius who has far out shined Ted in every aspect of life.
Supreme Court?
Solid advice for Ted. He’s on the brink of either regrouping and becoming more viable down the road, or destroying his chances for anything else. Here’s hoping he doesn’t have his fingers in any pies trying t make waves through the convention.....
Nothing wrong here.
Ted Cruz needs to be an ex-senator come 2019. Texas has over 27 million people, a little less than 10 percent of the US population. And they have two complete duds as senators. Cornyn, and Ted Cruz. Much as it pains me to say it, David Dewhurst may have been the better choice in 2012. For all of his posturing and bloviating, Ted Cruz has done precisely nothing as a senator. Can he point to even one bill that he has passed? More importantly, can he point to even one bill that he has actually, definitively stopped?
The folks in Texas deserve better. They deserve representation. They deserve a senator who wants to be a senator and actually wants to do his or her job.
Further, I hope that Ted DOESN’T endorse Donald Trump. Cruz is a bitter, self-promoting, Elmer Gantry of a politician. A case study in narcissism and blind ambition. His support is not needed and he actually does us more of a service by providing a rallying point for the lunatic fringe.
“I think that Ted Cruz is presidential material.”
Except for that pesky NBC thing. IF he were a Natural Born Citizen he could be President. And IF my aunt had a penis, she’d be my uncle.
Lyin’ Ted is pure Bush Establishment and has been a phony from the start.
Pathway Amnesty
NO BORDERS & North American Union
TPP/TPA
Partnered with Glen-the-Kook-Beck
Never produced his CRBA document to prove he was a US citizen
Paid $500k to Carly as hush money for his adulterous affairs
Paid $125k for endorsement from Natl Right to Life https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/05/20/fec-reports-outline-ted-cruz-campaign-paying-for-right-to-life-endorsement/
Donated $250k to NRSC that was used by Establishment to support MS Thad Cochran’s voter fraud campaign
Voted for Corker’s “Nukes for Iran”
...and so much more!
Lyin’ Ted is the GOP-E enemy we are fighting to save America!
| Beautifully written and well-reasoned points. Your words have brightened up a few "grim" corners of our world. By the power vested on me, I hereby bestow on you the H.L. Mencken Iconoclast Award for Fine Political Commentary. Congratulations.
|
I have my lucid moments, LOL! :)
To which, he was soundly rejecTed.
Great post!
And that is the bottom line as far as I am concerned. I will never vote for Ted ever again.
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