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Ted Cruz returns to Texas as a hero who is reshaping the state Republican Party
Washington Post ^ | October 23, 2013 | Karen Tumulty

Posted on 10/30/2013 10:37:02 AM PDT by SoConPubbie

Cruz may be the most reviled man in the U.S. Senate at the moment, not least among his Republican colleagues. He was the face and voice of the government shutdown strategy that brought the nation to the brink of default on its debt and left his party with its lowest poll ratings ever, while doing nothing to halt the implementation of the new health-care law.

But back in Texas, there is a different reality.

During the past week, Cruz has been greeted as a conquering hero, with a round of triumphal public appearances and welcome-home rallies such as the one that Alford attended Monday night in Houston, which was hastily arranged by the King Street Patriots tea party group.

Even more extraordinary is the degree to which the freshman senator — who until 2012 had never run for public office — has quickly remade the Texas Republican Party in his own image.

Just about every GOP candidate with aspirations to statewide office in 2014 seems to be styling himself or herself after Cruz. In tight formation, they are moving hard to the right and looking for the next big populist rallying cry — secession, rolling back the state’s liberal immigration laws, impeaching President Obama, amending the Constitution to end the direct election of U.S. senators.

His aura even extends to local races. “Some people call me the Ted Cruz of the city council,” boasted Helena Brown, who won her seat in Houston in 2011 and has proposed solving the city’s fiscal problems by defaulting on its pension obligations.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cruz; tedcruz; texas
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"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton
 
"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan
 
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792
 
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams
 
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
 

1 posted on 10/30/2013 10:37:02 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: SoConPubbie; rwilson99; defconw; pgkdan; gruffwolf; Katarina; sjneuf; Graewoulf; lonevoice; ...

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!


2 posted on 10/30/2013 10:38:51 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie
We want all Cruz-like Republicans instead of the old fuddy RINO’s that hate the TEA Party.

Vote the pooters out that have outlived their usefulness the minute they decided to become Democrats, but were too lazy to switch parties!

Let the “exotics” win against the Dem wannabees

3 posted on 10/30/2013 10:41:12 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: SoConPubbie

Great quotes, especially the one from Samuel Adams. Thanks for posting!


4 posted on 10/30/2013 10:42:18 AM PDT by VegasCowboy ("...he wore his gun outside his pants, for all the honest world to feel.")
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To: SoConPubbie

Amazing that liberals and rinos don’t get Ted Cruz.....it never was about shutting down Obamacare....it was about lighting the fire of conservatism....and Ted Cruz has done that in spades. The genie will never be put back into the bottle. The Lindsey Grahams of the world will feel the sting of pent up anger soon!!!


5 posted on 10/30/2013 10:43:34 AM PDT by ontap
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To: SoConPubbie
lowest poll ratings ever

May be a bit of over-exaggeration there....
6 posted on 10/30/2013 10:44:50 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (Be the Enemy Within the Enemy Within...)
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To: Eagle of Liberty

Poor Karen tumult,
the most reviled man’ got two ovations from his own party (try that, McGraham) in his own state that were way over five minutes long, last week, just for showing up.

The people HE works for love him. She needs to get over the hatred, really.


7 posted on 10/30/2013 10:55:15 AM PDT by stanne
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To: SoConPubbie

All Cruz has to do is tap someone to run against Cornyn and he’s finished. I pray that behind the scenes, this is what is happening.


8 posted on 10/30/2013 10:56:02 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: SoConPubbie

A Cruz-Palin-Tea Party team, getting more conservatives into seats, would be helpful.


9 posted on 10/30/2013 11:02:36 AM PDT by lurk
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To: cotton1706
All Cruz has to do is tap someone to run against Cornyn and he’s finished. I pray that behind the scenes, this is what is happening.

Hear, hear...from your keyboard to God's ear!

10 posted on 10/30/2013 11:04:41 AM PDT by Jane Long (While Marxists continue the fundamental transformation of the USA, progressive RINOs assist!)
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To: SoConPubbie

Meanwhile Houston’s City Council race looks like it’s trying to out Berkley Austin.

Wish there were more Republicans/conservatives/tea partiers/libertarians/etc. running in local races.


11 posted on 10/30/2013 11:07:47 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: SoConPubbie; All

The constitutionally irrelevant political party system is why we have an unconstitutionally big federal government in the first place, the two parties doing nothing more than promoting conservative and liberal perversions of the Constitution.

One remedy to this mess is to find another national soap opera to take the place of the very popular “DC Follies.”


12 posted on 10/30/2013 11:07:59 AM PDT by Amendment10
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To: ontap

it was about lighting the fire of conservatism

*******
I don’t see that fire igniting in the GOP. Its true there is a lot of dead wood (pun intended) in the party but they will do their best to extinguish the fire. In fact, they already are doing just that.

We need a new party for conservatives IMO.


13 posted on 10/30/2013 11:21:43 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: SoConPubbie

People need to stop going to RINO town Halls and demanding RINOS become more conservative... I leopard cannot change it’s spots...

We need to Start Going to RINO Town halls and appeal to their vanity and talk them into joining the Democrap party.

We can pretend to be liberal progressives (quite easy, just get drunk before attending), go there and heap praise from a “democrat” and tell them the only thing that prevent you from convincing all you liberal friends to vote for them is that they are in the Republican party and that they should join the Democrats as it is a very good trendy thing to do....

Appeal to their own sick vanity to get them to actually switch parties, then instead of running against two progressives we only have to run against ONE!


14 posted on 10/30/2013 11:35:31 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: SoConPubbie

Today I got an email from the whiney NRSC..Rob Portman.

They will never learn but will get a nice lesson in 2014!


15 posted on 10/30/2013 11:44:19 AM PDT by rrrod (at home in Medellin Colombia)
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To: SoConPubbie
But back in Texas, there is a different reality.

Wrong. In Texas, there is THE reality. The disconnect between the Beltway and real America is described beautifully by the contrast in the opening two paragraphs of this story.

Americans love Ted Cruz. Politicians despise him.

16 posted on 10/30/2013 11:47:40 AM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (Some people meet their heroes. I raised mine. Go Army.)
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To: cotton1706

some of us are trying....it’s a large state with a lot of establishment types. but....we are trying!!


17 posted on 10/30/2013 11:49:01 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: SoConPubbie

Yet Cruz’s growing influence has more than a few Republicans here worried, as they ponder the population changes that could put Texas within reach of the Democrats for the first time in a generation.”

One thing is clear: Cornyn CANNOT win a general election if held today. The reason?

Because he has revealed he is useless - “voting time and again against obamacare”. Voting against? That is the bare minimum!

Now that Texans have seen what a Senator can and should do, it has dawned on us that Corny is a waste of space.

If Cornyn is not defeated in the primary, that seat will go Dem.

And that is the fault of Corny, and no one else.

(Well...I guess it’s the fault of Cruz as well, who has shown how the job should be done!).


18 posted on 10/30/2013 11:53:13 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: SoConPubbie

This from a so called political expert
“Jones says that many Republicans are trying to follow Cruz’s pattern, but added: “The further the party continues to go down this track, the more likely they are to turn Texas blue earlier. What’s in the individual candidate’s best interest in the short term is not in the party’s long-term interest”

shows most don’t have a clue
What Cruz and Lee and Paul are offering is in OUR, All of our even lame headed Lib’s, best interest:
preservation of our country.


19 posted on 10/30/2013 11:55:09 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: SoConPubbie

SoConPubbie, pls add me.
Thnx!
-Hale


20 posted on 10/30/2013 12:44:17 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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