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Ted Cruz Says He’s Not ‘All That Conservative’ and He Has a Point (The Dems have moved Left)
PJ Tatler ^ | November 25, 2014 | Stephen Kruiser

Posted on 11/25/2014 11:55:57 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The New York Observer excerpted some choice lines from Ted Cruz’s meetings with various prominent Jewish leaders in New York City this week.

He’s definitely doing prep work for 2016 and, thanks to gross mischaracterizations of him by both Republicans and Democrats, he is probably quite underestimated all around. He is also smart enough to turn this to his advantage in these early stages of the election cycle. Responding to a question inspired by one of the more popular narratives — he can’t win — that Democrats and moderate Republicans are eerily in sync on, Senator Cruz had this to say:

Mr. Boteach said, “You are arguably the strongest U.S. Senator when it comes to Israel. But if you run, can you win? You’re seen as a champion of the tea party. And the media tends to caricature.”

Mr. Cruz replied, “Historically, the media has had two caricatures of Republicans. We are either stupid or evil.”

“Sometimes both!” volunteered one of the lunchers.

Mr. Cruz laughed and continued. “Reagan was stupid, according to the media. George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, stupid. Nixon was evil, Cheney was evil. I sort of take it as a backhanded compliment that they’ve invented a new caricature for me—crazy. At the end of the day, that caricature doesn’t trouble me because it’s fundamentally false. The American people have a history of making up their own minds.”

Mr. Cruz said that as groups who might be skeptical—like the one in this room—come to know him, doubts will be dispelled and stereotypes will be shattered.

He is right about this and the will guarantee that his detractors will expend a lot of effort trying to falsely define him.

Cruz surprised some by saying:

"I don’t think I’m all that conservative. And it’s interesting. Reagan never once beat his chest and said, “I’m the most conservative guy who ever lived.” Reagan said, “I’m defending common sense principles—small businesses, small towns.”

The senator is correct about this as well. The Democrats were hijacked by ’60s era radicals and have been drifting ever-leftward for at least forty years. Republican moderates, driven by a desperate need to be liked, tend to get caught up in the wake of the Democrats and drift along with them, even if slowly and behind them. So, relative to a political class that is moving away from the American people, Cruz might seem uber-conservative. Real conservatives, however, don’t have a malleable set of political principles to work with. We’re where we have always been on the political spectrum, and a lot of the American people have always been here with us.

When you look at a red/blue map after the last election, the Democrats are ideologically and geographically at the outer edges of America. They’re literally a fringe party right now.

Ted Cruz isn’t an extremist, no matter how many times Democrat hacks and the John McCain crowd say he is. He’s aligned with regular Americans who are tired of Washington raiding our wallets.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: 2016; cruz; democrats; tedcruz
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To: Politicalkiddo

Ok, but I don’t like those who don’t like the conservative label.


21 posted on 11/25/2014 12:49:43 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

I don’t approve of your definition of conservative.


22 posted on 11/25/2014 12:51:11 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past; TexasFreeper2009
I don’t approve of your definition of conservative.
I’m as “conservative" as the next FReeper - which is to say, I am a classical liberal. Like you, I expect, I believe in the Constitution as a definition of the public interest. Imperfect, yes, but the best that could be constructed and agreed to. That makes me “conservative” in terms of the understood political spectrum of America, but in reality Americans believe in progress. Not progress of government control, but progress of, by, and for the American people. “The progress of science and useful arts,” as the Constitution itself puts it. The meaning of the term “liberal” was inverted, according to Safire’s New Political Dictionary, in the 1920s.

In 1910 Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech was liberal. By 1930, “liberal” meant the opposite of that. Opposite, as in meaning, “You didn’t build that.” The two are opposites.


23 posted on 11/25/2014 1:25:52 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ("Liberalism” is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

I don’t think so.


24 posted on 11/25/2014 1:30:37 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

God, Duty, Honor, Country and the oath I took on entering the Army. Adherence to these things defines conservatism as I understand it.

(Damned Yankees notwithstanding.)


25 posted on 11/25/2014 1:46:38 PM PST by onedoug
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Fringe map Ted Cruz mentioned. RATS are the color they SHOULD be seen as: Communist Red. Republicans are blue.

26 posted on 11/25/2014 4:15:40 PM PST by Nateman (If liberals are not screaming you are doing it wrong!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Reagan never once beat his chest and said, “I’m the most conservative guy who ever lived.” Reagan said, “I’m defending common sense principles—small businesses, small towns.”

Excellent point.

27 posted on 11/25/2014 4:23:37 PM PST by x
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To: ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart

Yeah but that’s what Reagan said about JFK way before JFK tried to take down the Federal Reserve.

With this EO, JFK was more conservative even than Reagan himself.

Executive Order 1110 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110


28 posted on 11/25/2014 8:12:40 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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To: ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart

Fascinating letter about JFK. Reagan must have changed his tune, though, when JFK decided to get rid of the Federal Reserve months later.

Executive Order 1110 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110

if fact, JFK’s determination to challenge the Fed gives credence to the idea that he had in fact become a Christian before he was killed.


29 posted on 11/25/2014 8:13:33 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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To: thorvaldr
Kennedy would be conservative compared to the current Democratic party.

Shoot, he would be conservative compared a large proportion of elected Republicans.

30 posted on 11/25/2014 8:16:57 PM PST by EternalVigilance (Leges sine moribus vanae. 'Laws without morals are useless.' -- Motto of the Univ. of Pennsylvania)
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To: Sontagged

I have no reason to think that Reagan changed his mind about JFK a few months after writing what he thought about the man in a private letter to the vice President of the United States and asking to be allowed to help campaign to defeat him.

I really have no idea what you are talking about in regards to the fed and Christianity.


31 posted on 11/25/2014 8:19:57 PM PST by ansel12
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To: thorvaldr
Kennedy would be conservative compared to the current Democratic party.

Why would one think that JFK would not have moved firmly into the socialist camp had he lived, the way his brothers did?

32 posted on 11/25/2014 8:20:36 PM PST by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: ansel12

Wow! Nobody talks like that anymore. So much honesty, truth. So refreshing to hear truth even if it tells of something bad.


33 posted on 11/25/2014 8:20:50 PM PST by uncitizen (I weep for my country)
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To: Sontagged; ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart

>> “Yeah but that’s what Reagan said about JFK way before JFK tried to take down the Federal Reserve.” <<

.
And paid for it with his life.

.


34 posted on 11/25/2014 8:21:59 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart

That’s okay ansel. Your odd post about Reagan decrying JFK’s leftiness just reminded me that JFK was more conservative than even Reagan in trying to take down the Fed.

Betting that Cruz would never be that boldly conservative to try to rid Americans of this “Federal Reserve” plague upon our house: a private bank masquerading as a government entity with the power to print our money!


35 posted on 11/25/2014 8:34:54 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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To: editor-surveyor; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart

Lincoln and his greenbacks were also worrisome things to those who hate God and the Constitution...


36 posted on 11/25/2014 8:40:18 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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To: Sontagged

This order?

“E.O. 11110 was not reversed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and the section added to E.O. 10289 remained on the books until President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12608 on September 9, 1987 as part of a general clean-up of executive orders. E.O. 12608 specifically revoked the section added by E.O. 11110 which effectively revoked the entire Order. By this time, however, the remaining legislative authority behind E.O. 11110 had been repealed by Congress when Pub.L. 97–258 was passed in 1982.”


37 posted on 11/25/2014 8:50:50 PM PST by ansel12
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To: ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet; Norm Lenhart; editor-surveyor

Vaguely remember this, so? Do you understand what JFK’s order was all about? And why it was innately such a conservative and Constitutional position?


38 posted on 11/25/2014 9:03:39 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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To: Sontagged

Whatever you are trying to sell is coming off as gibberish so far.


39 posted on 11/25/2014 9:19:03 PM PST by ansel12
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To: ansel12; 2ndDivisionVet

LOL. Sorry that you don’t seem to understand that opposition to the Federal Reserve is a conservative virtue.

Let me restate my previous question:

You do understand what JFK’s EO was all about, right?


40 posted on 11/25/2014 9:27:37 PM PST by Sontagged (Faith without works is dead. This also means incessant prayer without attendant works is dead.)
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