Posted on 08/26/2015 2:51:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Donald Trump's campaign collapses, as it almost certainly still will, Cruz is well positioned to fill the void.
While Donald Trump continues to inspire what he calls “the silent majority” (and everyone else calls the racist rump of the GOP) and the other assumed front-runners Walker, Rubio and Bush flounder and flop around, another candidate is quietly gathering support from a discrete, but powerful, GOP constituency. As Peter Montgomery of Right Wing watch pointed out earlier this week, Ted Cruz is making a huge play for the religious right. And they like what they’re seeing.
Montgomery notes that influential conservative Christian leaders have been getting progressively more anxious about the fact that they’ve been asked to pony up for less-than-devout candidates like McCain and somewhat alien religious observers like Mitt Romney when they are the reliable foot-soldiers for the Republican party who deliver votes year in and year out. With this year’s massive field from which to choose including hardcore true-believers Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum, these religious leaders are looking closely at all the candidates, but are homing in on Cruz.
Montgomery writes:
One big sign came late last month, when news that broke that Farris and Dan Wilks had given $15 million to Keep the Promise, a pro-Cruz super PAC. Not coincidentally, David Lane told NBC News last year that, “With Citizens United…you can have somebody who gives $15 or $20 million into a super PAC and that changes the game.” The billionaire Wilks brothers from Texas have become sugar daddies to right-wing groups generally, and to David Lane’s Pastors and Pews events specifically.
A couple weeks later, Cruz stopped by the headquarters of the American Family Association. Lane’s American Renewal Project operates under the AFA’s umbrella, and Cruz sounded like he was reading Lane’s talking points. Cruz told AFA President Tim Wildmon that mobilizing evangelical Christian voters is the key to saving America, saying, “Nothing is more important in the next 18 months than that the body of Christ rise up and that Christians stand up, that pastors stand up and lead.”
Cruz held a “Rally for Religious Liberty” in Iowa last week that had the influential Christian right radio host Steve Deace swooning with admiration as Cruz carried on about Christian persecution. He thundered, “You want to know what this election is about? We are one justice away from the Supreme Court saying ‘every image of God shall be torn down!” to massive applause from the audience.
The religious right feels battered after their massive loss on marriage equality. And they expect their candidates to do something about it. It appears they’ve decided the destruction of Planned Parenthood is that crusade and Cruz is only too willing to play to the crowd. According to the Washington Post:
Sen. Ted Cruz, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood — a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters.
More than 100,000 pastors received e-mail invitations over the weekend to participate in conference calls with Cruz on Tuesday in which they will learn details of the plan to mobilize churchgoers in every congressional district beginning Aug. 30. The requests were sent on the heels of the Texas Republican’s “Rally for Religious Liberty,” which drew 2,500 people to a Des Moines ballroom Friday.
“The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices . . . has brought about a pressing need to end taxpayer support of this institution,” Cruz said in the e-mail call to action distributed by the American Renewal Project, an organization of conservative pastors.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Cruz says he plans to shut down the government this fall unless Congress agrees to stop all funding of Planned Parenthood. And he’s making a big bet that his campaign will benefit from it:
Cruz implored more than a thousand pastors and religious leaders on Tuesday to “preach from the pulpit” against Planned Parenthood and rally public support for an amendment defunding the family provider in the must-pass federal budget bill in November. If Congress attaches the defunding amendment to the budget instead of holding a vote on the standalone bill, it cannot keep funding Planned Parenthood without shutting down the whole federal government.
“Here is the challenge,” the presidential hopeful explained on the national conference call. “The leadership of both parties, both the Democrats and Republicans, want an empty show vote. They want a vote on Planned Parenthood that has no teeth or no consequence, which allows Republicans to vote for defunding, Democrats to vote for continuing funding, and nothing to change. But the leadership of both parties have publicly said they do not want the vote tied to any legislation that must pass.”
“It will be a decision of the president’s and the president’s alone whether he would veto funding for the federal government because of a commitment to ensuring taxpayer dollars continue to flow to what appears to be a national criminal organization,” Cruz said.
As I said, the religious right is bursting to reassert its clout in the GOP and this is where they’ve decided to stand their ground. Cruz is going to lead them into battle.
That’s not to say that he’s running solely as a religious right candidate. Byron York reports that at a GOP candidate event last Monday in South Carolina featuring Cruz, Ben Carson and Scott Walker, Cruz received the most thunderous ovation. His speech wasn’t solely focused on the Christian persecution angle but he delivered what York called “an almost martial address” beating his chest about Iran and railing against sanctuary cities with the same fervor he delivered his put-away line: “No man who doesn’t begin every day on his knees is fit to stand in the Oval Office!”
York asked 53 people afterwards who did the best and 44 said Cruz, 6 said Carson and 3 said Walker. (Poor Walker is so dizzy from his immigration flip-flops that he’s stopped talking about it altogether, which the crowd did not like one little bit.) Cruz, on the other hand, has a way of making everything from EPA standards to the debt ceiling sound like a religious war which pretty much reflects the GOP base’s worldview as well.
Cruz is a true believer, but he’s also a political strategist. He has said repeatedly that his base is Tea Party voters and religious conservatives. In key Republican primaries like Iowa and South Carolina nearly 50 percent of the voters define themselves as conservative evangelicals. Cruz is betting that he can turn them out to vote for him.
Nobody knows what’s going to happen in this crazy GOP race. If Trump flames out, his voters will scatter and it will matter who has lined up the other institutional factions in the party. While everyone else spars with Trump and tries to out-immigrant bash each other, Ted Cruz is quietly working the egos and the passions of the millions of bruised conservative Christians who are desperate for a hero. When all the smoke has cleared the field he may very well be one of the last men standing.
The fanatical right, eh? They have no idea...
“This destiny does not tire, nor can it be broken; its mantle of strength descends upon those in its service”
— Francis Parker Yockey
Fanatical? Why? Cuz we can still tell the difference between a boy and a girl? Because we want our borders protected and our laws respected? Because we think family means what it has always meant and is the building block of society? Because we do not favor dismembering babies and selling their body parts?
“Fanatical right?” Huh? Most conservatives I know think Trump is a Dem stalking horse, because he’s virtually a parody candidate...every Dem’s caricature of a crude, fat, wealthy, misogynist and xenophobic ignoramus Republican come to life.
That said, Cruz alienated a lot of people because he came across as shrill and unproductive - that is, good at objecting, but not good at coming out with a result. I think he has definitely developed, however, and can reach more people now.
:sigh:
Liberals simply cannot stay away from nasty slander. I think they find it intoxicating.
stopped reading at “fanatical right” in the headline.
Well, if Salon and Heather Digby Parton think Cruz is an extremist.....he must be doing something right.
Salon.
Fanatiical right.
Need one read more?
Oh welll, they could have added global warming to complete a triad of idiocy.
Trump has been really rich his whole life. he strikes me as the kind of guy who has never really had anyone stand up to him because of his wealth and because the people he surrounds himself with want access to that wealth (employees, wives, children, etc.) thus he speaks to others in ways that most people can’t get away with speaking. with poverty comes humility.
truly part of the 1%. truly lives a life with experiences far removed from yours and mine. i don’t hate him, but i am worried that he has so many potential GOP voters bamboozled thus far.
wanna see proof? just watch how many people reply on this thread to tell me how wrong i am about that last sentence. ;)
my preferred ticket would be “Cruz/Palin ‘16”
LOL! The fanatical right.
I love Ted Cruz and I hope Trump picks him as a running mate but I don’t think he’s getting enough traction to win the general election.
They know that THEY will never be called on it by the PC police.
“Most conservatives I know think Trump is a Dem stalking horse, because he’s virtually a parody candidate...”
I suppose that is why is up to 40% in the polls.
You are aware that Cruz leads EVERYBODY in hard money fundraising, including John Ellis Bush, right? That he is second only to Bush in soft money? That he has campaign teams in more states than anyone else?
Cruz denounces Boehner and McConnel as liars. Cruz meets with Trump. Cruz agrees with Trump in a low-key way.
Trump drops out. Cruz has been echoing Trump for months. But with class. And he has gravitas, political experience, and solid constitutional beliefs.
Cruz sails to the nomination. And the win.
For someone “winning,” I fail to see how Ted’s continued slippage in the polls is a victory.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.