Posted on 09/26/2013 3:49:31 AM PDT by LD Jackson
I've never been someone who constantly calls for a third-party in our political system. I have long-held the opinion that a third-party would be able to get very little done, simply because the Democrats and Republicans are so entrenched in the system. I'm still not there yet, but there is something that I need to get off my chest. Why does our party insist on eating its own? Would it be so hard for the Republican establishment to admit that Senator Ted Cruz is doing something good in his attempt to alert and inform Americans about the dangers that are inherent in Obamacare?
I can understand and appreciate the knowledge that if the Democrats stick together in the Senate, there is little the Republicans can do to stop Obamacare, either by repeal or by defunding. The process laid out by Ted Cruz was never going to be an easy path and was always likely doomed to failure. Where my frustration lies is in how so many Republicans, both in and out of the House and the Senate, are questioning the Senator from Texas. They are questioning everything from his motives to his tactics and they have some very unflattering things to say about him.
Representative Peter King has called Ted Cruz a fraud.
Senator Tom Coburn has said the fight to defund Obamacare is dishonest.
Charles Krauthammer says Ted Cruz is dishonest and coming late to the anti-Obamacare fight.
John McCain and Mitch McConnell are both running off at the mouth because they can't stand the junior Senator from Texas.
I was listening to America Now with Andy Dean and he was even piling on Ted Cruz. His viewpoint was that Cruz was not building relationships in the Senate and that is why so many Republicans in that esteemed body wanted nothing to do with the fight he is waging against Obamacare. He questioned his motives, saying he was doing it more with 2016 in mind than anything else.
I wanted to write about something else, anything else this morning. I am sick of the rhetoric and the budget fights and the misleading claims from both sides of the political aisle. As much as I am a political junkie, I am tired of watching the same song and dance, the same fight, with no new results. Until the Republicans start sticking together and stop eating their own because someone new didn't follow protocol in our esteemed legislative bodies, the results will always be the same.
I have always held a high amount of respect for Senator Tom Coburn. I have used his work against wasteful spending in our government as the background information for more than a few posts. I believe he has integrity and is honest in his dealings with his constituents. Having said that, would it have been to difficult for him to stand with Ted Cruz in his fight against Obamacare? Would it have been to hard for him to announce his support for what Cruz is trying to do, instead of calling the effort dishonest?
Many of the complaints against Ted Cruz comes from the people who do not like his style. He can be combative and anyone's feelings are fair game. If Cruz doesn't like you, or doesn't agree with you, you'll not have to wonder about how he feels. He is going to tell you right to your face. He has said, more than once, that he didn't come to the Senate to get along to go along. He came to represent the interests of his state and his constituents. That seems to be a foreign idea to far too many of his Republican colleagues.
Soon after his marathon speech on the floor of the Senate ended, Ted Cruz granted an interview to Rush Limbaugh. I want to use a quote from that interview that speaks volumes. Thanks to The Lonely Conservative for the quote.
CRUZ: I will tell you the single biggest surprise in arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here. I mean, we don’t even talk about how to win a fight. There’s no discussion. We talk about, “Hey, let’s get a show vote so we can go tell our constituents we’re doing something.” But I promise you, Rush, if you had to sit through one Senate lunch, you’d be in therapy for a month.In her post, The Lonely Conservative asks a simple question. She wants to know what the GOP establishment is so afraid of. I would echo that same question. The Republican leadership has tried to get along with the liberals in Congress and the White House. For their troubles, they have been forced into political positions that are untenable and have seen all manner of accusations aimed in their direction. Isn't it time they realized they are fighting the same battle, using the same tactics, and expecting different results?
Trying to eat Ted Cruz for lunch because they don't agree with his tactics is going to get them nowhere fast. I would humbly suggest the Republican Party needs to come to terms with who the enemy in this fight really is. Until they shake themselves like Sampson and understand that, we have no hope of winning the war against the progression of liberalism that is taking over our country. If refuse to do so, they may give rise to a third-party, simply out of the frustration so many of us feel with the Republican leadership.
Note to the Republican Party. Your members want you to fight the liberals, not each other. Keep that in mind.
Imagine belonging to a club, one that affords the most this country has to offer - its own barber shop, cafeteria and dining room, banking facility, free parking on-site and at the airport, at-will seating at almost every restaurant in town, all that.
Couple that with a sizeable staff, budget and a job that requires you only to appease the party in power, and to make the odd trip back home to stand up on a stump and lie about what you did. You still have the power.
Democrats (and the Administration) in charge realize the value of sharing a bit of that power...it is needed to keep the appeasement coming; it is called second-tier power. Just like when Alexander conquered a country, he would leave one of the local appeasers in power....share some of the wealth.
That's our Senate, and the higher ups in the House. They don't want to upset the cart and would be willing to do anything to keep the status quo. Nothing that goes on in the rest of the country affects them; they are immunized against it, mainly by exempting themselves from the deleterious effects of their own laws.
They crave the attention on the Sunday shows, they get their bottoms powdered and their cheeks and asses kissed - when they appease and are 'bipartisan'. They know the majority of their constituents don't watch them, it is just for DC consumption.
All of them, McCain, Cornyn, McConnell, Graham, Boehner (and his second) are pleased as punch to step up and have us out here in realville give up the fight because "we can get them later if we just WAIT until 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020....wait until they are ready to retire.
Damn them all.
PS Krauthammer can suck it, too. He's just trying to keep his token faux conservative moniker so he can stay on that Sunday gravy train too.
Exactly, these RINOs know exactly what they are doing.
They have plenty clue who their enemy is, it IS Cruz, Lee, et. al. The establishment Gee Oh Pee LOVES big government and pork bbl spending almost as much as progs do... they just want to be running it and handing out the favors
This makes any principled consersative their enemy
I don’t want our congressmen to build relationships with fellow members. I want them to keep the relationship with the people who put them there. Dance with the one who brought ya’.
Does anyone in the media or in congress understand this?
“The republican leadership is so entrenched and in bed with the democraps that they will not, willingly give up their power to anyone. Cruz and Lee represent change and they see their stranglehold on their power structure threatened.”
Precisely.
100% correct. Im of the opinion that Republicans get too comfy in DC...limos, parties and so on. Many good Republicans have been totally corrupted by the lifestyle and the longer they stay the more out of touch they become. They only come home when it’s election time or for fund raisers.
I heard Rush interview him too. The only thing I can say, is that the term “stupid party,” is well earned.
I think it’s helpful to sometimes reevaluate everything you think about politics and policy. With a clear conscience, last December after the Boehner/fiscal cliff cave-in, I considered why exactly I was a republican. I joined the party 35 years ago having been an independent before that. The only areas of concordance with the Republican Party were things they had historically supported but have recently abandoned. I saw no mainstream republicans supporting balanced budgets, reduced social spending, aggressive defense of personal freedom particularly for 1st and 2nd amendment rights and federalism. Everywhere I looked I saw democrat-lite republicans and me-too leftists.
An honest evaluation of the Republican Party vs. the Libertarian Party showed big areas of disagreement with both. Both parties have too many people supporting abortion, for example. There are many other areas of disagreement but ultimately I have to side with the Libertarians for the following reasons. They are more true to what they preach. They are not hypocrites. They understand that ALL spending has consequence and deploying the military should only happen if US interests are at stake.
There are many other reasons. Again I find much to disagree with the Libertarian party but I joined and, for me, the fit is better. Rather than attack the Libertarian party I ask you to carefully evaluate what the Republican Party has become and see if it still fits you.
Well put.
Maybe a big part of the problem is that they live in DC, not in their home state. So they are separated and isolated from the people they are supposed to represent; their major feedback is through the liberal media. The liberal political consultants they keep hiring do not help at all.
It seems that our elected officials undergo a sort of Stockholm syndrome once they get to DC.
It’s time to bring the Senators home. Have them set up their offices in their home states (preferably their home towns, not the state capitals), and keep their contacts with other politicians limited to VTCs. With modern technology, they certainly do not need to be physically present for any Senate business.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
We have met the enemy and it is Republicans who just want to receive the perks of office while kissing the asses of Democrats.
Exposure.
Republicans KNOW who their enemy is. It is CONSERVATIVES.
If a third party were to announce and if a dozen or so senators and a sizable block of congressmen immediately announced their affiliation with it then such a party would have immediate credibility. That is not outside the realm of possibility given the split in the GOP between the establishment and the conservatives.
The title and the premise are garbled. ‘Conservative’ republicans of the true type know who their enemies are. ‘Establishment’ republicans have no allies except those that bring money; they are whores.
The premise feeds into the liberal media talking points:
> “I can understand and appreciate the knowledge that if the Democrats stick together in the Senate, there is little the Republicans can do to stop Obamacare, either by repeal or by defunding. The process laid out by Ted Cruz was never going to be an easy path and was always likely ***doomed to failure***.”
Doomed to failure...doomed to failure...doomed to failure...
Again and again we hear the parrots in the political aviaries squawk about how Ted’s effort is “doomed to failure”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Ted’s strategy is sound but requires republicans in Congress to fight and for democrats with a conscience to stand on principle. Even if zero democrats stand on principle (and some joined House republicans on the CR), republicans can still win.
Only 41 Senators are needed to block the approaching move to cloture.
IF 41 Senators vote against cloture, THEN Harry Reid must decide EITHER to allow a vote on the CR WITH DEFUNDING Obamacare language as-is OR not allow a vote. In either case as expected the government will be unfunded and will shutdown but the blame will be on the Senate. This is the strategy.
What is doomed to failure is the Senate democrats passing the original CR. But then they and they alone are responsible for shutting down the government as the original CR funds all of government except Obamacare.
The way the Senate democrats escape responsibility unscathed is to pass a vote for cloture, strip how the defunding language and send it back to the House. Even in this eventuality the House republicans can still win by passing smaller funding CRs for essential spending and then denying an increase in the debt ceiling.
It’s not over and we need to let Congress know that this fight is in no way ‘doomed to failure’.
The logo for the GOP should be a plain white flag with GOPe on it in red, white and blue stitching. That is what they stand for, it should be their “symbolâ€. Anybody contributing to the GOPe today is NUTS! Why not give the money to the Democrats, at least they stand for SOMETHING.
I agree that the responsibility of any possible shutdown of the government should rest with the Democrats. The reality of the situation, however, tells me that will not happen. It doesn’t matter what the truth is to the media. They will make sure the responsibility is laid heavily on the shoulders of the Republicans. I don’t agree with that, not in the least, but it is a reality.
We are not just fighting against the liberals in Congress and the White House, but also the liberals in the media.
When I wrote that Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare was “doomed to failure”, it was for that reason alone. I wholeheartedly support his fight and his tactics.
Its time for a second party because there is no difference between the two parties in dc.
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