Unfortunately, until Cruz and Lee and to some erratic extent, Paul and Rubio arrived, there weren’t any true movement conservatives in the Senate.
It’s one thing to vote somewhat conservatively, it’s entirely another to function as part of a movement. There are a few good ones in the Senate and to their credit they tried to help in their ways, but they were mostly elder statesmen such as Roberts, Grassley, Inhofe and Sessions. Others were somewhat back-bencher types such as Risch of Idaho, Vitter of LA etc.
There wasn’t a movement leader among them, before Cruz, Lee and a tiny handful of others got there.
Not Toomey. certainly not Ron Johnson - who even voted for cloture, and these were thought to be the more conservative members.
I take your point that some in the Senate should have been working with their House counterparts all along. I’m just saying, the personnel to DO that simply were not in the Senate.
You’re so right. Senator Cruz is showing us and Congress that you can stand up and fight. That the base (the country) is ready to follow a leader. It encourages others, fires up the base and with enough momentum can put the breaks on this slippery slope to communism.