“What Cruz doesn’t realize, or hopes you don’t realize, is Democrats and the White House will never negotiate.”
The Democrats don’t need to negotiate. The Republicans support them 100%. Why would one negotiate if there is no opposition?
This got me thinking...and as a result I understand something, that I did not, until this morning.
In order for politics to be successful, disparate people, or groups of people, have to be willing to negotiate their disparities for the sake of a common goal. At the most intimate levels of politics, such as a home or a neighborhood, this is fairly easy, for two reasons: the disparate groups (husband and wife, or neighbors on the block) tend to be invested in each other and so are more willing to set aside differences, and if the effort fails, separation is possible (the husband/wife can divorce, people can move out of the neighborhood). At the national level, however, this becomes much more difficult: the disparate groups only know about each other what the media tells them, and the only means of separation is civil war. This may be one reason why representative republicanism was chosen by the Founders over direct democracy, so that the political negotiations would become easier...except that there was the presumption that all sides in a dispute would be willing to negotiate in order to obtain the common goals.
And here is where the light bulb was switched on in my head this morning. Those of us on the right, whether conservatives or libertarians, know that the left has no desire to meet us on common ground: we want to persuade the left of the truth of our positions, while the left, given the opportunity, would exile us from any places of authority, perhaps from any places at all. It is impossible to "do politics" with people who want you gone, perhaps even want you dead.
To ask for an "alternative plan that can win" is like asking how the Tampa Bay Rays can win the AL East this season--not in the present-day world of baseball, but in an alternative baseball universe, where the NY Yankees hitters are all on steroids and swing oversized bats, the pitchers beanball every Rays batter, the infielders sucker-punch every Rays runner, the umpires never call anything the Rays way, and the fans are too busy watching Miley Cyrus twerking on the stadium screen to notice what's happening on the field.
In this scenario, the Rays--and the right--have three options. Option #1 is to "go Galt" and walk off the field, which is what many on the right have done--Obama won in 2012, not because more people voted for him, but because fewer people voted for Romney. Option #2 is to keep trying to play the game by the rules, which is what the GOPe has done--McConnell, Boehner, et al keep trying to negotiate with Obama, Reid/Pelosi, et al, and the result is that the other side keeps winning, because the other side keeps breaking the rules, and the umpires (media) keep letting them.
Then there is Option #3. The alternative-universe-Rays don't walk off the field, because the game is too important--just as the right doesn't walk off the field, because the future is too important. But the Rays don't keep trying to get the alternative-universe-Yankees to play by the rules, because they understand that the Yankees only care about winning, regardless of the result to the game--just as the left only cares about winning, regardless of the left's destruction of the future.
So what do the Option-#3-Rays do? They perform the baseball equivalent of civil disobedience. Rays batters know they are going to be thrown beanballs, so they stand at the plate facing the pitcher, fending off the pitches, and occasionally hitting one. Rays runners know they are going to be sucker-punched, so they run around the fielders outside the lanes, or simply stop and block the sucker punch. Rays pitchers know the Yankee batters are bulked up and carry oversized bats, so the pitchers sit down on the mound and calmly say that they will begin throwing pitches when the batters get off the juice and swing regular bats.
In doing all of this, the Rays realize two things. First, the game will never get played--but the game isn't being played now, just a sham where the Yankees ensure that they "win." Second, the umpires will be constantly making calls against them--but the umpires are doing that already.
So what would they hope to gain by this? That over time, the fans in the stands, as their beer and hot dogs run out, will begin to look at the field rather than at Miley on the screen, and will begin to realize that the game has been gummed up by the Yankees, and the Rays are simply trying to make the game better.
And that is where Ted Cruz comes in. Ted Cruz can't "win" by his actions, any more than the Rays can "win" against the alt-universe-Yankees by refusing to be beaned or sucker-punched. But playing "by the rules," which is what McConnell, Boehner, McCain, et al keep trying to do, isn't getting us anywhere, because the opposition refuses to play by the rules, and doesn't want to negotiate but rather wants to destroy us. Only civil disobedience within the government is going to get the attention of the American people, because it is only the American people who can stop the left from breaking the political rules for the sake of destroying the right. That is why forcing the cloture vote last week was a shrewd political move, just as the faux filibuster last summer was, just as Rand Paul's Pollyanna-lawsuit against Obama is. Like Henry David Thoreau refusing to pay his taxes, like Rosa Parks refusing to sit at the back of the bus, Ted Cruz is refusing to pay for the left to make us sit at the back of the American bus. As of this moment, that is a very good start to the required American Reformation.
Derek Hunter is the one in left field, he thinks Cruz is there to propose and pass more legislation...He is not, he is there to conserve, protect, and RESTORE the Constitution, he is working to RESTORE the republican party and return it to foundational principles, in lieu of a third party.
The republican party has a blown engine, the only way to fix it is to tear the engine down and get new parts with which to put it back together, Cruz is the mechanic.
"Cruz is a brilliant man, but that doesn’t make him a brilliant leader. "
Hunter thinks a brilliant leader, must be a compromiser, compromise is the weak traits of leadership that got us where we are now.
"What is the next move?"
Now Hunter complains Cruz has no strategy, well the strategy is once the engine is torn apart, to put it back together again (Hunters problem is he wants it to be more complicated). The Dems and the Rino's know that, it is why they fear him so. Besides you don't boast of strategy to the enemy.
Cruz is focused on the blown engine, he needs more mechanics to help, that is what he doing recruiting mechanics, and he is getting them slowly.
How did the Dems get to be so powerful, they stick together on their principles, perverted though they may be, it's worked.
I could go on and on about this article, and if you understand what Cruz is doing, you already know this article is total nonsense.
What is scary is there are more than a few freepers who buy into this crap, maybe because they trust the writer, but who knows what their agenda is.
More of the same crappy logic: we need more RINOs so we control the government and vote in our version of big government. The problem with that should be obvious: we are out of money. The Fed literally prints money and gives it to the politicians of both parties to spend. Ted Cruz is one of the few politicians pointing out the how the Fed is destroying the Main St economy: http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=760
Yet, according to this writer, Ted doesn't have a plan. How about this plan: shut down the Federal government.
I prefer to look at his goal as flushing out the RINOs so that we can cull the herd.
“But although his goals are admirable and shared by conservatives across the country, he has no idea how to achieve them.”
Oh, yes, he does. A plan to be elected President in 2016. Everything the man does is focused on positioning himself to seize the republican nomination in 2016. Cruz knows he hasn’t a snow ball’s chance to enact any of his policies unless he becomes president.
Cruz is too smart to actually stop the raising of the debt ceiling. The consequences would have been too catastrophic and he would have been the one to take all the blame destroying his political career. This was a clever opportunity to show how conservative he was knowing the rest of the caucus would keep him from doing something really stupid.
I prefer underpants gnomes over underpants sniffers like Derek Hunter.
Following Ted Cruz closely over the past year convinces me that
1. He wants to be President.
2. He would have no trouble with leadership.
3. He has clear principles elucidated daily (follow him on Facebook and he incessantly elaborates on his ideals and principles).
4. His plans derive from his principles and would benefit the country.
Step two: Keep fighting.
Step three: Keep fighting until you win.
The author gives us two and only two options from which to choose the "truth" about Ted Cruz. Either:
1. Cruz is too stupid to realize Democrats and the WH will never negotiate.
OR
2. Cruz is betting that conservatives are too stupid to realize that Democrats and the WH will never negotiate.
So, according to Derek Hunter, (who claims to respect and admire Senator Ted Cruz), either Cruz is stupid or Cruz is deceitful...pick one!
I'm not buying what you're selling here, Derek Hunter.
I look forward to reading how I’m awful and “the problem” in the comments
Wait no longer. You suck.
“he has no strategy to achieve it. “
Neither does the author but I see Cruz out there trying to do something. The author has done nothing but criticize Cruz’s efforts. Always the arrogant that speak the loudest.
Oh?
Give a SWORD and watch how easily the Gordian Knot becomes untangled!
As it stands the GOP are complacent, ineffective country clubbers complicit in the ruin of this once great nation.
They need to go. The more damage Cruz can do to the business as usual crowd by exposing their aiding and abetting the commies, the better.
Cruz leads by example.
Principle and courage is indeed a plan.
bkmk