Will Cruz Push the Field Right?

RUSH: This is Phillip in Raleigh, North Carolina. Great to have you, sir. I'm glad you waited.

CALLER: Like you, I think I've been very worried as well about our future, and listening to that speech today, it provided so much hope. I think he's energizing, he's motivating. He articulated in sharing conservative ideals, whether it's taxes, health care, defense, protection of life, decreased regulation. And I'm finally motivated. Somebody that didn't have the typical Republican apologetic tone in the speech.

RUSH: There were no apologies. There were no apologetics. There were no excuses offered. There were no qualifiers in any way offered by Ted Cruz as an excuse for what he was saying or what he believes.

CALLER: Yeah. I think you can motivate the base. I think the independents will come on board.

RUSH: Well, we'll see. I'll tell you one thing that's gonna happen here. I would have to think -- I could be wrong -- the exact opposite could happen. But I think the reaction this is gonna get -- and, by the way, you're gonna think this is funny. Do not, folks, discount the fact he didn't use a teleprompter. Now, I know it sounds ridiculous, but the fact that he didn't use a teleprompter is causing the Drive-Bys as much puzzlement as anything he might have said. It's not supposed to be possible. What it's gonna mean: He really believed it, this guy is serious.

Now, one of two things is gonna happen in the Republican field. This announcement today is either gonna force a whole lot of potential Republican candidates to move to the right, maybe further right than they intended to in order to compete with this. Or, I think more unlikely is, that some of them might decide to abandon going right at all and go more to the center in order to differentiate themselves because they might conclude that there's no way they can out-Cruz Cruz on the right. So it's gonna be interesting to me to see what the other candidates now do because of this and what happens the next day.

RUSH: The interesting thing to me right now is what will the rest of the Republican field do in response. It is entirely possible -- and, by the way, I say this with some firsthand experience of things like this. It's quite possible -- I'm not predicting it. I don't know for sure it's gonna happen. But it's quite possible that Cruz was so effective today in articulating conservatism, and then coupling that with what his conservative agenda would be, and then coupling that with what his vision for America is, and his recitation of what is wrong with the current president, the current leadership, the current Democrat Party, it may be that other Republicans decide there's no way they can get to the right of Ted Cruz and there may not be any way they can actually compete with him on that stage.

It's quite possible. I don't know if it's gonna happen. I'm just throwing out possibilities here. We'll have to watch and see. But it's possible that a number of Republican candidates might say, "You know what? He owns it. Ted Cruz is the conservative in this. I'm gonna have to stake out unique territory." I've seen this happen in none other than the media. So it could well be -- and I doubt very seriously that you're gonna have a lot of Republicans abandon the right because Cruz was so good at it today, but it's possible. I don't expect it to happen, but if it does, I won't be surprised.

But they're gonna have to differentiate themselves from him somehow. And the tough question is gonna be, "Okay, how do I do conservatism better than Ted Cruz does it? Can I do conservatism as well as Ted Cruz and win because I have a more likable personality, 'cause I have a better looking family, do I look better on TV, do I sound more competent? Or can I be as conservative as Cruz and articulate the same stuff and do I have a leg up because I've actually done something? I've actually implemented an agenda."

These guys are gonna be asking themselves all these questions. And I think this is great. You contrast what exists on the Republican side with the vanilla that's on the Democrat side, I don't care who you pick, Hillary, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, take your pick of any of them over there, and all you've got is Chairman Mao Jr. I mean, you don't have any diversity on the left whatsoever. You've got far left, extreme left, and nothing else. Mrs. Clinton cannot come anywhere near Cruz in likability, presentation, energy, articulation, any of that. She can't get anywhere near.

Elizabeth Warren can only out-anger people. Joe Biden is a walking joke, a walking gaffe. So in that sense the Democrat bench, I think, is somewhat thin, but there certainly isn't any diversity. The Democrat base is so ridiculously, radically, genuinely insane. I was talking in the last hour about all of these people who have been voting Democrat for all of these years believing that's the ticket, and they're angrier than ever, and they're more unhappy than they've ever been. It's understandable. Everything they've been voting for and all the promises cannot possibly be kept.

The prosperity and all the other things that are promised cannot possibly be delivered. Even after $18 trillion in spending money this nation does not and has not had. Eighteen trillion, we ought to have 10 utopias for that and we're not even close to one. So the rage and anger that's on the left, in one sense, is understandable. It's exacerbated and even inflamed with additional rhetoric by politicians on the left. That base has to be accounted for.

You have to deliver hate-filled, extreme radical leftism in order to have the barest chance at winning the Democrat nomination, which does not bode well for diversity on the Democrat side, versus, again, all of the different personalities and concepts and themes and variations that do exist on the Republican side.

RUSH: This is Daniel in San Antonio, Texas. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi from Texas. The reason why I called in is, I'm really excited about Ted Cruz running. Being from Texas, I voted for him in the primary and I voted for him when he was running in the general election. Listening to him gives me a better outlook on the future. I have a 11-month-old baby at home, and I'm excited that he won't get more opportunities if Ted Cruz would be elected opposed to like Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, or any of the others.

RUSH: I understand that. I think probably what excites you and a lot of other people is the realization that there is a Ted Cruz, that there is at least somebody out there who can do this, that there's somebody out there willing to do this. We finally have somebody that's willing to articulate conservatism proudly, happily, cheerfully, with no excuses whatsoever. In fact, just the opposite of that. I can see how that would be inspiring and reassuring.

One thing is certain: if future generations are to enjoy individual liberty, then the 2016 Republican Presidential candidate must be a man or woman who is able to articulate the opposing idea of slavery within a context which includes explanation of the real human consquences of the 21st Century "progressive" idea of coercive government-over-people--a concept which enslaves entire populations to the whims of petty tyrants and rulers.

America's founding generations understood the history of nations, and framed a government by a written "People's" Constitution to protect and allow freedom for individuals and "chain" (Jefferson) elected and appointed government officials.

Unlike today's crop of so-called "conservative" leaders, those generations could articulate the ideas essential for liberty to flourish and they translated those ideas into a written Constitution with specific limits on Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary power. More importantly perhaps, they could explain it to "the People."

See the following for a few examples:

"The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. - Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom." It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event." Samuel Adams - Essay in the Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771
"When designs are form'd to raze the very foundation of a free government, those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state of indolence, inattention and security, which is forever the fore-runner of slavery." - Article signed "Candidus," in Boston Gazette, December 9, 1771
"If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them." Samuel Adams- As Candidus in the Boston Gazette, January 20, 1772
"The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave... These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament." Samuel Adams - Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772
"It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave." - The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772
"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
"I deem [this one of] the essential principles of our government and consequently [one] which ought to shape its administration:... The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:322
"I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23
"[With the decline of society] begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia [war of all against all], which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:40
"Is it now high time for the people of this country to explicitly declare whether they will be free men or slaves. It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns more than anything in this life. The salvation of our souls is interested in this event. For wherever tyranny is established, immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent, it is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice.” - Samuel Adams
And:
“The utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These ideas are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government unconstitutional.” - Samuel Adams

Why should freedom-loving Americans be cowered into refraining from using the word "slavery" to describe the condition which results as a consequence of coercive government power over the lives, rights, liberties, and pursuit of happiness of individual citizens in the society?

Perhaps a Candidate Cruz can and will be willing to articulate the ideas of liberty versus tyranny (slavery) in a manner which, as in previous centuries, ordinary citizen voters could understand and support with their "lives, property and sacred honor."

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