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George Will: Ted Cruz is aiming at the wrong Republicans
Washington Post ^ | 04/02/2015 | George Will

Posted on 04/02/2015 6:16:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was born in 1970, six years after events refuted a theory on which he is wagering his candidacy. The 1964 theory was that many millions of conservatives abstained from voting because the GOP did not nominate sufficiently deep-dyed conservatives. So if in 1964 the party would choose someone like Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, hitherto dormant conservatives would join the electorate in numbers sufficient for victory.

This theory was slain by a fact — actually, 15,951,378 facts. That was the difference between the 43,129,566 votes President Lyndon Johnson received and the 27,178,188 that Goldwater got on the way to winning six states.

The sensible reason for nominating Goldwater was not because he could win: As Goldwater understood, Americans still recovering from the Kennedy assassination were not going to have a third president in 14 months. The realistic reason was to turn the GOP into a conservative weapon for a future assault on the ramparts of power. Hence in September 1964, William F. Buckley told an audience of young conservatives to anticipate Goldwater’s defeat because he had been nominated “before we had time properly to prepare the ground.” The candidacy had, however, planted “seeds of hope, which will flower on a great November day in the future.” Sixteen Novembers later, they did.

Today, however, there is no need to nominate Cruz in order to make the GOP conservative. Cruz sits in a Senate that has no Republicans akin to the liberals Goldwater served with — New York’s Jacob Javits, Massachusetts’s Edward Brooke, Illinois’s Charles Percy, New Jersey’s Clifford Case, California’s Thomas Kuchel. When Jeb Bush, the most conservative governor of a large state since Ronald Reagan (by some metrics — taxes, school choice — Bush was a more conservative governor than Reagan), is called a threat to conservatism,

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016; georgewill; republicans; tedcruz
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To: SeekAndFind

I see Rove is working his spin this week. He wrote a similar article using equally subject polling numbers.


21 posted on 04/02/2015 6:34:41 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (My tagline is in the shop.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“George Will missed the Reagan Revolution not only in 1976 but as late as 1980. In the 1979 Republican Presidential Primary, his first choice was Howard Baker, his second choice was George H. W. Bush, and his third choice was Reagan. Not until days before the 1980 general election did he write on November 3, 1980 that Reagan deserved election. For all his wonderful columns, the Republican electorate better understood the needs of the nation and the excellence of a potential Reagan presidency than Will. It is hard to believe he was so wrong about a matter of such great import, despite Reagan’s presence on the national scene for many years.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2727010/posts


22 posted on 04/02/2015 6:40:42 PM PDT by dontreadthis
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To: dontreadthis

I think Will has gone double senile


23 posted on 04/02/2015 6:41:33 PM PDT by GeronL (CLEALY CRUZ 2016)
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To: Ouderkirk
IIRC, Goldwater predicted all this private small businesses VS “my ‘rights’ trump your private property” crap with his opposition to the ‘public accommodation’ clause of the civil rights act.
24 posted on 04/02/2015 6:45:51 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: Zhang Fei
What Will misses is that working class Republicans don't care about tax cuts or new entitlements programs for upper income people. They do care about amnesty and gay marriage.

Yup. Its why Rick Santorum did so well in Michigan in 2012. He talked less about capital gains taxes and more about manufacturing taxes which blue collar people understand.

Cruz can tie the whole package together. Everything he needs can be found in Reagan's 1980 nomination acceptance speech.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech - 7/17/1980

Absolutely flawless
25 posted on 04/02/2015 6:53:24 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: Nifster
Mr. Will is getting old and forgets a lot.
He is out of date and out of touch.
This is his most confused article in some time.
TWB
26 posted on 04/02/2015 6:54:39 PM PDT by TWhiteBear (Sarah Palin, the Flame of the North)
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To: SeekAndFind

Has George been smoking some wacky weed ?


27 posted on 04/02/2015 6:54:47 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (The Keystone Pipe like Project : build it already Congress)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Cruz sits in a Senate that has no Republicans akin to the liberals Goldwater served with ...”

George Will needs to retire.


28 posted on 04/02/2015 6:54:52 PM PDT by cdcdawg
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To: SeekAndFind
.


I'm not sure, but certainly there was a time when George Will rose to relevance because of his accurate and keen political insight ... seasoned with dash of baseball stories ...

but, honestly, that "time" must have been around 1066 AD ...

George Will is like the woman (Peggy Nooman) ... relevant AGES ago ...

but clueless today.


.
29 posted on 04/02/2015 6:57:14 PM PDT by Patton@Bastogne
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To: SeekAndFind

“Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was born in 1970, six years after events refuted a theory on which he is wagering his candidacy”

WTF are you talking about George Will? I guess you’re so much more historically eriudite than the rest of us yokels that we cannot recognize context in depth like such a genius as yourself. FUGW POS.

Your so much better than the rest of us and we cannot even begin to comprehend the depth of your analysis.

ASSHOLE


30 posted on 04/02/2015 6:57:37 PM PDT by slouper (LWRC SPR 223)
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To: SeekAndFind

What would Will walk and talk like if a good surgeon finally extracted the large pinecone trapped in his lower colon?? Will the world ever know?

Back to his argument. Cruz is trying to ignite constitutional conservatives. Will thinks these are the wrong people to fire up. Will says that the biggest bloc of R voters are the mushy middles, the low info voters. The ones who, presumably, went to the polls the last two elections. Where was George?

Numbers, states, which group always backs the winner? Will is still playing Blue Team vs. Red Team. Every constitutional conservative in the country is done with the sports metaphor for presidential elections. We don’t have a team. We want the country to return to a free republic, and we don’t care what the candidate who fights for it is called.

Will acts so high and informed, but he just wants his Red Jerseys to win. His bread is buttered. These Beltway Statists are actually the low info people. Conservatives today are fighting for the survival of the republic, both teams be damned.


31 posted on 04/02/2015 6:59:28 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: SeekAndFind

I just want a choice. By the time the primary reaches Texas, the party has already anointed some ultra lame, blue state republican. At that point, I simply don’t care. And I can’t take the GOP seriously when they stick the inventor of Obamacare at the top of their ticket.


32 posted on 04/02/2015 7:01:02 PM PDT by Kandy Atz ("Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want for bread.")
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To: Nifster

Oh thank you. Where would I be without somebody to point out my typos on my phone.


33 posted on 04/02/2015 7:02:44 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (E)
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To: Eva

Frankly, I don’t see a dimes worth of difference on policy between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. If there is a difference, please let me know.


There probably is some difference but it would be infinitesimal contrasted with a true conservative candidate. I felt I had to vote for Romney. I still believe maybe I wouldn’t have been hurt as badly these last years with him in the WH. I’m not ashamed of that vote. But I’m done. Nothing will get me to vote Jeb. And if even I feel that way....


34 posted on 04/02/2015 7:02:54 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: SeekAndFind
When Jeb Bush, the most conservative governor of a large state since Ronald Reagan (by some metrics — taxes, school choice — Bush was a more conservative governor than Reagan), is called a threat to conservatism,

Rick Perry (Texas) was more conservative than Jeb Bush and that isn't saying much.

35 posted on 04/02/2015 7:04:32 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Shickl-Gruber's Big Lie gave us Hussein's Un-Affordable Care act (HUAC).)
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To: SeekAndFind
George must have forgotten about 1980 and 1984


36 posted on 04/02/2015 7:08:55 PM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Yaelle

I feel the exact same way. I have already stopped voting for local Repiblicans, who I think are fools, but I vioted for both McCain and Romney. This time I will have no compunctions about leaving the top slot on the ballot blank.

I stopped donating to the Republican Party, two years ago. I also stopped paying my dues. I now only donate to individual candidates.


37 posted on 04/02/2015 7:10:58 PM PDT by Eva
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To: SeekAndFind

POOOOOOOR GEEEEOOOORGE...

HE WAS BORN WITH A SILVER STICK UP HIS ARRZZZZZ!!!!


38 posted on 04/02/2015 7:17:13 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: jwalsh07

not trying to be contentious some people actually think it is spelled with a ‘z’ not realizing it is an acronym


39 posted on 04/02/2015 7:19:05 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: Maceman

I totally agree with you 100%.

He’s been on FOX’s Special Report with Bret Baier, and I’m never quite happy with what he says. I prefer someone else to sit in that position on the panel

Lately, Tucker Carlson has been a panelist, and I can tell you Tucker is more conservative than most. For most who may not watch Fox’nFriends on the Weekends, Tucker is one of the 3 heading the show. More than not, it is Tucker who voices exactly what I believe; and it’s always more common sense than anybody else is saying.


40 posted on 04/02/2015 7:19:17 PM PDT by CyberAnt ("The hour has arrived to gather the Harvest")
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