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View Full Version : The Political Genius of Ted Cruz



Chris
11-10-2013, 10:16 AM
This is an interesting analysis of politics today. I don't think it is a strategy of Republicans like Cruz or Paul but I have seen on this forum the vitriolic hate of some partisans like jillian or or ravi or exo or common drive otherwise unconcerned members to defend them. I know I don't really care much for Cruz, and only a mild liking for some of what Paul says and does. It's a counter-strategy you see in the Whitehouse, the media and partisans here that garners support for these politicians.

The Political Genius of Ted Cruz (http://www.american.com/archive/2013/october/the-political-genius-of-ted-cruz)


Why does the Tea Party love Ted Cruz despite his decisive role in the recent partial government shutdown, which many consider a debacle for the GOP? Why aren’t Tea Partiers blaming Cruz for their drop in the polls, as mainstream Republicans are busily doing for their own decline in popularity? ...

...Of course, to those who are content to despise the Tea Party, there is really no need to explain this peculiar phenomenon. A political movement composed of nothing but lunatics and raving madmen can hardly be expected to behave according to the high canons of reason and cool reflection. The Tea Party’s adulation of Cruz simply shows how out of touch with reality it is. Yet, operating on the motto that it is always dangerous to despise what you don’t understand, let us try to look for a less invidious explanation of why the Tea Party has hugged Cruz to its bosom instead of trampling him under its feet.

...First, let us recall that Americans have a history of revering men who were heroes despite defeat — indeed, because of their very defeat, or more precisely, because of the nobility of soul they displayed in the midst of it. The defenders of the Alamo....

...Three or four years ago, it was still possible to shrug off the Tea Party as a transient and therefore politically insignificant deviation from the norm of American politics. It would go away quickly enough, like a passing summer shower, in which case, why worry about it, much less try to comprehend it? Today, however, in the aftermath of our latest political crisis, such a casual dismissal of the Tea Party is untenable. Indeed, it is a sign of the times that many of those liberals who were most convinced that the Tea Party would swiftly implode upon itself are now worried that the movement’s stubborn refusal to disappear constitutes perhaps the greatest menace facing both the United States and the world. In their eyes, the Tea Party is a clear and present danger, and no single man embodies this danger more than Ted Cruz.

This brings us back to the question of why the Tea Party loves Cruz. Ironically, a large part of his appeal lies in the very fact that so many liberals are truly convinced that Cruz is a dangerous man....

...According to them, he just wants to blow up the world economy and they believe he came close to doing it during our most recent government crisis, when the United States came within a hair’s breadth of a catastrophic credit default....

...The image of Cruz as a fanatic fits well with the liberal portrait of him as a danger to the republic. Fanatics, by definition, invariably threaten the status quo. They want to turn the world upside down, to lead revolutions that overthrow the established order of things, to pursue their ideals at any price to themselves or at any cost to others....

...Unfortunately, this self-evidently elitist style of argument comes naturally to liberals, many of whom are inclined to assume that anyone of any intelligence must, by definition, agree with their own political views. Hence whenever they find a man of high intellect embracing other views, they can only attribute this to bad faith or the base desire to manipulate the ignorant masses for their own mean and narrow political objectives.

...Furthermore, those who accuse Cruz of having merely indulged in political theater, such as the “stunt” of his all-night talk-a-thon, overlook the two ways that his antics have paid off, both for him and for the Tea Party.

First, Ted Cruz has in fact become something of a household name. In American politics, it is hard to get people to vote for you if they don’t know your name, and at this point Cruz’s name is certainly known, though this is perhaps less the result of Cruz’s faux filibuster than of the mountain of ridicule that his liberal detractors heaped upon him when his monologue was finally, eventually, and at long last over....

Second, not only is Cruz being talked about, he is being talked about as the Tea Party candidate in 2016. This is not only good news for Cruz, but for the Tea Party as well....

...which brings us to what is perhaps the most decisive factor in Ted Cruz’s favor: liberals hate his guts. They cannot stand him. They mock him. They revile him. Though a mere freshman senator, the governmental crisis has catapulted Cruz into the position of being the man that liberals most love to hate — certainly an enviable position for any politician aspiring to win the hearts and minds of Tea Party loyalists. In fact, Cruz’s position as the target of liberal wrath may well be his trump card within the ranks of the Tea Party. The more the liberals hate him, the more it proves that they fear him. The more they fear him, the more it proves that he is the man who can really save America from their godless tyranny.

In short, if the name of the game is to get liberals to hate you more than they hate your closest political rivals, say Paul Ryan or Rand Paul, then Cruz’s seemingly pointless grandstanding turns out to be a stroke of the highest political genius. Yet what a sad and troubling game this is — though a game that is increasingly becoming the hallmark of the polarization of contemporary American politics, on both sides of the political aisles — a game in which the strongest thing that a candidate has going for him is the fact that he drives the other side nuts. Judged by this perverse standard, Cruz should be a shoo-in.


So, liberals, keep hating his guts!