How did Ted Cruz become so influential, so powerful, so intimidating, and so quickly among the Republicans
The most recent Bloomberg Business Week has the cover title "John Boehner Doesn't Run Congress. Meet the Man Who Does." Their take is Jim DeMint, the recently retired outspoken rigidly rightist Senator from South Carolina who is now President of the conservative "think" tank, "The Heritage Foundation" is the real force. In that role as head of a very well funded anti-government K Street political action group, DeMint has far more influence than he did as a Senator from a predictable right wing racist conscious state. He has an impact. He allocates funds to tea party candidates. He funds research to distort the comments of fellow moderate Republicans. He is a festering sore on our democracy.
Problem is for DeMint and the BBW opinion, he has been upstaged by a freshman Senator from Texas, the intellectually disingenuous but seemingly brilliant legal mind of Ted Cruz. Behind the scenes Cruz and his Texas cabal orchestrated our current budget and debt ceiling crisis. How did this happen?
My first knowledge of the veteran Texas political force Cruz, age only 42, was while watching of all things the Republican National Convention. Various speakers came and went, all working mainly from scripts and repeating the party lines about the Affordable Care Act and Obama in general. They were all limited speakers, protected by the podium and sometimes gripping it. Then came this guy Ted Cruz, who worked from no script, walked the stage and ignored the podium. He did not come across as radical at the time and did not vary much in content from the other speakers, but in style in was light years ahead of all of them. As someone who in a former life in banking had learned through hard work to be an effective public speaker, and do what Cruz was doing, I was extremely impressed and said so in a blog two years ago. Little did I know.
Cruz is by all accounts is already running for President. His attitude is, I think, that if Obama can do what he did so can I. He too is a Harvard Law School graduate from a mixed family without great means. He too was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review. Of all people, the Harvard professor and libertarian liberal Alan Dershowitz, when asked referred to him as "off the charts brilliant". In his role as Solicitor General of Texas for six years he wrote more than 89 briefs presented to the Supreme Court and argued nine of those cases personally before the Supreme Court while Obama, in his mind correctly, was no doubt in the lowest Chicago courts defending simple cases involving community groups.
Cruz is formidable, but also vulnerable. He is beginning to annoy veterans in his own party even as the Koch dynasty and the radical right west Texas community support him completely. Boehner fears him. At the moment we do not have time for this drama to play out in some rational way. Cruz would shut down the government and crush the global economy if he could force his way. That's just my take on this, but it is based on a substantial amount of study of Hitler's rise from obscurity in the early 1930's, study through both textbooks and erudite historical fiction. Cruz would do anything to rise to power. Unlike WWII this is not based on ethnic prejudices or even any kind of pure libertarian principles. It's about pure ambition. It all reminds me of those pseudo intellectuals who repeat the Santayana phrase that goes something like those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Get a life, that's a long term civilization comment. In the short term there is no such thing as a permanent outcome that can be predicted. Anything can happen. Cruz is not with the American people on most issues, but that is no assurance that something unfortunate cannot happen.
His stance is supposedly based on his interpretation of certain parts of out constitution that was written in the late 1700's for a different era and can be contorted and distorted in almost any way at this point.
To make personal comment about this phenomenon, I should note that I have a sincere friendship with a wealthy and well connected San Antonio guy that I met in 2004. We keep in touch, him more than me with these off the charts radical right wing forwards of attacks on Obama and any progressive ideas. Even his wife seems to have given up on him as, while he has four beautiful children, the Christmas card this year was him and his dog. I did not ask. The point is that these many forwarded e-mails are from EVPs, Presidents, and even CEO's of Texas companies. His brother is CEO of his large family company and my friend has some vaunted title. I like the guy despite myself and know he would always have my back, and he is a dedicated Catholic whatever that means. That seemingly does not get in the way of the vitriol toward Obama and anything progressive or even polite. While I give him kind hints from time to time in response to his e-mails, even saying things like "this is not you", the over the top stuff never stops.
Cruz comes from this kind of "moral" and financial support and he is talented. At Harvard and other schools he perpetually, on his own or with a partner, won almost any debating contest available. He is dangerously talented as a speaker.
If the even minimally mainstream Republicans had any spine, they would cordon off this Senator NOW, despite his legal skills and public speaking prowess. Even if it's not many people's cup of tea, a minimalist Republican mainstream is far safer than making Cruz their nominal leader as they have in recent months. What a huge mistake. What a huge indication of the lack of real leadership in either party that within eight months of being elected a Senator, in an upset and being largely unknown outside of Texas, Cruz could become such a political force.
If all of the above seems too alarmist, please accept that is just one person's opinion and that is allowed still in the USA, despite any actions of the NSA.
Problem is for DeMint and the BBW opinion, he has been upstaged by a freshman Senator from Texas, the intellectually disingenuous but seemingly brilliant legal mind of Ted Cruz. Behind the scenes Cruz and his Texas cabal orchestrated our current budget and debt ceiling crisis. How did this happen?
My first knowledge of the veteran Texas political force Cruz, age only 42, was while watching of all things the Republican National Convention. Various speakers came and went, all working mainly from scripts and repeating the party lines about the Affordable Care Act and Obama in general. They were all limited speakers, protected by the podium and sometimes gripping it. Then came this guy Ted Cruz, who worked from no script, walked the stage and ignored the podium. He did not come across as radical at the time and did not vary much in content from the other speakers, but in style in was light years ahead of all of them. As someone who in a former life in banking had learned through hard work to be an effective public speaker, and do what Cruz was doing, I was extremely impressed and said so in a blog two years ago. Little did I know.
Cruz is by all accounts is already running for President. His attitude is, I think, that if Obama can do what he did so can I. He too is a Harvard Law School graduate from a mixed family without great means. He too was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review. Of all people, the Harvard professor and libertarian liberal Alan Dershowitz, when asked referred to him as "off the charts brilliant". In his role as Solicitor General of Texas for six years he wrote more than 89 briefs presented to the Supreme Court and argued nine of those cases personally before the Supreme Court while Obama, in his mind correctly, was no doubt in the lowest Chicago courts defending simple cases involving community groups.
Cruz is formidable, but also vulnerable. He is beginning to annoy veterans in his own party even as the Koch dynasty and the radical right west Texas community support him completely. Boehner fears him. At the moment we do not have time for this drama to play out in some rational way. Cruz would shut down the government and crush the global economy if he could force his way. That's just my take on this, but it is based on a substantial amount of study of Hitler's rise from obscurity in the early 1930's, study through both textbooks and erudite historical fiction. Cruz would do anything to rise to power. Unlike WWII this is not based on ethnic prejudices or even any kind of pure libertarian principles. It's about pure ambition. It all reminds me of those pseudo intellectuals who repeat the Santayana phrase that goes something like those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Get a life, that's a long term civilization comment. In the short term there is no such thing as a permanent outcome that can be predicted. Anything can happen. Cruz is not with the American people on most issues, but that is no assurance that something unfortunate cannot happen.
His stance is supposedly based on his interpretation of certain parts of out constitution that was written in the late 1700's for a different era and can be contorted and distorted in almost any way at this point.
To make personal comment about this phenomenon, I should note that I have a sincere friendship with a wealthy and well connected San Antonio guy that I met in 2004. We keep in touch, him more than me with these off the charts radical right wing forwards of attacks on Obama and any progressive ideas. Even his wife seems to have given up on him as, while he has four beautiful children, the Christmas card this year was him and his dog. I did not ask. The point is that these many forwarded e-mails are from EVPs, Presidents, and even CEO's of Texas companies. His brother is CEO of his large family company and my friend has some vaunted title. I like the guy despite myself and know he would always have my back, and he is a dedicated Catholic whatever that means. That seemingly does not get in the way of the vitriol toward Obama and anything progressive or even polite. While I give him kind hints from time to time in response to his e-mails, even saying things like "this is not you", the over the top stuff never stops.
Cruz comes from this kind of "moral" and financial support and he is talented. At Harvard and other schools he perpetually, on his own or with a partner, won almost any debating contest available. He is dangerously talented as a speaker.
If the even minimally mainstream Republicans had any spine, they would cordon off this Senator NOW, despite his legal skills and public speaking prowess. Even if it's not many people's cup of tea, a minimalist Republican mainstream is far safer than making Cruz their nominal leader as they have in recent months. What a huge mistake. What a huge indication of the lack of real leadership in either party that within eight months of being elected a Senator, in an upset and being largely unknown outside of Texas, Cruz could become such a political force.
If all of the above seems too alarmist, please accept that is just one person's opinion and that is allowed still in the USA, despite any actions of the NSA.
posted by John Borden at 6:25 PM
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