Michael Van Der Galien has tried to understand why the Ted Cruz presidential candidacy announcement has set social media on its ear and advances a tentative theory. But why are leftists heads exploding as well? Ive got no doubt I know the answer: they fear him. Tremendously even. He is everything they oppose: a true, small-government conservative.
If that were all Cruz were guilty of it wouldnt be half bad. Its far worse. His Imagine speech seemed calculated to ridicule every Leftist shibboleth with predictable effect. The Left lost no time characterizing him as a Christian bigot, a patriarchal supremacist, an uneducated, crazy, anti-poor, anti-abortion uppity loudmouth besides being that supreme abomination, a White Latino. If theres some sacred cow in the Leftist canon Ted Cruz has left undefiled, he will soon enough defile it. Thats the plan.
Cruz was intentionally provocative because he intends to make the Left itself the main issue. People of all shapes and sizes were rising to their feet, clapping their hands raw and shouting themselves hoarse not because they necessarily agree with his policy positions, but because he was sticking it to the Man. He was knocking Gesslers hat off the pole in the public square and the onlookers loved it.
In around the year 1307 the Habsburg overlords of the alps appointed a man called Gessler to rule over the villagers. Gessler hung his hat on a pole in the square and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat.
We all know what happened next. A fellow named William Tell wandered into the village and did the unthinkable. He refused to bow before the hat.
On 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and so was arrested. Gesslerintrigued by Tells famed marksmanship, yet resentful of his defiancedevised a cruel punishment: Tell and his son would be executed, but he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off the head of his son, Walter, in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow.
William tell did something everyone thought was impossible. He resisted. The power of Ted Cruzs speech stems from his refusal to bow before the liberal hat. If you were to re-write his speech into its essentials it might sound like this. Imagine if we could tell all the stuffed shirts in the media to buzz off. Imagine if we could tell the busybodies to butt out our lives. Imagine if we could actually tell the IRS we want to keep our money. Imagine if we could the tell the NSA you need a warrant to tap my phone. Imagine if we didnt have to feel guilty of being Americans. Imagine that we could call Islamic terrorism by its name.
Of course Cruz put it more cannily then that, but that was the message. We can continue.
But you dont have to imagine because Im doing it right now. I am standing right here, committing what is accounted political suicide saying every damned thing you ever felt like saying but couldnt. Im on YouTube giving every bit of lip you were afraid to give for fear you might lose your job. Do you see that hat over there my friend? Im going to knock it down. All I am asking you to do is take out your cellphones and punch in this number and by that ever so negligible act, join in the fray!
Yippee. Theres not a few who would rise to their feet under the sting of that message and bang their palms together not out of the love of Ted Cruz, but under the impetus of shame. Shame that it took so long for someone to say what was obvious; shame that they hadnt said it themselves.
The intellectual establishment has predictably taken the bait. Bearded so openly, they have sneered and they snorted and cast aspersions down like ordure from their high towers upon the rabble beneath. Thats exactly the expected response and theyve only confirmed Cruzs message. By and by the worst of these taunts will be withdrawn by canny media analysts who understand the trap as laid, but the damage is done. Ted Cruz wanted the aristocracy to show its upturned face and that, it has done.
Cruz may not become president of the United States. He may never even win the nomination of the Republican party. But if anyone wants to know why there was such a wave of emotion in response to his incendiary pronouncements, it is the resentment of the serfs, who dream of being serfs no more. The liberals arent fighting Cruz. Theyre fighting their whole sordid history of high handed deception.
NBC's Kaise Hunt had a comment that is revealing about the left's views of conservatives : KASIE HUNT, NBC NEWS: "To give you a sense of Cruz and where he has come from, this has been a very rapid rise. Hes only 44 years old. He was born in Canada, but he renounced his Canadian citizenship over the past year. He grew up in Houston, attended Princeton and Harvard. So, not necessarily the type of pedigree that would immediately seem to appeal to the base of the party, but at the same time those are the voters he is going after here."
You see ,Cruz is too smart for us hay-seed rubes . At the same time they attack Scott Walker because he never finished college.
Meanwhile at MSNBC ,on Morning Joe ,Donny Deutsch claimed that even though Cruz graduated from two Ivy League schools , he's actually dumb. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donny-deutsch-ted-cruz-dumb
Remember when the Democrats decried the politics of personal destruction ? Their comments yesterday were just the opening salvo.
I think he is up to it, tom. They've done nothing but attack him since day one. Ditto the RINOs. He has thick skin and he can intellectually run circles around all of them. He is unabashedly pro-Constitution and pro-American exceptionalism. Globalists hate that.
I think he is up to it, tom. They've done nothing but attack him since day one. Ditto the RINOs. He has thick skin and he can intellectually run circles around all of them. He is unabashedly pro-Constitution and pro-American exceptionalism. Globalists hate that.
Without commenting on the plusses or minuses of Ted Cruz (I'd vote for him if he were the nominee), I'm coming to the conclusion that we've missed the point.
While THE LEFT has been successful at producing Manchurian candidates (Zero, Hil-liar-y, and Warren, if Hil-liar-y implodes), it has been even better at remaking the electorate.
The electorate has been dumbed-down, corrupted with illegals and government sucklings, and others who have no stake in or knowledge of what America is about.
"Gimme mine" is all they're about.
So while we can argue whether or not Ted Cruz (or someone like him) is ready or if he is not, the bigger question is this: "Is America ready for a Constitutional conservative?"
So while we can argue whether or not Ted Cruz (or someone like him) is ready or if he is not, the bigger question is this: "Is America ready for a Constitutional conservative?"
I see little evidence that it is.
Sadly,I agree. The balance beam has already tilted too far to the left,and there are too many voters out there protecting their turf and demanding they get a bigger slice of the pie.
It's all about "Me,me,ME,DAMMIT!",and they are too ignorant and short-sighted to understand that in the long run they are writing their own obits. We are all floating around in the same boat,and when you sink the boat everybody is going to drown.
What needs to happen - in fact, what probably should have happened 20 or 30 years ago - is for someone (a political party or a deep pocketed good samaritan) to go on a massive education campaign.
Using ads, 30 second soud bytes, billboards, busses - whatever - it needs to be drummed into people the benefits of things like freedom and liberty (and its kissing cousin, small, limited government.
This wouldn't obviously nullify the years of indoctrination that passes for public education and exposure to the media, but it would at least be a start.
I'm not one that says the electorate is necessarily stupid, but it IS ignorant. (of things like US History and how we got here, for starters)
It may be - probably is - too late. But the electorate needs to be changed before any one candidate can do anything at all positive.
Using ads, 30 second soud bytes, billboards, busses - whatever - it needs to be drummed into people the benefits of things like freedom and liberty (and its kissing cousin, small, limited government.
The problem is you can't force people to use their businesses to promote your political viewpoints against their will.
Unless you are any color but white,that is. Then it becomes about discrimination because you have rights that white people don't have.
In fact,I seem to vaguely recall a case that was tossed out of court a decade or so ago over this very issue. Some national media outlet had refused to take advertising that hit on leftist talking points and the people who tried to take out the add took their case to court,where it was tossed.