Ted Cru꧋z has proved himself the David Blaine of US politics. The freshman Republican senator’s 21-hour pseudo-fiꦺlibuster was an immensely stylish endurance stunt — a feat made all the more impressive by the rhetorical fluency that did not flag, the clarity of argument that was present in the first hour and the 21st and the unflappable demeanor.
Unlike Blaine, Cruz seemed none the worse ⭕for wear at the end. Remember: He didn’t sit; he didn’t go to the bathroom; the only relief he got was the occasional “question” that went on for a few minutes to give his throat a break.
In the last hour, even as he said he grew “weary” as his time arguing against ObamaCare was coming to a close, he found himself iಞn a debate with the able and smart Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin on the Congress’s generous health-care plan.
Durbin complained that ♑Cruz wanted to deny health ca🍌re to the uninsured; did he not, Durbin asked, enjoy the benefits of the generous congressional health-care package himself?
Cruz said he wouldn’t answer Durbin until Durbin first replied to three questions Cruz had 💯posed. Durbin, with an “a-ha” gesture, responded by saying it was clear Cruz was simply refusing to answer his embarrassing question.
He’d walked into Cruz’s trap. For then☂ Cruz said, no, Senator, I’m eligible for the congressional plan — but I’🦂m not enrolled in it.
Durbin thought he had Cruz cornered by bringin🧔g up his reliance on the absurdly generous health package for Congress. But since Cruz doesn’t rely on it, Durbin humiliated himself in what was suppoꦬsed to be his gotcha moment.
Despite his marathon of speaking and standing and arguing, after nearly a day on his feet, Cruz — there is no other term for it — squashed💟 Durbin like a bug.
All in all, the Cruz performance was great political theat♐er, and Cruz was astoundingly impressive both in demeanor ♒and in the cogency and saliency of his arguments against ObamaCare. If there’d been any question before Tuesday about what a formidable presence he’s going to be in Washington and in the Republican party going forward, it has been laid to rest.
But what all that demonstrates is how tr🍰iumphant Ted Cruz𝓰’s superstar performance was … for Ted Cruz. What did it do otherwise?
His filibuster’s nominal purpose was to p🍸u꧟t pressure on the Senate to create the conditions under which funding for ObamaCare would be stripped from a budget resolution — or else force Democrats to shut down the government.
Yet that was and is never going to happen; Democrats have the majority in the Senatꦦe. ObamaCare𓃲 is their law, their passion and their president’s signature achievement. So much for the procedural hijinks Cruz was engaging in.
But then the real passion in Cruz’s appeal and the passion among the Republican base✤ and the conservative movement in this entire business isn’t directed against Obama and the Democrats — but rather against Republicans and conservatives who don’t see the purpose of creꦯating a political crisis over funding the government with no possible positive outcome for the Right.
Cruz has dubbed such people “the surrender caucus.” At the start of h𒈔is marathon, he compared them to Neville Chamberlain, conceding Austria to the Nazis.
Every single one of those Cruz includes in the “surrender caucus” opposes ObamaCare and voted against it. The writers and talkers he includes in the “surrender caucus” have written or spoken tens of thousands of words against it and are as committed to stopping its harmful effects as Cru🎶z is.
They simply don’t see the value in this game of brinksmanship; in fact, they — we — see that it might be harmful to the cause of stopp💛ing ObamaCare. This disagreement is over tactics, not core convictions.
This is enraging to Cruz and🌺 his followers. They want confrontation, even if the confrontation is purposeless at this moment — and🐻 doesn’t even involve ObamaCare.
They confuse s꧒tyle with substance. Cruz and others think that standing your ground and fighting at every turn is actually more moral than working on a long-term strategy to get rid of ObamaCare.
That long-t🐠erm strategy involves winning electi꧒ons in 2014 and 2016. A budget fight in which the Right is blamed for shutting down the government will be harmful to these crucial goals.
The question is, why do Cruz & Co. despise Republ✅icans and conservatives with whom they agree more than they do Democrats and liberals who are ꧙working tirelessly to impose these policies?