There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
– Brutus in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
A misguided, decrepit, corrupt, warmongering, and surveillance-happy Republican Party was already stumbling around the room; hammered drunk on its decades old power trip, led by mindless cronies with zero direction when Ted Cruz came by and gave it a charitable push to the ground. It fell swiftly with a pathetic thud. The establishment Republican Party died this week. Good riddance.
Personally, I haven’t put in enough time to look into Ted Cruz to say how I feel about him, but I can certainly support his efforts to destroy the current GOP leadership. More importantly, I can see when political winds are a changin’ and they are blowing with a typhoon’s tempo in 2013.
It all really started in back in March, when freshman Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky started the recent GOP filibuster trend by standing up against Barack Obama’s (and indeed bipartisan Congress’) drone policy. I spent a lot more time writing and commenting about the Rand Paul filibuster as opposed to Ted Cruz’ because it is far more significant for a Republican to stand against aggressive, unconstitutional military action than for a Republican to stand against ObamaCare. The latter they are expected to do, the former not so much. At the time, I wrote a post that got a huge amount of traction titled: #StandwithRand: The Filibuster that United Libertarian and Progressive Activists. Back then I wrote:
What Rand Paul did yesterday was finally bring the public debate to where it needs to be. In doing so, he united activists that are quite opposed on many issues (less than they think, but that’s for another day). This is extremely significant and we need this momentum to continue. Those of us that care about the core principles that made this country great need to stick together, find common ground and not allow the establishment to control the debate any longer.
It’s quite fitting that as Rand Paul stood for 13 hours in an impassioned attempt to call attention to the systematic dismantling of The Bill of Rights occurring in America, President Obama was having dinner with many establishment Republicans. These included the two Senators that have done more to destroy the GOP than any one else; John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Two guys who would drone their own grandmothers if it made them feel tough for a minute.
Fortunately, the momentum of libertarian and progressive activists to defend the Bill of Rights has continued, largely thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden, as decent folks from both sides of the aisle have stood up to protect the 4th Amendment. ObamaCare is not one of those issues, nor should we expect it to be. While I think many Democrats understand the bill was basically written by insurance companies and is another crony capitalist handout, many in the party feel they need to support their puppet President Obama on something and they’ve decided ObamaCare is it. Everyone gets that. What is really significant about Ted Cruz’ filibuster is that it has finally exposed the Republican establishment for what it is. A rotting carcass of nothingness. No matter what happens with the cloture vote later today, it doesn’t really matter. It’s already over. The knives are in. The GOP leadership is dead.
The best article I have read on the subject of what the Cruz filibuster really means was written by Michael Walsh in the National Review. He wrote:
In the aftermath of Senator Ted Cruz’s epic performance on the Senate floor, a few observations:
- After his disgraceful attacks on Cruz, including his reach-across-the-aisle, dog-in-the-manger response today, this should be the end of Senator John McCain as a voice of influence in the Republican party. Ditto his mini-me, Senator Lindsey Graham. Indeed, the entire Old Guard of business-as-usual “comity” fans passeth. When you care more about what the other side thinks, it’s probably time either to switch teams or step down.
- There is new leadership in the GOP, whether the party wants to admit it or not: Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions, and the others who stepped into the breach to spell the senator from Texas.
- Win or lose, the battle is now joined: First the struggle for the GOP and then the battle for control of Congress and the presidency. Cruz just struck at the kings he could reach — the Republican “leadership” — and has most likely dealt them a fatal blow. Now the Tea Party hordes must back him up by eliminating his opponents (who tend to be geriatrics, and thus “leaders” by longevity rather than talent or commitment) through the primary process wherever possible. If he can carry off this coup, he and Senator Paul will very quickly find themselves elevated from back-benchers to commanders.
Some may read my comments above and the observations of Mr. Walsh and think that we are exaggerating. We are not. Evidence of the Republican Party leadership’s total panic at the moment is apparent in various ways, but can be seen most poignantly in their response to criticism from their own base. For example, WND reports that:
WASHINGTON — Following the epic, 21-hour speech by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, supporting the defunding of Obamacare, either voters made so many calls to establishment Republicans that their phone lines melted, or those GOP leaders took their phones off the hook.
Even in this age of digital wizardry and limitless voicemail, callers could not get through at all to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A message said the senator was experiencing a high volume of calls and directed members of the public to call back later or visit his website.
It was the same story with the man who was the face of the GOP in the 2008 elections, former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
His phone was off the hook, too. Callers got a message stating his voicemail box was full.
The Arizona senator apparently had other matters on his mind during the Cruz speech, tweeting, “Final episode of #Broadchurch tonight – one of the most entertaining shows on TV right now.”
Well on a positive note, at least crony McCain wasn’t caught playing video poker again.
How about our favorite GOP fascist crybaby Peter King. What’s he up to during all of this? From WND:
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who has called Cruz a “fraud” for his efforts to defund Obamacare, said Thursday supporters of the Texas senator have been bombarding his office with “vile” phone calls.
“The vehemence of the phone calls coming into the office. I don’t care, people can call me whatever they want … I haven’t heard such vile, profane, obscene language,” King said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.
“I’m not saying Ted Cruz is responsible for all his supporters, but he has tapped into a dark strain here in the American political psyche here, and again, the most obscene, profane stuff you can imagine all from people who say they support the Constitution,” King said. “I think what we have to do is reach out to his people and let them know that they’re following a false leader here.”
A false leader huh? I suppose a real leader keeps the balls of the national security state firmly in his mouth at all times, a position that makes Mr. King feel most at home. This reminds me of an epic video from late last year when Rep. Peter King was confronted by Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange. The guy can’t answer a single question and squirms away from Luke while acting like a total mafioso thug.
The tide of American politics has shifted and the corrupt cronies in the Republican Party are set to be swept out to sea. If the Democrats can now also move to take out their garbage we may be on the verge of something special. If not, then it will have to be done with alternative parties. Either way, it will be done. The game is changing. The grounds are shifting. The opportunity for real change lies straight ahead.
In Liberty,
Mike
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“A misguided, decrepit, corrupt, warmongering, and surveillance-happy Republican Party was already stumbling around room …”
Ain’t that the truth. But you left out over-medicated.
As a Ron Paul delegate, I went to the AZ state GOP convention that cast their lot for Romney. OMG, the adjectives above nail it. BTW, my report on that convention is here: http://www.garynorth.com/public/9507.cfm
Right in the bull’s-eye! And that’s no BS.
Those ‘stuck IN stupid’ may never understand, much less, or more, oversquat.
So, this is what makes you happy? A single party controlled nation into perpetuity? Are you sick enough to even fathom that would actually benefit this country for how long? Once it takes hold (if it ever does) you will see what a single party without distension and self control can accomplish and it won’t be pretty. We can only exist with two equal
party’s keeping each other honest (as possible) and negotiating the best deal for everyone. I wouldn’t want ANY single party to control this country for a single day. Single party ie. Hitler, Stalin, MAO etc will only abuse and destroy this country in a hurry. GOD help us all if this comes to pass.
Yo Mike, there is only one party, just two different colored jerseys to make you “feel” like you have a choice. Its a classic divide and conquer strategy. One wants to spend and borrow and the other spend and tax. You can pick which is which. Either way, its a walk down Marxism lane.
Essentially, the onus is on a citizenry, that, to an excessive extent, is apathetic, ill-informed, distracted, uninterested, and does not care to participate in activist organizations. Thus, there is a default to those who work to our country’s detriment for their self-aggrandizement and/or serving their own zealotry and beliefs in systems opposed to our founding principles and practices.
I recollect reading somewhere, that during our Revolutionary War, 1/3 of the populace opposed our war for independence, 1/3 were non-participating observers/bystanders, and the remaining 1/3 were the activists for independence. That last 1/3 made ALL the decent, deciding difference — paid for by whatever wealth they had and their lives. They cared enough.
It would seem that today, the Tea Party folks and their allies among the citizenry (excluding Congressional politicians) makeup less than 1/10 of the adult populace ACTIVISTS [ I’m estimating that from the number of LISTENERS (not all are activists) to radio hosts Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Michael Savage, …].
Among our federal elected Congressional folk, it seems less than 20% are interested in promoting, preserving, and returning to our primary founding principles and practices. The Congressional Democraps and Repukeagains, for the most part, and at best, are a sorry bunch of unprincipled mediocrities.
We may b-tch and moan about the present state and trends in our social-political milieu, but that is simply mental masturbation to soothe our supine, empty egos.
If you’ve had enough, demonstrate it by getting your head out of and off your duff!
Voted GOP all my life (I am retired) but not last election. Will vote independent until/unless the GOP really changes and gets rid of the McCain’s, Grahams, Kings, and that whole evil, demented, corrupt crowd.
“It all really started in back in March…”
It started before then…there are many of us former (R)s who were burned by the party’s actions against Ron Paul (and by extension, his supporters) in the last election. The party has not subsequently seen the errors of it’s ways.
I swore then that I would see the party destroyed, and that I would take every opportunity to further that goal. I knew that I could not be the only one feeling that way. I warned every (R) that would listen. Most stuck with the party line, and thus, deserve to go down with their floundering ship.
Interesting story. Systematic defrauding of civil liberties is linked to growing awareness of political stagnation regarding political ideologies and the origin purpose of increasing the overall standard of living “funding , of sorts, the two party system. Naturally based on political trends one would think that the next presidential election will “take the cake” for the future political landscape with a populous more keen aware they have been defrauded and misdirected in appropriateness in their belief systems. Separation of church and state is still a fantasy for a large portion of Americans. I wonder how many people equate “God”, the governing principle with the same respect of government specifically consent of the governed.