Come January 2017, if you see Ted Cruz taking the presidential
oath of office, you’ll largely have the Republican Party establishment
that hates him to thank for it.
Not since Reagan has a nonestablishment presidential
candidate had the comprehensive worldview and charisma capable of
coalescing enough of the conservative/libertarian base to defeat the
Republican ruling class in a national primary. As a result, the grass
roots has often been splintered, allowing the establishment candidate
(John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012) to win a plurality of
fractured support to secure the nomination.
Cruz, however, is just as comfortable talking to the social conservatives at the American Family Association as he is talking to the libertarians at FreedomWorks. He gets standing ovations from evangelicals in Iowa and tea party activists at an Americans for Prosperity summit. There may well be no other national figure in the Republican Party you can say that about right now.
Still, that alone wouldn’t have elevated Cruz from a mostly unknown 12 months ago to a potential — if unlikely — GOP standard-bearer in 2016. It has been the immature and ridiculous antics of the Republican Party establishment that has given Cruz the street cred that usually takes years to acquire. The one thing social conservative and libertarian constituents agree on right now is their mutual disdain for the GOP establishment. Seeing that establishment relentlessly attack and melt down over Cruz is almost like a coded message to the base that says, “This is the guy you’ve been waiting for.”
Because I’m a radio host and happen to live in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, I get to interview and talk to a lot of candidates.
I’ve interviewed Cruz a few times and he’s clearly a gifted politician with courage of conviction. Yet those pluses alone wouldn’t have created such a fuss around a freshman senator who’s been in office for only nine months. The ruling class in both parties sees Cruz as a singular threat to a failed status quo. That means he’s a viable champion for conservatives and libertarians in the Republican base that utterly loathe the ruling classes in both parties.
That also makes Cruz a viable general election candidate.
As I have previously written, Republicans win presidential elections when they do two things: unify the base in the primary and run on a credible, right-of-center populist economic message in the general. Neither McCain nor Romney was able to accomplish either of those things, and thus both lost.
Cruz already has the base unified behind him, as evidenced by the success the defund Obamacare effort has had dragging the leadership kicking and screaming across the finish line in the Republican-controlled House. The Republican Party establishment foolishly made Cruz the face of the grass-roots effort to fight one of the most unwanted and unpopular pieces of legislation in recent memory — further endearing him to a public desperate for leadership.
The son of an immigrant who fled tyranny in Cuba and who also was a small-business owner and a pastor, Cruz has a perspective on individual liberty and responsibility that sounds empowering, rather than elitist or threatening. I attended the Family Leadership Summit in August, where Cruz drew a standing ovation for saying that the proper response to President Barack Obama’s “you didn’t build that” rant during the 2012 campaign was: “you can build that.”
That message of opportunity and empowerment was one that Obama ironically tapped into in 2008 when he said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” But after years of sluggish growth, a lack of jobs and one foreign policy debacle after another, the bloom is off that rose.
If Cruz can translate that right-of-center economic populism into a real plan to lessen the burden of government on the American worker and small-business owner, you could very well be welcoming President Cruz to the White House 40 months from now.
Will it be the Republican Party establishment — which has done more to promote his brand name than Cruz or his staff could’ve ever hoped to do themselves — that takes credit for it?
Steve Deace is a nationally syndicated talk radio host. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow.
Whether they’re calling his efforts to defund Obamacare a “fraud,” sending Fox News personalities’ opposition research to use against him, or simply claiming to “f——— hate” him, the sophomoric and treacherous behavior by the GOP establishment has helped elevate the junior Texas senator from a “wacko bird” beloved by the base to a force of nature capable of something no movement conservative has done since Ronald Reagan.
Cruz, however, is just as comfortable talking to the social conservatives at the American Family Association as he is talking to the libertarians at FreedomWorks. He gets standing ovations from evangelicals in Iowa and tea party activists at an Americans for Prosperity summit. There may well be no other national figure in the Republican Party you can say that about right now.
Still, that alone wouldn’t have elevated Cruz from a mostly unknown 12 months ago to a potential — if unlikely — GOP standard-bearer in 2016. It has been the immature and ridiculous antics of the Republican Party establishment that has given Cruz the street cred that usually takes years to acquire. The one thing social conservative and libertarian constituents agree on right now is their mutual disdain for the GOP establishment. Seeing that establishment relentlessly attack and melt down over Cruz is almost like a coded message to the base that says, “This is the guy you’ve been waiting for.”
Because I’m a radio host and happen to live in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, I get to interview and talk to a lot of candidates.
I’ve interviewed Cruz a few times and he’s clearly a gifted politician with courage of conviction. Yet those pluses alone wouldn’t have created such a fuss around a freshman senator who’s been in office for only nine months. The ruling class in both parties sees Cruz as a singular threat to a failed status quo. That means he’s a viable champion for conservatives and libertarians in the Republican base that utterly loathe the ruling classes in both parties.
That also makes Cruz a viable general election candidate.
As I have previously written, Republicans win presidential elections when they do two things: unify the base in the primary and run on a credible, right-of-center populist economic message in the general. Neither McCain nor Romney was able to accomplish either of those things, and thus both lost.
Cruz already has the base unified behind him, as evidenced by the success the defund Obamacare effort has had dragging the leadership kicking and screaming across the finish line in the Republican-controlled House. The Republican Party establishment foolishly made Cruz the face of the grass-roots effort to fight one of the most unwanted and unpopular pieces of legislation in recent memory — further endearing him to a public desperate for leadership.
The son of an immigrant who fled tyranny in Cuba and who also was a small-business owner and a pastor, Cruz has a perspective on individual liberty and responsibility that sounds empowering, rather than elitist or threatening. I attended the Family Leadership Summit in August, where Cruz drew a standing ovation for saying that the proper response to President Barack Obama’s “you didn’t build that” rant during the 2012 campaign was: “you can build that.”
That message of opportunity and empowerment was one that Obama ironically tapped into in 2008 when he said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” But after years of sluggish growth, a lack of jobs and one foreign policy debacle after another, the bloom is off that rose.
If Cruz can translate that right-of-center economic populism into a real plan to lessen the burden of government on the American worker and small-business owner, you could very well be welcoming President Cruz to the White House 40 months from now.
Will it be the Republican Party establishment — which has done more to promote his brand name than Cruz or his staff could’ve ever hoped to do themselves — that takes credit for it?
Steve Deace is a nationally syndicated talk radio host. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow.
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