Ted Cruz is absolutely the huge winner here. \u00a0He got to be the ringleader fighting the good fight against the hated brown usurper, without the hassle and inconvenience of actually being on the hook for the credit default. \u00a0Notice that Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, his likely rivals in two years, also made sure to vote against the deal. \u00a0They’re going to be smoking the straight Dixie all the way to 2016, because whenever Ted Cruz wakes up in the morning, he looks in the mirror and sees the 45th President of the United States.<\/p>\n
If he’d won, he’d have to face the consequences of sandbagging Obamacare – restoring discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, kicking freshly-minted college grads off their parents’ insurance, eliminating options for people who can’t get insurance now – and the consequences of trashing the economic system associated with an American default. \u00a0But without those, he can howl about “friendly fire” and say that if only the Senate had more like him, they would win. \u00a0In the classic “Folkways of the US Senate” dichotomy, Ted Cruz is the Platonic ideal of the show horse.<\/p>\n
But he’s learned one lesson that so many in the GOP have learned. \u00a0After all, the Democrats have only had complete control of the elected federal government (House, Senate, Presidency) for a whopping total of 8 years since 1969. \u00a0The Republicans only had it for 4 or 5, but they also had at least two pieces of the puzzle from 1981-86 and 1995-2007. \u00a0And they’ve had a majority of the Supreme Court appointees since about 1990 as well. \u00a0So\u2026why isn’t there prayer in school? \u00a0Why is abortion still broadly legal? \u00a0Why is there no flat tax?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The GOP at large and Ted Cruz in particular have learned a lesson that any profession wrestling aficionado has always known. \u00a0The money isn’t in winning the championship\u2026the money’s in the chase<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ted Cruz is absolutely the huge winner here. \u00a0He got to be the ringleader fighting the good fight against the hated brown usurper, without the hassle and inconvenience of actually being on the hook for the credit default. \u00a0Notice that Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, his likely rivals in two years, also made sure to … <\/p>\n