I saw this on NRO the other day. Normally I’d have skipped it, as I don’t like Michael Walsh very much. He is one of those comics who likes to borrow material from other people and then pretend he came up with himself. When I used to comment over there, he would lift lines from me without attribution. There’s nothing wrong with repeating stuff you see on-line without attribution, since so much of the good stuff is done anonymously, but when it comes directly from comments in your posts, it feels different.
I don’t really care that much, but it just means that he has the morality of the guys who cheats at golf. Those sorts of people are not obviously dishonest, but you are wise to make sure to keep your wallet in your front packet when around them. They are the type of person that spends all night drinking with you at the bar, before the bill comes he throws down a twenty and heads for the door. They always operate in that space between honest and dishonest, forcing you to be the bad guy who polices their behavior.
Anyway, enough of that. I like Ted Cruz as a senator, but he has no chance to be president or even the GOP nominee. The Republican Party is headed to the dustbin of history, because it is not a real political party. It’s juts a dumping ground for people who reject the other party. A third of GOP elected officials wish they could be in the Democratic party. Guys like McCain, Graham, Rubio, Christie and Paul Ryan look at the cool kids on the other side of the aisle and turn green with envy.
Many GOP officials would switch parties in a heartbeat, but they either cannot win as a Democrat in their state (Graham) or simply took the easy road early on and it is too late to turn back (Christie). Another third just want to keep their snout in the trough and be left alone. They are not interested in rocking the boat or risking their career to do the right thing. Cruz is one of those guys who causes too much trouble, by trying to make a name for himself picking fights with the establishment, so he can never be President.
The thing is, these hacks and hustler did not get into office by trickery. They won fair and square. The majority of Americans want a custodial state. They want the state to make all of the important decisions for them. Anything tougher than picking which breakfast cereal to eat is asking too much. The majority of human history is not some form of servitude by accident. As America fills up with peasants from socialist countries, the center will keep shifting from self-governing republic to technocratic oligarchy.
Marx appears to have been right about this. The natural march of history is toward socialism. He just missed on one key element and that is the ruling elite would be locked in place. Instead of a dictatorship of the proletariat, the vanguard of the revolution becomes a ruling elite that ruthlessly defends their power. In the West, that means a managerial state of highly educated flunkies who do the bidding of a small financial oligarchy. The majority of the public is fine with it as long as they get their stuff.
That’s not to say that Cruz has any intention of challenging that arrangement. He just as much of a conventional politician as the rest of them. It’s that Cruz is a guy who criticizes the system, while benefiting from it, by posing as an outsider. He’s the guy in college, who brings a guitar to a party. He’s not there to help the party or oppose the party. he just uses the party as a prop in his act. That’s ted Cruz. He’s a guy who poses as a critic and outsider, but everyone inside knows he is full of it, so they hate him.
The GOP is not a real party, so a guy like Cruz can cause a lot of trouble for them just by being himself. That’s why I like Cruz. He is the sort of guy to rally conservatives against the party establishment. He’s not the sort to lead a takeover, but he can lay the groundwork for someone else. Maybe one day a real outsider will come along and take advantage of the discontent created by guys like Cruz. Or maybe the party just splits apart from the stress of constant criticism. It’s a long shot, but that’s all we have now.
