Ted Cruz Just Auditioned to Be the Right's Bold Leader in 2016, and Conservatives Loved It

[applegrove]

Ted Cruz Just Auditioned to Be the Right's Bold Leader in 2016, and Conservatives Loved It

By Rebecca Nelson at the National Journal

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/ted-cruz-just-auditioned-to-be-the-right-s-bold-leader-in-2016-and-conservatives-loved-it-20150112

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"Let's stand up and lead," he said. "Let's lead with a big, bold, positive agenda, that says to the American people, 'You had a referendum, and you rejected the Obama agenda. There is a better way.' "

His 10-point plan, which ranges from the expected—repealing Obamacare—to the highly unlikely—abolishing the IRS—is his apparent attempt to solidify himself as the premier antiestablishment candidate in 2016. With cheers and "amen"s reminiscent of a gospel church at Heritage on Monday, it was clear that the conservative audience—a near full house—was on board.

Cruz started crafting the message he delivered Monday before last year's election. In a USA Today op-ed in October, he framed the same points as priorities for a Republican Congress. He said Monday that, now that the GOP has a majority, they shouldn't shy away from major policy battles such as the ones he outlined. It's a deeply conservative platform that will likely transition him to a presidential bid.

The summit, billed as "Opportunity for All, Favoritism to None," laid out a distinctly conservative policy agenda in 2016, from cutting "waste" in the federal budget to allowing union workers to receive raises above their negotiated contracts. Former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the Heritage Foundation's president, called Cruz and the other congressmen participating in the event "the real progressives in Washington."



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[arcane1]

1. Good. He will lead to their inevitable downfall.

Please proceed!

[applegrove]

2. Exactly. He is the obvious cult of personality leader expousing

the pillars of right wing think. His obvious charade will pull them all down.

[F4lconF16]

3. Laughing

At the thought of him against Warren.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. I wouldn't laugh

In the words of H. L. Mencken:

"The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

"The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."