Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
This week, we self-adminster the Ricochet RINO Litmus Test® to determine exactly who is a coastal media elitist and who isn’t. Naaah…just kidding. We’ve got a terrific line-up with the great Pat Sajak and newly minted Ricochet editor Jon Gabriel. We cover all things Cruz, Pat’s Twitter war with some dude on Fox, how Conservatives can win the media battle, and much more. Give it a spin!
Music from this week’s episode:
Cruisin’ by Smokey Robinson
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.
We are a fan of green eggs and EJHill.
Help Ricochet by supporting our advertisers!
This podcast is brought to you by our good friends at Encounter Books. This week’s featured title is Philanthropy Under Fire by Howard Husock. Get an additional 15% by using the code RICOCHET at checkout.
Subscribe to The Ricochet Podcast in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
EJ’s best-ever illustration, IMHO.
Third it.
I’m in the same boat as Rob; I don’t know what to make of Cruz. Not personally … I like his guts and aggressiveness … but I can’t predict what effect Cruz will have.
If were trying to persuade the country, outside the Beltway, then I’d be fully in favor of Cruz’s upfront, here’s-the-argument directness. But the sad reality is that we have to change the psychoses inside the Beltway, and that’s an alternative reality that doesn’t respond predictably or sanely. The civics books claim that the government is supposed to represent the country, but I’m having serious doubts whether that’s true anymore. Increasingly, I sense the government pursuing its own interests, and so appealing to an argument about what’s good for the country is becoming more and more irrelevant.
It’s like trying to come up with a strategy of how to play poker when you know the game is fixed. You have to play a different game than the game you learned before you walked in.
Scott, quick question – do you envy Cruz for his Texan “choir?” If envy is not the right word, what is? To be more direct, do you wish Ohio had a more stalwart electorate and delegation, or do you like the deal of getting gruel today in exchange for promises of manna tomorrow?
Thanks for the shout-out, guys. Let me just add that there’s another serious problem with Obamacare. The application process will have all the attraction of filling out a tax return. What do you suppose the reaction will be when Americans are forced to spend time on the vagaries of a government insurance policy?
Remarkable, EJ.
Matt: Yes, I envy his Texas choir. I wish the whole country was that choir, and please take all comments I ever make regarding coping with pee-their-pants moderates in Middle America in that context.
….and speaking of moving from gruel to manna, Matt and Rob, it really is happening in the Midwest, slowly (the only way in can happen), in IN, WI, MI, and OH — heck, even in Jersey to some extent.
Patience, everyone. Mitch Daniels-ism — which is really Paul Ryan-ism at the state level — works.
I see. One thing, Rob, that you were right on about is how this appears to Joe Average. It’s not entirely clear that this was a procedural vote. To most it looks like Cruz was filibustering a bill passed by Republicans. That’s confusing. But he certainly turned it into a means of communicating why we are fighting against Obamacare.
I hope you’re right. But if not, my offer to drive you around while you house hunt in the Great State of South Carolina (too small to be a nation, too big for an insane asylum) stands.
Remember that scene in Red Dawn when they are all standing around wringing their hands trying to decide what to do with the traitor? Then suddenly the one kid just grabs the rifle and blasts him? Cruz is that kid. He did what everyone knew should be done, but didn’t have the guts to do. And we can say all day that the only reason he did it is because he’s safe, and that’s fine. I’m just glad there’s at least one Senator who is both “safe” and ballsy. And a fine speaker.
What did Rob Long mean about “Hail Mary pass”?
“My argument about Cruz is just the strategy and the fact Peter is now talking about shutting down the government, and ultimately that is at the heart of my discomfort with the strategy that Cruz was following until last night, until he made a Hail Mary pass and got out of it.”
Wondering the same thing and I thought for a second Peter was going to ask him about that, but he didn’t.
“My argument about Cruz is just the strategy and the fact Peter is now talking about shutting down the government, and ultimately that is at the heart of my discomfort with the strategy that Cruz was following until last night, until he made a Hail Mary pass and got out of it.” ·28 minutes ago
In my opinion, all bills should be preceded with a 21 hour diatribe. Why should we behave? Let’s have some shoes thrown at each other while we are at it…
It just seems to me that all our civility has made the incremental destruction of our freedoms downright easy!!!!
I’ve got no problem with Cruz’s speechifying on the awfulness of Obamacare. That’s great. It’s his arrogant dismissal of those who oppose his defund-or-shut-down strategy that’s so repulsive.
Put a name to the “some in the GOP” that Cruz ripped on Rush today: Is Paul Ryan really a “go along to get along” member of the “surrender caucus” who is “content with the status quo” and “won’t fight”??? Come on.
The Texan Cruz has the luxury of having the choir as his constituents and will likely never have to take a difficult vote in his entire senate career, while the statesman Ryan managed to cajole and coax an entire apprehensive party to embrace workable entitlement reform, while hailing from a purple-blue district in a purple-blue state. That’s real bravery. And he accomplished that not by insulting potential allies — not by dismissing them as “the surrender caucus” — but by being attentive to their concerns, by reassuring, by educating.
If conservatives embrace the Cruz approach over the Ryan approach, the sum total of conservative reform in the U.S. will be less. Way less.
What I meant was, there’s no evidence that this was all some kind of master plan by Ted Cruz, that he knew all along he’d have 21 hours to fill on the Senate floor. In all fairness, even by his own and his staff’s admission in previous days, he really wasn’t following a mapped-out playbook. What he did, ultimately, was improvise. Brilliantly, I think. And this isn’t really a criticism. Great politicians have to be nimble, have to seize the moment when it appears, have to believe in their powers of communication and persuasion. Cruz was, frankly, boxed in by a series of realities — there was no movement or support from the Senate, the House was jittery and left hanging — and he took the microphone and grabbed the moment.
The Texan Cruz has the luxury of having the choir as his constituents and will likely never have to take a difficult vote in his entire senate career, while the statesman Ryan managed to cajole and coax an entire apprehensive party to embrace workable entitlement reform, while hailing from a purple-blue district in a purple-blue state. That’s real bravery.
If conservatives embrace the Cruz approach over the Ryan approach, the sum total of conservative reform in the U.S. will be less. Way less.
·20 minutes ago
But these days, don’t we need both kinds of Republicans? For all of Ryan’s intelligence — and I’m a fan of the Ryan budget — it didn’t really move the needle. Maybe Cruz won’t either. But that makes him just as effective as Ryan, no? If we’re talking about presidential types, I agree: a successful politician from a blue-ish state is probably a better bet. But then, I’d have to balance Ryan’s district-wide success with Cruz’s statewide success.
Rob: I believe Ryan did move the needle, bigtime. The entire Republican Party is on record hugging the Third Rail. That unity will pay off in real law some day. It’s going to happen.
Cruz doesn’t do unity, so far as I can tell. Certainly today on Rush he created all manner of problems for good purple-state conservatives by driving a wedge between the base and them, purposefully it seemed, and as they approach an election year.
But these days, don’t we need both kinds of Republicans? For all of Ryan’s intelligence — and I’m a fan of the Ryan budget — it didn’t really move the needle. Maybe Cruz won’t either. But that makes him just as effective as Ryan, no?
I think Rob nails it. There will be no actual reform unless we fire on all cylinders: stirring speeches to move the base, well-thought out proposals from think tanks and wonkish politicians, electoral victories, some vicious attacks on the left, some strategic compromises, and lots of persuading the persuadable. Relying on a single tactic, no matter how perfectly executed, will never be enough.
That’s why I really don’t understand how the different factions in the movement managed to go from “all of the above” to “my way or the highway.”
Cruz doesn’t do unity, so far as I can tell. Certainly today on Rush he created all manner of problems for good purple-state conservatives by driving a wedge between the base and them, purposefully it seemed, and as they approach an election year.
·54 minutes ago
Edited 30 minutes ago
I hear you on Cruz’s statements today on Rush, though I’m ready to let that slide after the general reaction from his fellow congressmen. There are a lot of personality problems there from both sides. But I hate to say it, I don’t see how Ryan moved the needle. He was a national candidate, and as much as it pains me to say it, his budget was a liability. Not saying he was wrong to propose it, but no one is talking entitlement reform or budget priorities or any of the stuff he was so passionate about.
If we’re talking about presidential types, I agree: a successful politician from a blue-ish state is probably a better bet. But then, I’d have to balance Ryan’s district-wide success with Cruz’s statewide success.
Statewide in Texas Romney/Ryan got 100,000 more votes than Cruz.
To Cruz’s credit, that’s the closest any senator who ran to the right of Romney/Ryan got to matching their total.
(Sorry that it’s become my job here to point out this unpleasant stuff. Not fun for me either.)
Second that, Dubya.
Once again, in the Congressional elections immediately after the Clinton shutdown, the GOP lost a grand total of two seats in the House and gained, yes gained, two seats in the Senate.
Give it a Spin! Nice Juan.
Pat did not take advantage of James’s setup: “Do you have Greg Gutfeld in the trunk of your car?”
The correct response: “No! I put him in the glove box.”
When I first saw the illustration, I thought that was Neil Cavuto, not Peter Robinson.