Talking Points Memo:
"To understand Cruz's role in 2016, one must recognize
that the Tea Party in Washington today is a not an insurgency from
below. It is a realignment within the Republican establishment that has
committed the party to a position of extreme non-compromise. As Megyn Kelly pointed out yesterday,
Ted Cruz has put himself at the vanguard of that strategy. The
willingness to naysay, more than any policy position or connection to
the conservative grassroots, is what distinguishes him from other
Republican presidential hopefuls.
Let's remember: The Tea Party, more than an organization or even a
movement, was a political moment. In early 2009, the person and the
policy proposals of President Barack Obama galvanized grassroots
conservatives. But, after the exceptionally unpopular President Bush
left office, the Republican brand was toxic and the party leadership was
in disarray. Encouraged by conservative media, rank-and-file
Republicans built ad hoc local "Tea Party" groups to oppose the new
president's agenda. There was plenty of room at the top for any
Republican who could seize the "Tea Party" momentum.
At the national level, those who profited were rarely actual
newcomers. Instead, longtime conservative insiders like Dick Armey and
Jim DeMint became "Tea Party" leaders. Although the adoption of the Tea
Party name and symbolism gave a sense of novelty to this intra-party
realignment, there is nothing new about the rightmost wing of the
Republican Party except its ever-increasing authority.
Today, we are reaping the candidates the Tea Party has sown. One of
these is Ted Cruz, whose 2012 campaign received support from several
major players in the Tea Party field, including Jim DeMint's Senate
Conservatives Fund and Dick Armey's Freedom Works, as well as other
longtime funders of the far right, like the Club for Growth. These
players aren't new, but their degree of power is; the Republican Party
has been growing more conservative for decades, and the Tea Party was
only the latest step in that direction."
The full story at Talking Points Memo:
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