If Ted Cruz Didn’t Exist, Democrats Would Have to Invent Him
A true cynic about American politics would, at this point, be forced to one conclusion: Sen. Ted Cruz is a Democratic sleeper agent. It is tough to appreciate just how much good Ted Cruz has done the Democrats over these last few weeks.
He convinced Republicans to shut down the government rather than wait and fight over the debt ceiling, where they would have had more -- and more dangerous -- leverage. He splintered the Republican Party such that, from day one, it was clear that the GOP leadership opposed the strategy they were executing, and GOP senators were publicly blasting House Republicans. That also cut the GOP's leverage.
He made this a fight over defunding Obamacare, which polls showed was a wildly unpopular reason to shut down the government, and which united Democrats against him. He shut the government down on Oct. 1, the same day Obamacare began, thus distracting the American people from the law's rollout.
He drove the Republican Party to its lowest levels of popularity ever recorded in polls. He actually managed to make Obamacare more popular at a time when, by all rights, the law's troubled launch should've been eroding its standing in the polls. The culmination of the strategy, today, is that Republicans are reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling in return for...nothing.
Going forward, not only will Republicans be afraid to shut down the government or threaten the debt ceiling again during this Congress, but if Republicans somehow end up doing it anyway, Democrats will be unafraid of the fight. As Democrats see it, if Republicans want to give a shutdown or a default another shot closer to the 2014 election, well, that's more great news for Democratic congressional candidates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/16/if-ted-cruz-didnt-exist-democrats-would-have-to-invent-him/
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