Thomas Friedman, in the New York Times:
President Obama is leading. He is protecting the very rules that are the foundation of any healthy democracy. He is leading by not giving in to this blackmail, because if he did he would undermine the principle of majority rule that is the bedrock of our democracy. That system guarantees the minority the right to be heard and to run for office and become the majority, but it also ensures that once voters have spoken, and their representatives have voted — and, if legally challenged, the Supreme Court has also ruled in their favor — the majority decision holds sway. A minority of a minority, which has lost every democratic means to secure its agenda, has no right to now threaten to tank our economy if its demands are not met. If we do not preserve this system, nothing will ever be settled again in American politics. There would be nothing to prevent a future Democratic Congress from using the exact same blackmail to try to overturn a law enacted by their Republican rivals.
In other words, the debt limit crisis is Old Testament, real wrath of God-type stuff! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together! The Mustache of Understanding making sense!
Yesterday, Jonathan Bernstein suggested that Cruz has already been winnowed
Considered through the light of Kazzy’s post on Olympic medals, this leads to a host of questions I don’t dare ask for fear of going Heisenberg on Cruz.Report
Bernstein touches on a major point that a lot of commentators on the GOP minimize: They really don’t like losers. Which in my view makes suspect the notion that they will indefinitely accept minority status for the same of ideological purity.Report
Though Norquist himself has been somewhat marginalized lately. There’s been a more or less sensible line of attack against him lately that he’s the epitome of the inside the Beltway Establishment Republican, and there’s a completely unhinged line of attack that accuse him of being a sekrit muslim because of whom he has married.
And, as has been pointed out often, a Cruz Prez nomination will require an epic pirouette on ‘natural born’ and birthright citizenship.
Cruz is going to be in a Senate for a long time before he has to face any voters. His actions lately almost certainly guarantee him a substantial war chest in perpetuity. With that, and a political seat that tilts in his party’s favor for the foreseeable future, he has the ability to spread the wealth.
Cruz’s influence is still waxing, not waning.Report
And, as has been pointed out often, a Cruz Prez nomination will require an epic pirouette on ‘natural born’ and birthright citizenship.
Like that would be a problem. Remember “Every nominee deserves an up or down vote”?Report
It’s enough for a Santorum or Huckabee campaign to file a lawsuit, or simply win the issue outright among Republican primary voters.Report
Honestly, I don’t think so. It was always a fake issue that was really about blackity, blackity, black, black black. You might recall that George Romney was born in Mexico, and when he ran in 1968 it wasn’t an issue, period, nor did Mitt get asked about it once.Report
I have to think of Cruz through the whole package, including immigration and Latino outreach.
Feels to me like he might have been set up to bring the Tea Party down; a little AA action decided to either sink and purge a problem or swim and widen the party base. And through that lens, it feels White Privilege won out. God, I hate having these thoughts.Report
Mike Schilling, I’m sort of curious about how you did this. The link on the front page mentions the similarity between Cruz and Bill Murray; but in the text above, they’ve vanished like a ghost, and the holy spirit’s taken over.
I think Schilling’s holding out on the source of his powers.Report
There is no Schilling, only Zuul!Report
Gender bender.Report
Zuul is only a virtual Schilling particle.Report
I’ll just leave this here:
http://www.somethingawful.com/news/thomas-friedman-metaphors/Report