Ted Cruz and the New Politics of Texas
For much of the modern age Texans complained vociferously about interference from Washington, but for most of that time folks around here knew that was just rhetorical hypocrisy. In fact, Texas politicians have historically been downright passionate about government (the pork part, at least). How else did we get something like NASA in our own backyard? The oil depletion allowance? Military bases? Remembering who sent them to Washington kept senators like Lloyd Bentsen, Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison in office for decades.
.. Mr. Cruz, in contrast, takes his anti-government tirades seriously, and he doesn’t care when he alienates and infuriates members of his own party. He still takes full credit for being the last holdout in the government shutdown of 2013. L.B.J. gave us Medicare; Mr. Cruz wants to obliterate Obamacare. Mr. Cruz says he would never vote against his beliefs — which automatically puts him in conflict with several million people, commonly known as constituents, and may also explain why he’s missed so many votes.
.. In the G.O.P. primary runoff last year, turnout was tiny (about 750,000 people) and the voters were disproportionately older, white, deeply conservative and highly organized. This is the group Ted Cruz targeted early on. In 2012, he calculated that if he made the rounds of Tea Party meetings and evangelical churches he could win a Senate race against a sitting lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, who couldn’t be bothered to campaign, and he was right.