Senator Ted Cruz has a communications problem. It is certainly not one for which he is at fault. He has earnestly and forthrightly set forth his intent to defund ObamaCare regardless of the cost. He represents tens of thousands of energized activists who urge him forward at rallies and in social media. He has demonstrated great political sway, reaching across the isle to draw a line in the sand that timid House Republicans dare not cross. He has made plain that neither polls nor the endless drone of the proletariat are of consequence.
English: Grover Norquist at a political conference in Orlando, Florida. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
While the mainstream media and old-line Republicans such as Grover Norquist and Sen. John McCain have derided him as having no plan and having dragged the Republican party across broken glass, the truth is much to the contrary. His plan to defund ObamaCare was most plainly stated.
Plan A: Shutdown the Government
Plan B: Destroy the Global Economy
We have watched the first plane strike the tower of government and set it splendidly ablaze. Overnight 800,000 government employees without pay; the economic multiplier effect rippling through the infrastructure of the tower, closing business upon business, shuttering parks and leaving families of dead soldiers in uncompensated grief. Ted Cruz delivered as had no other Tea Party wannabe in weakening the tower to its foundation. We witness Cruz’s hapless House Republican colleagues comically pissing at the blaze with their left-of-liberal piecemeal legislation as the opinion polls mocked their claims of representing America’s will.
Meanwhile Cruz has calmly, defiantly lined up the second tower, the strongest edifice that this country possesses, the full faith and credit of our sovereign debt, in his sights.
The Nihilists
Last week, Sen. Cruz responded to CNN’s Candy Crowley on raising the debt limit, “Number one, we should look for some significant structural plan to reduce government spending. Number two, we should avoid new taxes. Number three, we should look for ways to mitigate the harm from ObamaCare.” Eleven days into the government shutdown and nearing the threshold of U.S. Sovereign debt default, Cruz exhorted House Republicans to stand firm against the weaker willed Senate GOP which had by now ran from the words defund ObamaCare. “Patience and courage and persistence is required, and will not come from the permanent beltway class.”
Ignoring the pleas of China and Japan, who hold the bulk of U.S. Sovereign debt; giving short shrift to the warnings of the International Monetary Fund, major business entities and investment bankers who can most accurately predict demand for U.S. Sovereign debt, Cruz’s Tea Party comrades in both House and Senate asserted that the threat of default was imaginary.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R)
“I think we need to have that moment where we realize [we’re] going broke,” Rep. Ted Yoho said. If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, that will sure as heck be a moment. “I think, personally, it would bring stability to the world markets,” since they would be assured that the United States had moved decisively to curb its debt.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn explains:
“There’s no such thing as a debt ceiling in this country because it’s never been not increased, and that’s why we’re $17 trillion in debt. And I would dispel the rumor that’s going around that you hear on every newscast that if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we’ll default on our debt — we won’t. We’ll continue to pay our interest, we’ll continue to redeem bonds, and we’ll issue new bonds to replace those.”
Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney says Obama is currently lying to the public, because, “We’re not going to default; there is no default.” He thinks that in default, the Treasury could just prioritize its payments until a bipartisan deal gets worked out in Congress.
The main stream media posits these men as occupationally challenged, alluding to one being a mere “veterinarian” as though they all possess IQs below 100 and are simply incapable of understanding the complexities of high finance. But no, these men are not self-deluded nor are they ignorant. They deflect the certain truths because at end, they simply don’t care.
Official portrait of United States Senator (R-OK). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
They see the adverse poll numbers. They see the people out of work and the impending misery. But those matters are of no relevance to their constituency and there are no facts that will ever deflect their purpose or impinge on their world view and no amount of pleading or presentation of facts from well-versed experts can possibly change that.
The Nihilist is intellectually immune to reason so we should not find it fantastical that Ted Cruz when presented with adverse poll results showing only 24% favorable opinion simply has a more flattering poll produced and without skipping a beat seeks to convince his followers that not only should they “stay the course” but that they are in fact “winning.”
Cruz is the vanguard of the coming storm to which the GOP that we knew has already fallen. These are men who hold nothing dear but their singular goal. Here it is defund ObamaCare but there is going to be a next issue and the threat of the nation’s financial default will simply be used again and if not that then some other quality that we hold dear that is to the Nihilist of no value.
Though old-line conservatives in the Senate may disavow him and may even succeed in structuring a bill to reopen government and raise the debt ceiling, Cruz’s compatriots in the House dare not abandon their constituents. Nor has John Boehner the votes to approve any bill that does not significantly delay or defund ObamaCare so it is bewildering that time is being wasted on such policy negotiations when what demands attention is dealing with the promise of Nihilism.
The Promise of Nihilism
Ted Cruz and the Tea Party have exposed a weakness in the fabric of our democracy. The Tea Party, a small minority with stunningly low public approval, has shown that it can and will in a few hours force the country to economic default.
Clearly the Founding Fathers failed to anticipate the rise of the Nihilists, failed to anticipate a political entity that simply does not care what damage is wrought on the nation. Today the world wonders do the laws of this country provide any meaning to the words “full faith and credit of the United States”.
This country must show here and now that the full faith and credit of the sovereign debt cannot be threatened by political extremism and indeed ought be able to survive even a second Civil War. To do less than this will make currency manipulation a political weapon wielded at the whim of any sufficiently petulant demagogue. One can only assume that an astute business or business coalition of sufficient means will soon sponsor legions of similar efforts to use this troubled politic to target the nation’s debt and currency whether to drive exports or more efficiently position currency trades. Businesses that profit from a weak dollar will have an unending incentive to fund abusive political parties that target the nation’s currency, which may well have happened here.
Sequesters, ObamaCare, balanced budgets, political parties, having a gay-Muslim-Nazi-(mixed race abomination)-communist-Kenyan-America-hater for President is of no consequence compared to the damage wrought by this glaring deficiency. The goal should be to show the world that with all of the policy disagreements still extant and the political parties yet incapable of any form of agreement that the full faith and credit of the nation endures and is beyond question.
This administration should set aside all efforts at compromise and instead work in these waning hours to put to rest now and forever the very thought that this promise of nihilism can ever be attained.
Related articles
Joseph Jett
Managing Partner - Jett Capital Management LLC,
Offering Private Equity, Intl. Corporate Finance, Expert Witness, Reputation Management
Joseph Jett - The Official Blog, Join me on Facebook, Google+ or on my Verified Twitter Account
Latest posts by Joseph Jett (see all)
- A President’s Credibility: Trump’s Falsehoods Eroding Public Trust - March 22, 2017
- Bitcoin and the Painful Art of Wrist Slitting - January 16, 2015
- Ted Cruz and the Promise of Nihilism - October 14, 2013
Cruz is an idiot but comparing his actions to 9/11 are just as stupid.
Cruz is a self obsessed moron. His only interest is self promotion. He cost the USA $24 billion over the shut-down, so he has cost more American lives than 9/11 already. A truly disgusting man.
smart article.
Do not agree at all with this article on Ted Cruz. It is an offensive, inaccurate portrayal of one of our defenders of the Constitution and our freedoms.
PERSONALLY, I am Sick of hearing and Living the END results of the ‘problem’ I want to hear of the SOLUTIONS ….ya know, the ones for the ‘good of the all’ … I got a cast iron pan, even in a wheelchair I might be able to fix this…#SayWhat!?!
I’m sick of this in-fighting in Congress and against the duly elected President. I would love to see the Congressmen/women that have been voted for, working to fix the problem instead of making new ones.
Congress was also duly elected, & they weren’t elected to rubber stamp bad ideas.
A very good article. Ted Cruz is not stupid. He is, according to his peers and rivals, one of the most brilliant appellate attorneys Texas has ever had. He clerked at SCOTUS. He has the Constitution memorized (not an exaggeration). I believe he’s a savvy, smart, cynical opportunist who’s outlined the swiftest path to the Presidency, and that road runs through the Koch brothers and other libertarians/Tea Partiers/Randians/Nationalists. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Fear this man.
I humbly and very respectfully implore you sincerely to consider the following requests before you continue to deceive both yourself and others.
First, please meticulously research both the definitions and the full etymologies (including, of course, the historical and contemporary usages) of the terms “conservative” and “nihilism/nihilist.”
Second, please scrupulously study the “Progressive” Movement. Thoroughly investigate its origins, its objectives and its principals and “principles,” both past and present. You will then at least begin to know who the REAL political nihilists are. Contrary to “conventional wisdom,” [Please see https://www.renewamerica.com/columns/weaver/110416.%5D the “Progressive Movement did not die out in the late 1920’s, early 1930’s. It is alive and very well today. Yes, the home of today’s “Progressives” (aka, modern “liberals”) is the Democratic Party. However, many if not most of your precious “moderate” or “establishment ‘Republicans’”—wittingly or unwittingly—are cut from the “Progressive” cloth. [Hint: John McCain’s hero is Teddy Roosevelt.]
Third, please profoundly and fastidiously read and study the full texts of the original speeches, personal letters, writings and memoirs of the United States of America’s Founders and Framers. Start with those whom you believe would mostly agree with you if they were alive today. If you are anything like me—human; homo sapiens —you will be amazed by the extent to which certain snippets (out of context) have been used for political (and for anti-“religious”) purposes to distort the Founders’ and Framers’ meaning and intent. Read the original charters of the 13 colonies. Read the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. Read ALL American State Papers (beginning with the Mayflower Compact) and all of the Constitutions of the fifty states.
For many reasons, I struggled with the question of whether or not it would be wise and proper for me to include this fourth entreaty. Here are the three primary reasons for my hesitation: 1) Time and space are limited. 2) You and your readers would completely dismiss me as a total religious whack job. 3) Most significantly, Matthew 7:1. [Judge not, lest ye be judged.] I concluded that it is not only wise and proper, it is crucial. [Pun (“crucial” < “cross”) not necessarily intended.]
Fourth, finally and MOST importantly, please earnestly consider asking Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life. Truth—with a capital “T,” does NOT come from Harvard University—at least not since the last sixty to seventy years or so. Truth is the Word and the Will of the Creator of the Universe and the Author of Law. [Please study Harvard’s original charter!!] One cannot understand Liberty unless and until he comprehends its Source—i.e., the Word (Jesus Christ) and the Will (e.g., Liberty & Justice) of God.
You sincerely believe that you were educated at Harvard. “Nationalism” (even Patriotism) is evil. “Globalism” (and cultural relativism; collectivism) is good. Keynesianism (i.e., “Progressive” economics) is economic truth. An 18 trillion-dollar national debt is somehow not only “sustainable,” it is even optimal. Morons like Ted Cruz and me just don’t get it. Utopia is within our grasp. Utopia is possible if only those stupid Christians and Tea Party “extremists” would just shut up and go away.
You were NOT educated at Harvard. You were indoctrinated if not consecrated into the “Progressive” (aka, the modern “liberal”) worldview. Please consider my four requests and discover the TRUTH!!
Extremism? Extremism waxes the further one strays from religious (moral, foundational), political (ethical, structural), economic (fiscal, monetary) and scientific (physical, practical) LIBERTY; Justice; Truth; limited government; individual rights & responsibilities and a strong work ethic. Tea Party Patriots, almost unanimously, are true Americans. The real extremists and political nihilists are those who want to tear down and replace the foundations and institutions upon which the United States of America was originally founded.
Intelligent thoughts well expressed. Written whether they are popular or not. Thanks for writing this Joseph.
It’s hard to imagine someone being motivated enough by pure vacuous stupidity to have taken the time to pour out this much idiocy in a single article.
While I agree with everything you have said in your comment, I would simply sarcastically offer you this: “Good luck with that.”