BILL SIEGEL:”CRUZ”ING FOR A BRUISING TO OBAMACARE
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/cruzin-for-a-bruisin-to-obamacare
The well-worn notion that much of the public has been fed is that Senator Ted Cruz, along with Mike Lee and many Republican House members, caused the government shutdown which was, itself, a disaster. While far from true, the real battle is whether Republicans will learn the proper lessons and how they will move from here, together or in internal disarray, toward their own private sector reform or submit to a pre-planned Democrat drive toward a single payer system.
While extremist radicals such as Sean Penn called for Cruz to be “institutionalized,” the prominent attack on Cruz, primarily by “reasonable” Republicans such as John McCain and Peter King, has been that he chose the wrong “strategy” in his attempt, first to defund Obamacare and later, to cause a delay in its individual mandate and elimination of Congress’ own exemption. It was argued that even if Cruz had convinced enough Senators to vote with him, President Obama would have exercised his veto. Further, no matter how it occurred, any government shutdown would be blamed on Republicans. Instead, they insist, Obamacare would have imploded on its own.
It is certainly true Republicans have taken a beating in the polls. The real cause, however, was the constant bantering of messages by Democrats and their key ally, the media. For months before the shutdown, the media essentially installed critical notions in the minds of the public such as “Republicans will be blamed,” “Obama will not budge,” “a shutdown will result in a national, if not international crisis,” and so on. We tend to think we are sophisticated evaluators of incoming information but, for the most part, our minds find it difficult to fend off that which is constantly barraging them. And once those ideas were force fed to the public, the public tended to feed them right back in the form of polls which, in turn, caused further amplification of the notion.
Accordingly, rarely was the more accurate proposition that Obama and the Democrats were responsible for the shutdown because they refused to negotiate with Cruz and House Republicans given much airtime. Similarly, if Cruz had been successful in converting enough Senators, Obama would have had a difficult time standing alone with his veto trying to do what he does best- blame others. The game would have been very different if the Senate had gone against Obama. And even if the Senate did not fully fall in line with Cruz, many borderline seats would then be better poised for Republican rebounds in the 2014 elections. The only thing that ultimately made Cruz’s actions “bad strategy” is that the “reasonable” Progressive Republicans chose not to join.
In fact, Cruz was very successful. His approval numbers with those he represents have exploded. While polls asking leading questions about the government shutdown show disapproval for Cruz, the shutdown was short lived, has ended, and has been largely forgotten. And as Obamacare falls into disarray, Cruz looks more and more the prescient and fearless leader. He becomes identified as the one who fought all along the way.
Further, among those critical independents, when their conversations on social media are measured by PsyID Corp., Cruz has high favorability while those “reasonable” Republicans are highly disfavored. And according to PsyID’s CEO, John Cardillo, who was featured on TheBlaze.com, the difficulty the Cruz associated Tea Party faces is not because it is disliked but, rather, because it lacks effective messaging, fundraising, and central control; all addressable concerns.
One can always measure success by the effort his opponents make to demonize him; and Cruz has endured a major demonization campaign. Yet much of this has backfired, especially as Obamacare is demonstrating Cruz to have been correct. For the most part, the attack on Cruz et al was formulated in a two part proposition: He is right that Obamacare has serious problems but his approach is improper. As the media, Democrats and “reasonable” Republicans kept repeating this mantra, what the public kept hearing was the premise clause “Obamacare has serious problems…” Contrary to the argument that Cruz’s approach obfuscated the horrors of Obamacare and distracted the public “conversation,” his actions primed the public to more readily be open to see the Obamacare disaster and observe it as it falls on its own. As his detractors attempted to stifle him by repeating their objections, they actually helped sell the point. Essentially, Cruz and his detractors invaluably fertilized the public’s minds to be open to the notion that Obamacare is fundamentally flawed, dangerous to the nation and in need of repeal.
Indeed, should Cruz et al have remained silent so would have his opponents. It is most likely that Obama would then have successfully sold the disastrous website rollout as resulting from simple “glitches.” In fact, “glitches” occur when your computer initiates a restart program. “Glitch” has never been used to mean “does not work” and will take weeks, if not months, to correct. Largely because of Cruz’s efforts, the public has finally awakened to the realities of Obamacare and by watching Cruz has learned to press on to fight Obama’s inadequate defenses of it.
Most importantly, Cruz has the added benefit of sticking to his principles; something that cannot be said of the other government “players.” With some issues, principles cannot be compromised.
What is critical at this point is that the fight continues. Obamacare has already been exposed as untenable. Soon the country will have to choose how to right its course. Obama and many Democrats are looking to “fix” Obamacare. Enter Hillary Clinton who will no doubt march in on the horse of single payer. She will trumpet how she fought for it in the 90’s and had the foresight in 2008 to see that any halfway measure or public-private solution will fall apart. As the Wall Street Journal recently reminded us, she had famously said then that Americans should not have too much discretion over how they spend their healthcare dollars adding, “[t]he money has to go to the federal government because the federal government will spend that money better.” With the huge population that Obama has solidified on public welfare programs, disposing of any form of government healthcare will be politically difficult. It is virtually impossible to stop a failed liberal social program. Instead, the usual remedy is to give government even more control while throwing more wasted dollars into it. Obama’s signature legislation may create Hillary’s. After all, Obama and many of his Congressional supporters always viewed Obamacare as a step, designed to fail, on the road to single payer.
Worse still, are those “reasonable” Republicans who continue to attack Cruz. Peter King, (who has had his own share of failed strategies with his pursuit of terrorism hearings that have produced no results) for his own egotistical/election purposes, seeks to rally “the business community, other people, guys running for president, governors around the country, retired members of Congress, elder statesmen” and “whoever considers himself to be a leader in the Republican Party” to fight Cruz. Others seek to primary Tea Party candidates. These are foolish strategies and will only neuter the party’s efforts to fight Obamacare and its upcoming variation, “Hillarycare2.”
Now is the time for those Republicans who previously argued that the place to fight is at the polls to make sure the “fix” to Obamacare turns back toward full repeal along with a complete proposal for a private based healthcare system with whatever government support may be appropriate. Whether this includes portability, the ability for insurance companies to cross state lines, substantive tort reform, ease on pre-existing conditions and other features, the fight must be organized and engaged now. The shutdown is in the past, was far from a crisis, and is largely forgotten. It is time for the party to stop demonizing Cruz and appreciate and unite behind the principles he embodies.
Certainly, the administration, along with Clinton and other prospective Democrat candidates, is already deeply at work on their next moves.
Bill Siegel is the author of The Control Factor – Our Struggle to See the True Threat published by Hamilton Books.
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