There you go really. That is it. It is all about the game, not the principle. Playing and using the same tactics over and over and over, expecting different results.
Our tactics haven't been working for decades. The last time we had winning tactics where we made a major advancement was 95-96 when we forced Clinton into the balanced budget though...shock.... a government shutdown.
Since then we changed and have been playing the compromise tactic over and over, expecting different results.
When we (and I mean we in the citizens position too) stand on principle and don't compromise on key issues, we win. When we don't, we cede ground. A good example, which is one of those few shining moments in the past couple of decades was the defeat of the McCain/Kennedy Amnesty bill.
McCain and the RINOs were playing the game, saying Amnesty was a given. We stood on principle and made our voice heard and the bill was killed. We were fighting both sides on this and the people won.
Then we lost our voice for a while.
The thing about Cruz's battle is it isn't about Cruz really, it is about the people standing up with him. He isn't tilting at windmills, he is sounding a horn and the people are rising up. Don't believe me, check out the thousands upon thousands of comments on various Senator's facebook pages. My Senator, Cornyn, received several thousand in a few minutes this afternoon when I was watching him comment about the issue. I haven't seen this much action in a long, long time- by the people.
The McCain/Kennedy Amnesty bill had nothing to do with the budget and was argued in April. This is a budget resolution which, if not passed, will shut down the government. I was right there with you on the Amnesty bill. We won that one because all we had to do was kill the bill. There was no deadline involved, no requirement that the government be funded.
This is different. Obama and the Democrats have all the leverage. Obama can shut down entire departments, send people home, hold up paychecks for the military. He's the President. And, let me assure you, if the government shuts down, the GOP will be blamed, and we will eventually fold because we'll have to.
What will be gained? Nothing. Oh, the Tea Partiers will feel good, but it will weaken Boehner's hand in negotiating over the debt ceiling. And it's the debt ceiling where the GOP has some leverage; it's where Boehner got the sequester in 2012. The sequester, which the GOP House is in the process of gutting because reps like Buck McKeon just can't stand cutting anything out of defense.
Cruz could take up the cause of the sequester, which is in place and is worth defending. Instead, he's trying to defund something which he wouldn't actually defund even if he succeeded.
