Ted Cruz Issues Statement

[XenaLee]

I believe Trump and crew are doing so much damage the left is going to get voted in easily for many years to come. Bush brought us Obama and Trump is going to bring in something even worse.

Kamala Harris, whose strings will be pulled by the Obama/Soros leftists... most likely.

[DB]

Kamala Harris, whose strings will be pulled by the Obama/Soros leftists... most likely.

Think so? Chief Warren is who I've been expecting.

[XenaLee]

Think so? Chief Warren is who I've been expecting.

Nah.  Too much BS Baggage.  But it's early yet.  They still have time to dredge up someone we may not be expecting.

[DB]

Nah.  Too much BS Baggage.  But it's early yet.  They still have time to dredge up someone we may not be expecting.

I've come to learn that "baggage" is irrelevant. It's "old news" if it more than a couple of years old. Prior history does not matter because people hear what they want to hear if their candidate says the right things burning down the house. They swear that their candidate had an epiphany and is doing god's work magically erasing all that old stuff away. All while not even admitting there was something that needed to be forgiven.

I've seen it relatively recently to my amazement. It does work, at least prior to the election. I didn't think it would work, I was wrong.

[corbe]

   I'd say keep a close eye on who Joe Biden picks as his VP, he's gonna be President for a long time.

[XenaLee]

I've come to learn that "baggage" is irrelevant. It's "old news" if it more than a couple of years old. Prior history does not matter because people hear what they want to hear if their candidate says the right things burning down the house. They swear that their candidate had an epiphany and is doing god's work magically erasing all that old stuff away. All while not even admitting there was something that needed to be forgiven.

I've seen it relatively recently to my amazement. It does work, at least prior to the election. I didn't think it would work, I was wrong.

It's an odd thing with the rat party.   Some baggage is more equal than other baggage, and all that rot.   I just don't think the rats will run Warren as their rep.   But hell, I've been wrong (especially lately) before.... so....

[Smokin Joe]

   I really don't either @libertybele and I was advocating a 3rd party buildup in October 2015.   Now it all seems as just an afterthought. Oh, they will gear up again, probably this summer, but, IMHO, it will be too little, too late. 
   We are stuck with this two headed monster for the foreseeable future, I am afraid.

In the calculus of Capitol Hill, if the Left goes batsh*t crazy, they will lock up the batsh*t crazy vote along with the anything but Republican vote.

Similarly, the GOP can run anyone (barely) to the Right of Hillary, and be guaranteed to be reelected or win unless their district has gone over to majority batsh*t crazy.
(Voter fraud can change the equation)

Both sides get back in, their jobs are on rails.

--Oh, and the People get screwed. Again.

IOW SSDD.

[Sanguine]

In the calculus of Capitol Hill, if the Left goes batsh*t crazy, they will lock up the batsh*t crazy vote along with the anything but Republican vote.

Similarly, the GOP can run anyone (barely) to the Right of Hillary, and be guaranteed to be reelected or win unless their district has gone over to majority batsh*t crazy.
(Voter fraud can change the equation)

Both sides get back in, their jobs are on rails.

--Oh, and the People get screwed. Again.

IOW SSDD.

So, not voting doesn't help.  Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't help.  What does help?  WWGWD*?


*What would George Washington do?

[EdJames]

So, not voting doesn't help.  Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't help.  What does help?  WWGWD*?


*What would George Washington do?

You raise a very provocative question!

Personally, I don't know.  And I don't believe that Washington and his contemporaries even began to contemplate this fine stew that we find our selves in at the present.

I've always figured that their view of human nature was very different in their day.  I don't think that they could envision how our civil society would reach this degraded status (otherwise one would argue that they would have placed structural safeguards into our Constitution).

Some believe that the only remedy is to use a particular portion of Article V to overcome that failure of forethought to try to retroactively implement the structural safeguards.  Are they correct?  Perhaps.  Is it a fairly risky and potentially perilous proposition?  Indeed it is. 

What are the other alternatives short of bloody insurrection?  I don't know.

[ConstitutionRose]

Actually the problem is not having enough candidates to vote for.  We have plenty of RINO's and nobody seems to run against them.  Too often we have been stuck with voting for a RINO or voting for a DEM, voting 3rd party or not voting at all.

I just keep hearing "centerist" and "middle of the road" and "reasonable".  The definition of those terms seems to be moving further and further left.

[Axeslinger]

I just keep hearing "centerist" and "middle of the road" and "reasonable".  The definition of those terms seems to be moving further and further left.

Well...when the Dems have gone bat-shit crazy left and the Repubs have also shifted left...it would stand to reason that the new center would also be further left

[XenaLee]

You raise a very provocative question!

Personally, I don't know.  And I don't believe that Washington and his contemporaries even began to contemplate this fine stew that we find our selves in at the present.

I've always figured that their view of human nature was very different in their day.  I don't think that they could envision how our civil society would reach this degraded status (otherwise one would argue that they would have placed structural safeguards into our Constitution).

Some believe that the only remedy is to use a particular portion of Article V to overcome that failure of forethought to try to retroactively implement the structural safeguards.  Are they correct?  Perhaps.  Is it a fairly risky and potentially perilous proposition?  Indeed it is. 

What are the other alternatives short of bloody insurrection?  I don't know.

The Founders did know what the only other alternatives were.  They knew only too well.

[EdJames]

The Founders did know what the only other alternatives were.  They knew only too well.

Excellent point!

[Sanguine]

The Founders did know what the only other alternatives were.  They knew only too well.

I dunno, @XenaLee.  What might have worked in the original 13 Colonies, with their fairly homogeneous and much smaller populations won't necessarily work here.  One point: they had no welfare; we have over 1/2 of the population here now receiving tax-payer funds, and almost all of the remaining <1/2 have or will in their lifetimes.  That is a probably insurmountable barrier to real change in the federal/state/citizen equation.

[Right_in_Virginia]

I dunno, @XenaLee.  What might have worked in the original 13 Colonies, with their fairly homogeneous and much smaller populations won't necessarily work here.  One point: they had no welfare; we have over 1/2 of the population here now receiving tax-payer funds, and almost all of the remaining <1/2 have or will in their lifetimes.  That is a probably insurmountable barrier to real change in the federal/state/citizen equation.

I think the one mistake our Founders made was in not insuring the federal government would be populated by citizen lawmakers and not professional, lifetime politicians.  (Well, they did insure the Senate would be the voice of state legislatures, but their predecessors knew better /sarc).

Congressional term limits should have been spelled out and a part of the original Constitution.   This omission accelerated the formation of the deep state, imo, and it may well be too powerful to beat at this point.

[XenaLee]

I dunno, @XenaLee.  What might have worked in the original 13 Colonies, with their fairly homogeneous and much smaller populations won't necessarily work here.  One point: they had no welfare; we have over 1/2 of the population here now receiving tax-payer funds, and almost all of the remaining <1/2 have or will in their lifetimes.  That is a probably insurmountable barrier to real change in the federal/state/citizen equation.

That's right.  But.... as we have seen, the left couldn't care less about those folks on welfare OR about all of the government employees, when a political score is to be made.  The left is trying to melt down the economy (again) as we speak.  Those folks dependent upon government will find out, just as the people of Venezuela found out, what their only option really is.  To die or to fight.  When that fight happens (when, not if).... that will be the time to take back this country.  The only time and the only chance.

[corbe]

   Good point @Right_in_Virginia but more importantly our Founding Fathers allowed the Federalist to move the center of power away from the States to DC by rewriting the Articles of Confederation.

[roamer_1]

   Sen. Cruz has been a disappointment to me since he voted for Trump's last budget in late October (his first in 6 years).  So much so that I didn't vote for him in November.  Hope he gets his cajones back before it's too late.

Likewise. Given the chance to vote for him now, I would probably say no.

[Sanguine]

I think the one mistake our Founders made was in not insuring the federal government would be populated by citizen lawmakers and not professional, lifetime politicians.  (Well, they did insure the Senate would be the voice of state legislatures, but their predecessors knew better /sarc).

Congressional term limits should have been spelled out and a part of the original Constitution.   This omission accelerated the formation of the deep state, imo, and it may well be too powerful to beat at this point.

Yes, but with a caveat - each successive legislature wrote laws into existence that would cement and perpetuate their jobs and power.  We're on the wrong end of this sclerotic process, unfortunately.

[jpsb]

So, not voting doesn't help.  Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't help.  What does help?  WWGWD*?


*What would George Washington do?

There is a reason both parties have primaries. Vote your convictions in the primaries, vote your party
in the general. That is what most intelligent people do. Only go third party if your parties candidate is
simply unacceptable, like when the GOP ran McCain for POTUS.

[jpsb]

I think the one mistake our Founders made was in not insuring the federal government would be populated by citizen lawmakers and not professional, lifetime politicians.  (Well, they did insure the Senate would be the voice of state legislatures, but their predecessors knew better /sarc).

Congressional term limits should have been spelled out and a part of the original Constitution.   This omission accelerated the formation of the deep state, imo, and it may well be too powerful to beat at this point.

If our public schools did their job, we would not need term limits.

[Axeslinger]

If our public schools did their job, we would not need term limits.

@jpsb
That’s a cop out.


Our public schools, just like our government, is doing exactly the job we allow them to do.

[corbe]

   I voted for McCain only because of the 'Palin' factor, he was my last GOP Presidential vote, I drew the line at Romney and Trump.


   *Disclaimer: Had hellary had a snowball chance in h3ll of getting Texas's 39 Electoral Votes I would have crawled across shattered glass to vote for Trump.

[dfwgator]

If our public schools did their job, we would not need term limits.

Gotta go with George on this one:



“Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.”

[bigheadfred]

There is a reason both parties have primaries. Vote your convictions in the primaries, vote your party
in the general. That is what most intelligent people do. Only go third party if your parties candidate is
simply unacceptable, like when the GOP ran McCain for POTUS.

[/b]

That is entirely the point. When it came time to pull the handle, I found both candidates simply unacceptable.