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| TX Senator Ted Cruz |
For
those who don’t know about Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy’s scurrilous
red-baiting crusade in the early 1950s watch newly elected Texas Senator Ted
Cruz. McCarthy shattered the careers of innocent public servants and alienated
McCarthy from his fellow senators, but also made him a folk hero on the right.
Cruz is making enemies in Washington, but winning support in Texas.
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| WI Sen Joe McCarthy |
In his first two months on the job, Cruz has baselessly
asserted that President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
might have received money from the North Korean government. He reiterated
his belief that there were 12 Communists on Harvard Law School’s faculty when
he was a student there. Being at odds with his fellow Republicans gives Cruz
quick attention from the media and makes him the darling of the far right. His
rhetoric makes him appear smart and fearless to his Tea Party base.
Huff Post Politics explains the reception to Cruz:
…conservatives’ appetite for Cruz shows that the GOP
base’s animating spirit still hasn’t changed: Loud, aggressive and reflexive
hostility to President Obama, the Democratic Party and any Republican who would
dare contemplate compromise is still how “conservatism” is defined.
Cruz’s
Cuban-American background by itself won’t improve his or his party’s standing
with Hispanics or other minorities. Instead, he’s appealing to the aging,
overwhelmingly white core of the Republican base which stifles the party’s
efforts to re-brand itself to appeal to women, Latino and other elements of the
Obama coalition.
It
will be interesting to see how the G.O.P. handles the “Ted Cruz problem”.
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