So my (very Republican) husband and I were following our usual routine of watching TV and arguing about politics during the commercials. This particular evening, I was ranting about what a megalomaniac camera-hound Ted Cruz is, and that this whole government shutdown was nothing more than his personal stepping stone to running for President.
My husband turned to me and asked a simple question: "What if he is not running for President?" I continued my rant, "He's just a power hungry politi . . . . wait, what?"
My husband said he was serious. "What if Ted Cruz really isn't running for President at all?"
I had to sit back and think about that. I had never considered any other possibility, but suddenly some things began to look different.
I have not studied Ted Cruz as closely as Texans who have had a longer look at him. We all know a few things for sure, though. The first thing we know for certain is that he is incredibly intelligent. Please - all of you who have started calling him stupid, just stop. Stop now. He's not. Adam B even said Cruz clobbered him when they debated each other during Law School. Like Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts, Cruz graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. There is just no question at all that he's got brains and to spare.
Is a guy this bright likely to charge into a government shutdown, organize a cabal that comes within a cat's whisker of getting the government to default, and have not have thought through any exit strategy? Does he have no idea of what the end game might be? That doesn't make sense. He's seen the same polls we have. The Republicans as a whole have gotten one big black eye from this whole mess. If across even red states their polls have tanked, Cruz can't realistically believe he could win a presidential election even if he won the nomination.
So let's see this from another perspective. Cruz's efforts to establish a huge email list, raise money, and solidify his base have worked. But here's what else he has worked to do: attack other Republicans. In that now famous lunch with other Senators he told them outright that he would continue working against Republicans he disagreed with. He has encouraged Tea Party candidates to take on incumbents across the country.
The one pattern, the one end game, which fits all these activities is if Cruz is trying to establish a true third party, with himself as the head of the party. As the creator of a new party, he would have virtually unchecked power within his own domain, and he would go down in history as a significant political force behind a new party which could be initially a power broker between the other two parties, and perhaps eventually elect a president.
Whether he succeeds is a different question. And this is clearly speculation on my part, and I'm not saying he may not run for president. I am saying that in our assumptions that the only exit strategies were to overturn Obamacare or run for president, we may have overlooked a bigger plan. We have to at least look at, not just a different sort of end game, but the possibility Cruz is playing a different game entirely.