Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned his Republican colleagues Friday that failure to make good on promises to repeal Obamacare and rework the nation’s tax system could bring the party to its knees when voters head to the polls during the 2018 midterms.
Cruz issued the warning during a moderated discussion in front of around 100 wealthy donors affiliated with billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch’s political action organizations.
“If tax reform crashes and burns, if [on] Obamacare, nothing happens, we could face a bloodbath,” Cruz warned.
According to the Texas conservative, Republicans could see a level of defeat not suffered by the party since the 1974 election cycle when the Watergate scandal cost the GOP 48 House seats, five in the Senate and control of several statehouses throughout the nation.
At the time, the scandal-driven GOP losses were heralded by liberals as the dawn of a new era in American politics. The left dominated Washington with substantial power in the House for nearly two decades, until the GOP finally gained control of Congress in 1994.
The problem Republicans have today isn’t a massive scandal, despite the best efforts of the media and Democratic establishments to create one– rather, it’s that the establishment’s inability to wield power effectively under the leadership of a Washington outsider is demonstrating that the DC “swamp” is not necessarily a Democratic construct.
And that helps to explain why establishment organization’s like the Senate Leadership Fund are so invested in keeping other conservative outsiders from joining the legislature. Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who the establishment money pushers announced this week they don’t plan to help very much in the state’s December special election, is only the first of many GOP outsiders likely to get the establishment’s cold shoulder, even if they successfully beat out GOP incumbents in coming primaries.
The name of the game is minimizing challenges within the party which highlight the ways in which the establishment isn’t working for voters. As Cruz pointed out, the best way to do that would be making good on promises to voters. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. That isn’t how politicians operate… they have lobbyists to please.
For voters, that means it’s time to think about donating, volunteering and working on behalf of any conservative challenger who looks like he has a fighting chance in coming elections.