Cruz Agrees with Krauthammer About Playing by Washington's Rules

Texas Senator Ted Cruz answered some of his critics, including Charles Krauthammer and George Will, who say he does not understanding how the game is played in Washington. Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Cruz on Tuesday to respond to charges that he doesn’t “get it.” Cruz, who said that he likes and respects both Will and Krauthammer, said, “You know, on some level I’ll agree with what they said. I am not trying to play the rules of Washington because I think Washington’s broken. I think it’s profoundly broken. And I think the only answer is to change Washington.”

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Cruz described disruptive apps in the tech world that come in and disrupt the means of distributing goods or services. “Let’s take, for example, Uber coming in or Lyft coming into a city. Whenever that happens, the existing providers fight like cats and dogs. The taxi commissions have done everything they can to kill Uber and Lyft,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do in the political world is very much the same thing, which is change the means of decision-making, take it out of the smoke-filled rooms, where decision-making is done in Washington between career politicians and lobbyists —  and instead empower the people,” Cruz said. “In my view, the only way we can turn this country around is if the American people rise up and hold every one of us accountable. So I’m not trying to play the Washington rules. I’m trying to change the rules and make elected officials, myself included, accountable to the people who elected them.”

On Monday Cruz told Mark Levin that a lot of his colleagues in Washington “buy into this collective herd mentality that you can’t stand up and do anything meaningful. That you have to give in.” He said, “The way you get bipartisan agreement in this town is you get everyone to sit around a table and you say, ‘I’ll spend for your project, your project, your project … another trillion dollars … we’re done.’ And that’s how we bankrupt our kids and grandkids. That’s how we get $18 trillion in debt because everyone scratches everyone else’s backs and nobody actually stands for the working men and women back home.”

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Asked about his critics, Cruz told Levin, “If they want to come after me, fine. Knock yourself out. That is not my concern. My concern is honoring the oath of office.”

He evaded when Bret Baier asked him when he would make a decision about whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, but he told Mark Levin on Monday that he thinks the path to the nomination is “telling the truth about what you believe about your principles and in fact, by demonstrating those principles. I think talk is cheap. The best way to know what someone believes is what have you stood up and fought for? What have you led on? When have you bled?”

“Every time we run to the mushy middle, we lose. The way we win is speak the truth, speak your principles, speak for the American people, fight for free market principles, fight for opportunity, fight for the Constitution. That’s how we win.”

Cruz continues to pull back the curtain to expose how the rancid sausage is made in Washington and he’s making a lot of people in the professional political class squirm like cockroaches under a flashlight. Yet they continue to scurry around, conducting business as usual as if they’re still working under the cover of darkness — as if there’s no YouTube, no C-SPAN, and no Open Secrets. It’s a system built on the assumption that the American people are ignorant and uninformed about how their government works. When people like Ted Cruz and others try to expose the corruption and dysfunction, the establishment roaches screech and writhe and run from the light.

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The time has come for the political disruptors who are willing to face the scorn of the political elites so they can shine a light on the Washington game. May their tribe increase.

Also read: 

It Didn’t Take the Press Long to Lie About Ted Cruz’s ‘Apology’

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