Ted Cruz, You’re No Wendy Davis

[phantom power]

Ted Cruz’s pathetic non-filibuster caused me to realize something about the man: He’s the pure embodiment of right wing resentment. Not just what most liberals think of when we consider right wing resentment—resentment of women and racial minorities gaining power, largely—but the more abstract right wing resentment that, while not as prominent as the racism/sexism, is still a major driving force in the culture wars: The resentment and envy of “cool”. To be clear, this kind of resentment is everywhere in American culture—witness the relentless attacks and bile poured out over the fact that “hipsters” exist and seem to actually enjoy their lives, which is apparently high treason in the country—but this kind of grumpy resentment/envy finds its purest expression on the right...

...

Which is where Ted Cruz steps in. I realize now that he probably has an unhealthy obsession with me-too-ness when it comes to liberal cool...

Needless to say, he’s delusional, because this kind of energy, as the poster indicates, is only driven by hope, and conservatism is, particularly in recent years, an ideology focused on stripping hope away. But no one ever said the wingnut envy was a rational emotion.

Now this fake filibuster. It’s not particularly hard to see that Cruz is hoping that what worked for Wendy Davis will work for him. Pretty much every male right winger in Texas wakes up and falls asleep muttering “that bitch, that bitch, who does she think she is, oh she thinks she’s so hot, but I’m just gonna call her ‘Abortion Barbie’ that’ll wipe that smile off her too-pretty face, that bitch, that bitch” about Davis these days, because she had the gall to remind the country what total assholes right wing Texans are, and did it while looking fabulous the entire time. The chance that Cruz is not part of this obsessive anger circle jerk is somewhere between 0% and .01%. This is a man who wouldn’t study with people who went to “minor Ivies” in law school. This is a man who spends all of his waking hours tabulating status points, and the fact that all the degrees in the world can’t buy you the kind of casual charisma of a Barack Obama or a Wendy Davis has got to chap his hide.

So yeah, it strikes me as unlikely to be a coincidence that just a few short months after a state senator from his own state got national attention and adoration for holding a genuine filibuster against a massive bill to restrict health care access, Cruz is going to hold a fake filibuster against a massive bill to expand health care access? No, it is not a coincidence. That his people made sure to get the press to mention the color of his sneakers confirms it. This is a man who is strongly, deeply motivated by envy, and stuck on the notion that he can just take what other people have, even if what other people have happens to be “abstract personal qualities that aren’t easily replicated”.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/ted-cruz-youre-no-wendy-davis/

[Paladin]

1. Very well stated. (nt)

[Tx4obama]

2. Wendy Davis was under strict rules, Cruz wasn't

I wish the media would stop comparing Cruz to Wendy Davis.

Wendy Davis was not allowed to lean on the podium like Cruz did,
she couldn't take long breaks like Cruz did,
and Wendy stayed on camera the whole time so that we could see she wasn't over in the corner taking a power nap (like Cruz probably was). .
In my opinion, Cruz cheated - he took several LONG half-hour and hour breaks off of camera - while others stood up in the front of the camera and talked when he wasn't.

The Cruz 'talk-a-thon' was a ridiculous publicity fund-raising stunt.
Shame on Ted Cruz.

Edited to add...

Also, everything that Wendy Davis talked about had to be related to the 'bill' at issue.
Cruz rattled on and on about all sorts of shit that had nothing to do with the 'bill'.

[Ellipsis]

3. Where's the HAM?

[gopiscrap]

4. excellent headline

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. K&R

[libdem4life]

6. He read, on global television, a children's tale that was beyond his moral comprehension.

Wonder who will be the one to remind the Emperor that his intellectual privates are hanging out.