How Wacko Birds Like Ted Cruz Get Elected

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wacko ted cruz

Ted Cruz will no doubt go down in history as one of the most extreme, feckless US Senators ever elected.  He is certainly in good company with members of the House, but no other member of the Senate is quite as “wacky” as Ted Cruz, not even Rand Paul.

So how does an extremist like Ted Cruz make it to the Senate? Well, he got a lot of help from a little-known phenomenon known as the “sore loser” law, writes Mickey Edwards at the New York Times. These laws, which are on the book in some form in 44 states, ban failed primary candidates from running in the general election as independents.

Such anti-democratic laws “are arguably even more insidious than partisan redistricting,” Edwards writes, because at least redistricting doesn’t affect Senate races.

Cruz, for example, narrowly defeated the popular and relatively moderate David Dewhurst in a primary in which only 630,000 of Texas’ 23 million people voted. “Given that Texas is virtually a one-party state,” that essentially sent Cruz to Washington.

If Texas hadn’t had a sore loser law, Dewhurst could have run as an independent—much as Joe Lieberman did when liberals tried to oust him. This isn’t about electing moderates, or reviving losers’ careers. It’s about “giving voters the fullest range of choices. … Under sore-loser laws, the real loser is the voters.”

Click for the full column.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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10 years ago

“the real loser is the voters.” Isn’t always that way?

Joe Hagstrom
10 years ago

You have to admire Ted’s ability to tune out anything that doesn’t jibe with his views. You know, things like facts and truth. It shows one can go a long way by pandering to bigots, ignoramuses and zealots. The man is a true American success story for this century’s political arena.

Bill Formby
10 years ago

Hell, that’s the damn Republicans. What do you expect, so type of justice? Give me a break, will you? They really don’t give a damn about the country any way. They only care about themselves anyway>

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