As an audience of 600 Republicans awaited the arrival of Sen. Ted Cruz Friday night at the Iowa Events Center, conservative Christian activist Steve Scheffler came to the podium to give thanks to God for the Tea Party savior — and plead for more principled conservative leaders like him willing to “be crucified for their belief system.”
The ballroom full of amens that followed went a long way toward explaining why Cruz — fresh off a failed crusade to dismantle Obamacare that resulted in a 16-day government shutdown and a political disaster for his party — has been greeted with such adoration by Tea Party crowds in recent days.
In Cruz, conservatives have found something better than a champion for their cause or a defender of their values. They’ve found a martyr.
Indeed, since the government shutdown, establishment Republicans have done little to conceal their frustration with Cruz and the “kamikaze caucus,” who have fielded pointed criticism from the likes of Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Orrin Hatch. But in the eyes of the Tea Party, the onslaught has only made Cruz seem more heroic.
“Every time one of these guys attacks him, it’s good for him,” said one Iowa Republican operative. “He’s like a superhero. The more bullets that get shot at him, the bigger and stronger he gets.”...
More than perhaps anywhere else, the Tea Party and the religious right in Iowa have reached a sort of political singularity — unified, in large part, by feelings of outsiderness and rejection from the Washington establishment. Cruz, with his frequent Bible citations and his small government ideology, has long stood poised to take advantage of this dynamic in the Hawkeye State. But D.C.’s outpouring of disdain for the Texan over the past couple weeks have helped make him a superstar here.
In his speech Friday night, Cruz made the most of his suffering and delivered a message of validation and catharsis: “I’m convinced we’re facing a new paradigm in politics. It is the rise of the grassroots.”
And, he added, “It has official Washington absolutely terrified.”
Does anyone else find this creepy?
