Ted Cruz and My (Poor) Attempt at Channeling Dr. Seuss

On Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stood in the Senate chamber and gave a long rambling "speech" in which he quoted, among other literary works, Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.  This was Ted Cruz' attempt to persuade his fellow Republicans to vote against the spending bill passed by the House--the same bill that Mr. Cruz has been loudly supporting for months both in his home state and in Washington.  His end objective, of course, was the defunding of the ACA.

what eye thynk:   It would appear that Dr. Seuss' children's book was too long or too complicated for this Texas Republican to understand.  He tried to use the book to say that people don't like the ACA and will not "eat it" just like the creatures in the Seuss classic did not like green eggs and ham.  But Mr. Cruz missed the whole point of the book--that, in the end, when these creatures tried green eggs and ham, they found they loved them.  It is a children's lesson in being open minded--something that is beyond the ken of most Republicans these days, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that Mr. Cruz missed the point.

There was one Republican surprise this week, however, and that came from the voice of Senator John McCain (R-Arizona).  On Wednesday, Mr. McCain rebuked Ted Cruz and the far right spectrum of his party for their obsession with the ACA to the exclusion of other important issues. 

"Many of those who are in opposition right now were not here at the time, and did not take part in the debate and I respect that.  But I'd like to remind them that the record is very clear of one of the most hard-fought, fair--in my view--debates that has taken place on the floor of the Senate in the time that I've been here. 

And then I'd remind my colleagues that in the 2012 election, 'Obamacare,' as it's called--and I'll be more polite, the ACA--was a subject that was a major issue in the campaign.  I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could, and in every single campaign rally I said, 'And we have to repeal and replace Obamacare.' 

Well, the people spoke.  They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke and they re-elected the president of the United States."

Lost in Ted Cruz' Senate tantrum this week were comments about how Republicans have to stand up for the principles of democracy, namely responding to the will of the people.  This has been a theme of the Republican Party since 2008--a theme that contradicts everything they have tried to do--or rather undo--in Congress for the past five years.  

Mr. Cruz, the country had an election.  Your party lost.  That means the majority of the people did not vote for your ideas; they chose the other guy's instead.  Continuing to fight the same fight while insisting that you are fighting for the will of the people is nothing but egotistical self-delusion.  To put it another way:

We had an election, you lost.

Now let me tell you the cost.

It means that the guy who now sits up high

Has ideas that we don't want tossed.