Cruz Taking Down GOP

Sahil Gapur reports on Senator Ted Cruz' (R-TX) continuing pandering to the far right despite the damage to his party on Talking Points Memo.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) isn't backing down from his quixotic quest to defund Obamacare or shut down the government. Far from it, he seems willing to take the Republican Party down in a desire to protect his status as a conservative grassroots hero..Many Republicans recognize that Cruz and his cohorts are on a fool's errand. It's one thing to filibuster and block Reid from advancing a funding bill. But passing a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare in the Senate requires Reid's complicity along with the votes of 13 other Democrats. And that's still not enough: to enact such a bill into law, they'll need a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress to overcome a promised veto from President Barack Obama. It's a fantasy of the highest order.
The government shuts down next week on Oct. 1 if Congress doesn't act. Senate Democrats believe that even if they do get six GOP votes, completing the bill may take all week, bringing the country perilously close to a shutdown by the time it ping-pongs back to the House. Polls suggest Republicans, being the party out of power, will be blamed. That means once the lights go out, they'll have no choice but to fold. The only question is whether Cruz destroys what's left of the GOP brand in the process by shining a national spotlight on its radical tactics. He's laying the groundwork to escape from the battle with his reputation in tact by preemptively blaming his colleagues -- colleagues who remain skeptical of his plan.

This illustrates the Republican Party's death spiral. Held hostage by right-wing media, powerful conservative advocacy groups and its own increasingly radical but shrinking base, its political leaders take increasingly extreme positions that move it further from the very demographic groups it needs to win national elections.