Dakota Beacon

 Republican in-fighting goes back a long time. Before Ronald Reagan and before Barry Goldwater there was the Father of Conservatism -- William F. Buckley, Jr. The issue is not Buckley, Goldwater, Reagan or conservatism.  The heart of the issue is the struggle between the American people and the entrenched Republican establishment or, as Buckley called them -- the
 "well-fed Republicans."
 

The American people hold politicians in general and congress in particular in low regard. This is true for both Democrats and Republicans. Recent polling shows how congress managed to earn the lowest ratings since polling began.
 

Politicians in Washington, DC, live in a world of their own, a bubble unto itself. Inside that bubble, inside the Beltway, politicians rule from a position of power derived from money. That money is earned by you and me and is extracted from us in ever increasing quantities. Trillions of dollars are taken with a lot of hands grasping for it. Interest groups, non-profit organizations, grant applicants and the several states themselves all want a piece of the money pie.
 

In good faith people give of their wealth with reasonable expectations.  "Don't waste it." "Don't make us dependent on you." The exact opposite has happened and a growing number of Americans resent it.
 

Then comes election time and the politicians wax eloquent espousing conservatism and promising the American people everything they want to hear.  Voters time and again fall for the rhetoric forgetting what the politicians promised them last time and have done to them in the meantime with their terrible legislation. The people re-elect the same politicians thus starting
 another cycle of mismanagement and frustration. Mystifying.

 Enter the TEA PARTY (Taxed Enough Already -- People Against Raising Taxes Year after year). This grassroots organization is not a centralized force.  Its leadership varies by state. There is no national spokesman or party headquarters. The Teaparty is simply local activism driven by Americans who want smaller government, more self-reliance and freedom. During the 2010
 election cycle the Teaparty made tremendous gains at all levels of government. To gauge their effectiveness consider the vitriol with which they are treated in the liberal mainstream media. When the media, Democrats and Republicans attack the Teaparty, they attack the common man.
 

Missing from the Republican establishment lineup is a sound leader. Who are we supposed to mass behind? No disrespect intended, but within North Dakota's delegation Senator John Hoveven and Congressman Kevin Cramer are not leaders. They are followers. As such, they are wandering in the wilderness. Confirm this with their recent behavior in their respective chambers on immigration, the debt ceiling and defunding Obamacare. No one in their group is willing to take a stand on principle. No one will say "Stop! Enough is enough!"
 

Freshman Republican Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah) do not sit quietly on the bench. Both were elected with very little support from establishment Republicans. Typically, freshman senators are expected to sit quietly and mind their elders. Not so with Senators Cruz and Lee. When they see a disaster like Obamacare brewing or a catastrophe like an infinite debt
 building to the destruction of our nation they are driven to resist.
 

Democrats and Republicans in Washington and the liberal media paint Cruz as some kind of nut. He is far from it. Consider: Cruz is academically superior. He graduated cum laude from Princeton and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Cruz's mental prowess has been recognized by Allan Dershowitz who said that "Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant." Cruz clerked
 for the Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Justice William Rehnquist, one of the most coveted positions for any young lawyer right out of law school.
 

We have seen that a few good men can stand up to the status quo Republicans and stop them in their tracks. One or two unflappable guys with guts and courage can stand against the machine and stop it. They endured slings and arrows and a steady barrage of criticism from Republicans and even from other conservatives. But they stood firm. These men made a difference. They
 are not giving up, they are not going away and they will not slink to cower in a corner.

 Conservatives in the Republican Party have been fighting the establishment blue bloods for the right to be heard and to represent their constituents for a long time. The fight is not over. Nobody loses forever and nobody wins forever. We get to witness the fight all over again in January, then
 throughout the 2014 primary season and again in November 2014. We can choose to act -- or not.
 
 Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or
 bnt@midstatetel.com.