Interesting opinion piece by Daily Beast commentator Matt Lewis. I read Lewis to get a conservative perspective that’s relatively unburdened by smarmy, weaselly, disingenuous crap—in other words everything we’ve come to know and detest about the Ted Cruz’ of the world. I disagree with Matt on just about everything but yeah...I’d have a beer with him and not come away not feeling the need for a long hot shower.
In discussing the Senate race in TX Lewis points to a number of things that might swing the race towards Democrats, generally, the first being the fact that Texans are far less foaming at the mouth nativist than Republican politicians may think; additionally he points out that the demographics that mattered in TX in the last Presidential cycle (college educated whites, suburban white women) and how, in part because of this, Trump’s margins were lower than Romney’s in TX.
Lewis then shifts his focus to something completely different, which provided the impetus for me to post this diary. He talks about how politics has shifted radically over the past 10 years (thanks Sarah) to the point where personality might make the difference. He then launches into an honest portrait of what the Republican Party has become over the last few years and why that, in and of itself, makes a Ted Cruz-like figure vulnerable, when faced with a sympathetic and relatively normal human being. Let’s hear from Matt:
While the GOP looks increasingly like characters in the Star Wars cantina scene, Beto at least seems likable and normal. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump—the obnoxious debate club nerd and the barstool bully—have their fans, too. But the Republican Party used to boast college-educated white suburbanites, and their discomfort with the current face of the party is yet another aspect of the reordering occurring during the Trump era.
So, it’s not just the demographic shifts and attitudes towards political issues that matter—it’s who’d you rather drink a beer with—something Lewis points out himself:
Call us the conservative “Beto males” if you like, but as a Gen-X, college-educated white dad living in Alexandria, Virginia, I have to say that Beto—at least stylistically and culturally—feels like he’s part of our tribe, too (working-class whites and intersectional minorities haven’t cornered the market on identity politics). Politics aside, he’s more relatable (at least, in my mind) than Cruz. I’d rather have a beer with Beto—and I suspect most of my friends would, too. And I’m not sure that politics in the 21st century is much more complicated than that.
So, if you’ve lost GenX conservative males, ALL women, and most college educated males and ALL minorities….even in TX, maybe you’re just a “Failing” douche of a man, Ted.