Andrew Breitbart Saw in Ted Cruz the Future of the Conservative Movement

By Gary P Jackson

This is a wonderful read by Tony Lee:

On paper, Cruz seems like someone out of central casting, perfectly put together to represent conservatism’s future. His father fled oppression in Cuba for freedom in America. He grew up immersing himself in the works of Frederick Bastiat, F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman, earning scholarships by giving speeches about their ideas. He went to Princeton and Harvard law without losing the common touch. He racked up legal victories that helped defend the Second Amendment and America’s sovereignty against the World Court. 

But while Breitbart admired these things about Cruz, they were not why, after speaking with the conservative GOP Texas senate candidate (Texas’s primary is on Tuesday) at what would be his last Conservative Political Action Conference, Breitbart told close friends and associates that Cruz represented conservatism’s future. 

It was because Breitbart saw in Cruz, first and foremost, a fighter who was fierce, principled, uncompromising, and relentless. These were the characteristics Breitbart first looked for and those who were a part of the “Army of Davids” had in spades. 

Stephen K. Bannon, the filmmaker who was one of Breitbart’s closest friends and whose movies have captured the fierce and patriotic spirit of Jacksonian Tea Partiers, always remembered how effusively Andrew Breitbart “admired the fact that Ted Cruz was a fighter and came from a family of fighters.” Breitbart also knew, when he learned how Cruz had been “preaching the gospel of constitutional limited government since he was a teenager all across Texas,” that fighting for constitutional conservatism was in Cruz’s bones. He knew Cruz was the real deal and not a poseur. 

Cruz told Breitbart News how proud he was “to call Andrew a friend” and recounted the hours they spent at the last CPAC of Breitbart’s life.

“One of my favorite pastimes is scheming to defeat leftists, so understandably I’ll always deeply appreciate the hours I spent with Andrew at CPAC this year engaging in what he did best,” Cruz told Breitbart News. “Andrew was fearless in speaking truth to power. He had the vision and mastery to use cutting-edge tools to share conversations with the world to help advance the cause of liberty.“

Other conservative leaders have also seen what Breitbart saw in Cruz.  In fact, three of the fiercest conservatives are among his most enthusiastic supporters. 

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, when endorsing Cruz, wrote, “Your conservative principles, passionate defense of our Constitution and our free market system come at a time when these cornerstones of our freedom and prosperity are under attack. Our shared goal isn’t just to change the majority in control of the Senate, but to assure principled conservatives like you are there to fight for us.”

Talk radio host Mark Levin, when he endorsed Cruz in 2011, said he would “fight profligate spending,” “only appoint originalists to the court,” and, most importantly, “do it without prodding.” 

And Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who has almost single-handedly willed the Senate to become more conservative, came on board early. His conservative brigade in the Senate — Mike Lee (R-Utah), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — enthusiastically got on board too. 

Three particular things stand out in Cruz’s background that make conservatives feel comfortable that he is a conservative before a Republican. Cruz, as Texas’s Solicitor General, “stood up against 90 nations to guarantee the right for Texas and the United States to carry out justice for a brutal murderer and rapist, without being subject to the laws of the World Court” by representing “Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court in Medellin v. Texas, which upheld U.S. sovereignty and held that the World Court cannot bind the U.S. justice system and the President cannot order the state courts to obey the World Court.” 

He also, in the landmark Second Amendment case that overturned the unconstitutional ban on gun rights in Washington, D.C., led a coalition of 31 states in filing a brief. He also “sued the federal government, on behalf of Texas and four other States, to strike down portions of the Medicare Prescription Drug program as an unconstitutional intrusion in the sovereign authority of the States.”

These accomplishments are highly touted by his campaign and website — and rightfully so. To conservatives who were dismayed by domestic programs enacted by the Republican Congress — and George W. Bush — during the 2000s, Cruz directly took on Republicans and the Bush Administration. 

Most notable about Cruz’s Campaign, though, has been the supporters he has drawn. His fiercest supporters are those who would feel at home in Breitbart’s anti-establishment “Army of Davids.” 

Much more here.

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