Chambers: The shutdown: A battle worth losing

photo U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks during the Republican Party of Iowa's Reagan Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, in this Oct. 25, 2013, file photo.

A couple of weeks after the "government shutdown," we continue to hear the blame game from the media and establishment Republicans: "It was a fight you couldn't win," we hear, as Republicans stab Sen. Ted Cruz and his allies in the back.

On a personal note, I know Sen. Bob Corker and have interviewed him numerous times when he was the mayor or Chattanooga. I like him personally. But he, like Sen. John McCain and others, violated Reagan's 11nth commandment in dissing fellow Republicans from the Senate floor. If he had a beef, he should have simply pulled Ted aside, said something like "I'm staying out of this. I disagree with your tactics, think you should reconsider, but roll the dice ... I agree with the end but not the means."

Instead, he pulled out the long knife, with other senators, and doomed whatever chance Cruz and members of the House fighting Obamacare had.

A "house divided will not stand."

The media continues to pile on. "Shutdown costs economy $16 billion," says one source. But it ignores the trillion dollars Obamacare will add to the debt, hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their health insurance, rates going through the roof (if you can get on the government health care website), and how employers continue to dodge the health care train wreck with layoffs and cutbacks.

One ABC radio report even linked a weakness in car sales to the shutdown (could it be there are fewer jobs, little to no wage increases, a fear of what is coming?).

There is little coverage of Ted Cruz's return to Austin, where he received an eight-minute standing ovation by hundreds of those who elected him a year or so ago -- citizens who want to slam the brakes on reckless, unsustainable, unconstitutional and command-and-control socialism by an administration that is out of control.

These were Texans who elected -- against all odds, and despite establishment money for his opponent -- a senator who followed their wishes. Cruz followed the credo, as my father used to say, to "Do what you say and say what you mean."

In 2010 the House made historic gains (63 seats, the greatest since 1948) primarily in response to TARP, Obamacare and overall government spending. And "conservatives" still ignore the base? As they did with McCain and Romney?

Do not blame the tea party, who said little to nothing about cultural issues such as abortion, gay rights or whether we can smoke dope.

They simply wanted -- and continue to want -- a stand for their children and grandchildren on the basis of economic and personal liberty.

A note to Bob, John, Lindsey and other establishment Republicans: The party of government overreach and spending is almost over and inter-party long knives work both ways.

You can be sure these issues will rear their heads again during the coming winter -- winter is a time of testing.

It was a bitter winter for George Washington in Trenton when he crossed the Delaware to win a needed victory as a Christmas present for the American revolution -- a battle some said he could not win.

One simply hopes Americans will realize not all battles are won, but sometimes determine the outcome of the war -- dare we remember the Alamo in Texas?

That, too, was a fight we "couldn't win."

Mike Chambers lives on Lookout Mountain.

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