Now Ted Cruz is the enemy: Rupert Murdoch and WSJ open fire in new GOP civil war

For decades, there's been a split within the Republican Party over what to prioritize: social issues or the economy? The establishment wing of the party cares more about interest rates than Planned Parenthood or the “religious freedom” of county clerks. They’re happy to court evangelical voters, but it’s a marriage of convenience – the ideological rift remains. Social conservatives are animated by religious concerns – everything else is tangential. On most issues, they’re out of step with the country, but that has never mattered: For the committed, political martyrdom is preferable to compromise (or winning elections). Religious conservatives have supported the Republican Party almost exclusively since the 1980s. But that support was always conditional: Eventually, the GOP had to deliver on some of the cultural issues, like same-sex marriage or abortion. So far they haven’t, and the conservative base knows it. The GOP has embraced this segment of the party for practical reasons, and there’s no doubt that it helped them in the short-term. But the union is becoming more fractured by the day, as the religious right continues to lose the culture war. From abortion to drug law reform to contraception to gay marriage, Republicans have surrendered to majority opinion – and the cultural momentum now seems inexorable. In this election, the right is clamoring for an “outsider,” if only to protest against an establishment that has taken them for granted. And this internal dissent has upended the Republican presidential race. Candidates like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz owe much of their success to this resentment. It appears the GOP’s intrafamilial squabble has spilled onto the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. As Politico reported, the Journal has turned its guns on Ted Cruz, the ascendant outsider candidate. Cruz is a talented demagogue; he knows his evangelical base and he’s made every effort to woo them. Although a sitting U.S. senator, Cruz has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate, someone who will force the “Washington cartel” to deliver the goods to religious conservatives. This was clear enough in September when Cruz vowed to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood, a move he knew had no chance of succeeding. The Journal has become increasingly critical of the Texas senator, and for very good reasons. It represents the establishment, and its editorial page studiously defends deregulation, supply side economics and interventionism, all of which are essential to mainstream Republicanism – they’ve never been particularly concerned with the culture wars. Like the pro-business Republicans who read their Op-Eds, however, the WSJ editorial board knows the GOP can’t win a general election with Cruz at the top of the ticket. According to the latest polls, both Clinton and Sanders would easily defeat Cruz in a general election, and the gap is likely to widen as independents and moderates pay closer attention to Cruz’s shenanigans. Republican insiders also know Cruz is a huckster. His brinksmanship in the Senate tells you everything you need to know about his seriousness as a legislator. Cruz is a creation of the conservative media-industrial complex, and as popular as he may be inside that bubble, he’s positively toxic outside of it. The Journal insists its criticisms of Cruz are “rooted in nothing more than substantive policy differences,” particularly as it relates to immigration, trade and national security issues. “It’s not a personal thing,” said editorial page editor Paul Gigot, “It’s a business thing. It’s a professional thing. We call them as we see them.” Naturally, the paper has been friendlier to Marco Rubio, who has become the default establishment candidate post-Jeb. This prompted Cruz to glibly For decades, there's been a split within the Republican Party over what to prioritize: social issues or the economy? The establishment wing of the party cares more about interest rates than Planned Parenthood or the “religious freedom” of county clerks. They’re happy to court evangelical voters, but it’s a marriage of convenience – the ideological rift remains. Social conservatives are animated by religious concerns – everything else is tangential. On most issues, they’re out of step with the country, but that has never mattered: For the committed, political martyrdom is preferable to compromise (or winning elections). Religious conservatives have supported the Republican Party almost exclusively since the 1980s. But that support was always conditional: Eventually, the GOP had to deliver on some of the cultural issues, like same-sex marriage or abortion. So far they haven’t, and the conservative base knows it. The GOP has embraced this segment of the party for practical reasons, and there’s no doubt that it helped them in the short-term. But the union is becoming more fractured by the day, as the religious right continues to lose the culture war. From abortion to drug law reform to contraception to gay marriage, Republicans have surrendered to majority opinion – and the cultural momentum now seems inexorable. In this election, the right is clamoring for an “outsider,” if only to protest against an establishment that has taken them for granted. And this internal dissent has upended the Republican presidential race. Candidates like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz owe much of their success to this resentment. It appears the GOP’s intrafamilial squabble has spilled onto the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. As Politico reported, the Journal has turned its guns on Ted Cruz, the ascendant outsider candidate. Cruz is a talented demagogue; he knows his evangelical base and he’s made every effort to woo them. Although a sitting U.S. senator, Cruz has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate, someone who will force the “Washington cartel” to deliver the goods to religious conservatives. This was clear enough in September when Cruz vowed to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood, a move he knew had no chance of succeeding. The Journal has become increasingly critical of the Texas senator, and for very good reasons. It represents the establishment, and its editorial page studiously defends deregulation, supply side economics and interventionism, all of which are essential to mainstream Republicanism – they’ve never been particularly concerned with the culture wars. Like the pro-business Republicans who read their Op-Eds, however, the WSJ editorial board knows the GOP can’t win a general election with Cruz at the top of the ticket. According to the latest polls, both Clinton and Sanders would easily defeat Cruz in a general election, and the gap is likely to widen as independents and moderates pay closer attention to Cruz’s shenanigans. Republican insiders also know Cruz is a huckster. His brinksmanship in the Senate tells you everything you need to know about his seriousness as a legislator. Cruz is a creation of the conservative media-industrial complex, and as popular as he may be inside that bubble, he’s positively toxic outside of it. The Journal insists its criticisms of Cruz are “rooted in nothing more than substantive policy differences,” particularly as it relates to immigration, trade and national security issues. “It’s not a personal thing,” said editorial page editor Paul Gigot, “It’s a business thing. It’s a professional thing. We call them as we see them.” Naturally, the paper has been friendlier to Marco Rubio, who has become the default establishment candidate post-Jeb. This prompted Cruz to glibly For decades, there's been a split within the Republican Party over what to prioritize: social issues or the economy? The establishment wing of the party cares more about interest rates than Planned Parenthood or the “religious freedom” of county clerks. They’re happy to court evangelical voters, but it’s a marriage of convenience – the ideological rift remains. Social conservatives are animated by religious concerns – everything else is tangential. On most issues, they’re out of step with the country, but that has never mattered: For the committed, political martyrdom is preferable to compromise (or winning elections). Religious conservatives have supported the Republican Party almost exclusively since the 1980s. But that support was always conditional: Eventually, the GOP had to deliver on some of the cultural issues, like same-sex marriage or abortion. So far they haven’t, and the conservative base knows it. The GOP has embraced this segment of the party for practical reasons, and there’s no doubt that it helped them in the short-term. But the union is becoming more fractured by the day, as the religious right continues to lose the culture war. From abortion to drug law reform to contraception to gay marriage, Republicans have surrendered to majority opinion – and the cultural momentum now seems inexorable. In this election, the right is clamoring for an “outsider,” if only to protest against an establishment that has taken them for granted. And this internal dissent has upended the Republican presidential race. Candidates like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz owe much of their success to this resentment. It appears the GOP’s intrafamilial squabble has spilled onto the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. As Politico reported, the Journal has turned its guns on Ted Cruz, the ascendant outsider candidate. Cruz is a talented demagogue; he knows his evangelical base and he’s made every effort to woo them. Although a sitting U.S. senator, Cruz has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate, someone who will force the “Washington cartel” to deliver the goods to religious conservatives. This was clear enough in September when Cruz vowed to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood, a move he knew had no chance of succeeding. The Journal has become increasingly critical of the Texas senator, and for very good reasons. It represents the establishment, and its editorial page studiously defends deregulation, supply side economics and interventionism, all of which are essential to mainstream Republicanism – they’ve never been particularly concerned with the culture wars. Like the pro-business Republicans who read their Op-Eds, however, the WSJ editorial board knows the GOP can’t win a general election with Cruz at the top of the ticket. According to the latest polls, both Clinton and Sanders would easily defeat Cruz in a general election, and the gap is likely to widen as independents and moderates pay closer attention to Cruz’s shenanigans. Republican insiders also know Cruz is a huckster. His brinksmanship in the Senate tells you everything you need to know about his seriousness as a legislator. Cruz is a creation of the conservative media-industrial complex, and as popular as he may be inside that bubble, he’s positively toxic outside of it. The Journal insists its criticisms of Cruz are “rooted in nothing more than substantive policy differences,” particularly as it relates to immigration, trade and national security issues. “It’s not a personal thing,” said editorial page editor Paul Gigot, “It’s a business thing. It’s a professional thing. We call them as we see them.” Naturally, the paper has been friendlier to Marco Rubio, who has become the default establishment candidate post-Jeb. This prompted Cruz to glibly

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