This article -- about Ted Cruz's aides & how shocked they are at his recent behavior -- prompts me to share a take I've had for a while, that's only gotten stronger in the last few years. (A short thread.) https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/ted-cruzs-former-staff-disgusted-by-his-new-low-for-trump.html

There's a kind of longstanding mythology in political journalism that the best work comes from getting "inside," getting sources that are close to the action. The idea is you're tapping into a kind of secret insider knowledge, the real deal, the stuff that matters.

It applies to punditry too -- supposedly you get the best insight from those on the inside, up close, who see the game & aren't fooled by the pageantry presented to hoi polloi.

But in my experience, it is often those deepest inside who are most prone to deceiving themselves, least likely to have good perspective on the changing landscape. (See, eg, Dem senators who still buy their GOP colleagues' cloakroom assurances that they want bipartisanship.)

And so Ted Cruz's past aides -- who were "inside," exposed directly to Cruz's own self-conception & self-description -- are shocked at his unprincipled hackery. But for us ordinary schmoes watching from afar, it looks like exactly what you'd expect, the inevitable outcome.

People on the "inside" in DC spend their days interacting with professional think-tank or Congressional-aide Republicans, hearing sane takes & reasonable promises. Us ordinary schmoes on the outside see the larger forces making those takes/promises irrelevant & outdated.

I've had high-ranking Congressional aides tell me they are impressed w/ my understanding of DC politics & express shock that I'm located way out in Seattle. That's not bragging -- *you too* could have that understanding, it literally just requires paying close attention.

In the age of social media & performative politics, there just isn't much info in politics hidden any more. Stuff gets out. The rest of us find out about it about 30 seconds after the first reporter finds out about it. If you're just reading around & paying attention, you get it.

Whereas, us schmoes have something insiders don't get, which is respite, distance, the ability to gain some perspective. With rapid, large, insane changes underway in politics, sometimes that distance is more helpful than the inside view.

Anyway, I wouldn't want to make a principle out of this -- sometimes inside knowledge matters, sometimes outside takes are bad too -- but it's worth it for all you other ordinary schmoes to remember that the cult of insiderdom mostly coasts on self-serving myths.

If politics seems a certain way to you -- & you have "insiders" telling you you're wrong -- you don't have to defer. Sometimes you can see things better than they can. </fin>

Here, via @jayrosen_nyu, is an exquisitely perfect representation of the mythology in question, from Politico. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000177-0720-d367-a17f-ffe8c75a0000