Economist Thomas Sowell joined the ranks of wise conservative voices challenging Ted Cruz’s “Box Canyon Strategy” to defund ObamaCare: “The Tea Party’s principles were clear. But their tactics can only be judged by the consequences. … With the chances of making a dent in ObamaCare by trying to defund it being virtually zero, and the Republican Party’s chances of gaining power in either the 2014 or 2016 elections being reduced by the public’s backlash against that futile attempt, there was virtually nothing to gain politically and much to lose. … If the Tea Party made a tactical mistake, that is not necessarily fatal in politics. People can even learn from their mistakes – but only if they admit to themselves that they were mistaken. Whether the Tea Party can do that may determine not only its fate but the fate of an America that still needs the principles that brought Tea Party members together in the first place. … Preserving my principles unshaken, I reserve my activity for rational endeavors.” Read Sowell’s “Tea Party Crossroads” Part one and Part Two.