On the activist website MoveOn.org, there are multiple petitions calling for Cruz and others to be charged with sedition. In one, the petition writer adopted a very broad and somewhat fuzzy standard under which Cruz should be sent to jail: “Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order,” the petition says. “Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power.” Another petition adds “insurrection” to Cruz’s indictment.

And it’s not just Cruz the lefties seek to prosecute. One particularly energetic petitioner lists 61 people “known to date to have conspired against the United States government to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of a law of the United States by forcing the government to shut down.” Among those targeted are many of the usual suspects — the Koch brothers, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Mike Lee and others. But the list also includes Grace-Marie Turner, head of the Galen Institute; Michael Grebe, head of the Bradley Foundation; Angelo Codevilla, a retired professor of international relations; Craig Shirley, the public relations man and author of books on Ronald Reagan; Edwin Meese, Reagan’s attorney general; and many others.