It’s an odd stance for a lawmaker: If you want something to pass, it would seem logical to vote for it.

But Vote No; Hope Yes has featured prominently in Tea Party tactics. These days, you’ll hear Cruz and Mike Lee, along with Heritage Action and the Club For Growth, praising and defending automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. But when sequestration passed, the Tea Party warriors voted against it as a sellout compared to their balanced-budget plan. Lee, Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, and Rand Paul all voted no on sequestration. But they were all glad it became law.

It’s the liberty of back-benchers in a party out of power.

But Vote No; Hope Yes isn’t a game only Tea Partiers play. The Republican leadership and GOP mainstream also do it. And last week, Cruz exposed them for playing it.