"What we are doing in this campaign, it just blows my mind every day because I see it clearly, we’re taking on not only Wall Street and the economic establishment, we’re taking on the political establishment," he told Maddow. "So I have friends and supporters in the Human Rights [Campaign] and Planned Parenthood. But you know what? Hillary Clinton has been around there for a very, very long time. Some of these groups are, in fact, part of the establishment."

Planned Parenthood and the HRC have both endorsed Clinton, with the HRC doing so just this week. In a statement responding to that endorsement, a Sanders campaign spokesman echoed the "establishment" line the candidate used with Maddow, saying the endorsement was "understandable and consistent with the establishment organizations voting for the establishment candidate, but it’s an endorsement that cannot possibly be based on the facts and the record."

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One might anticipate that the backlash would be over Sanders saying that he was "taking on" Planned Parenthood -- which he is, because he's fighting the organization's endorsed candidate, but which is an odd thing for a Democrat to say. Instead, much of the pushback has focused on whether those groups are actually part of the "establishment."

In a survey in July, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that the National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood were the two most popular political organizations in the country. That's largely because the NRA is viewed very positively by Republicans and Planned Parenthood by Democrats. Planned Parenthood, like the NRA, is good at keeping pressure on candidates and elected officials and is understood as being good at that. Both organizations are so embedded in the political firmament as to be widely known and associated with partisan politics. If the NRA is part of the Republican establishment, then Planned Parenthood is part of the Democratic one.

But no one wants to be part of the establishment. Groups such as Planned Parenthood want to be viewed as fighting the establishment, not constituting it. It's true that half of the political establishment opposes Planned Parenthood, but it's also true that the organization spends millions on lobbying and that its PAC spends hundreds of thousands on campaigns. It is established, which isn't great for fundraising. The "establishment" is stodgy. It's the status quo. When we say that 16 percent of the country approves of Congress, we're saying that 16 percent of the country approves of the establishment.

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Which brings us to Ted Cruz.

Cruz has made a career out of bad-mouthing the establishment from within. He went to Ivy League schools, clerked for the chief justice of the United States, worked as counsel to John Boehner, served as solicitor general for Texas, worked in the Justice Department and now serves in the Senate. I hate to break it to you, Cruz fans, but that's a member of the political establishment.

Despite that, Cruz is usually portrayed as being an anti-establishment candidate. Why? Because, in the same way we use "Washington" to refer to the city and the political infrastructure, we use "establishment" to refer to different systems of power within the government. Cruz wasn't the chosen candidate of the Republican Party in Texas when he ran there, but he won anyway. He was blatant about undermining fellow senate Republicans whom he considered weak on conservative principles, working with the Senate Conservatives Fund. He has pitted himself against other parts of the establishment to shift the focus of his party, in much the same way that Planned Parenthood pits itself against the Republicans to effect change.

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The "establishment" is not a single ideological mass; it is the building that houses the bumper cars. Just because you're ramming your car against another part of the establishment doesn't mean you're not establishment, too.

Contrast Cruz with Donald Trump. Trump is a member of the New York real estate establishment, and perhaps the New York political establishment, but he is not a member of the Republican establishment. Cruz still swings by duplexes on Manhattan's Upper West Side to smile at donors and collect checks -- support that he relies on and for which he leverages his clever marketing position as "outsider." Trump doesn't need that. He has the luxury of being able to skip the establishment niceties, driving his SUV through the walls of the bumper-car ride and plowing everyone over.

You can't be a member of the Senate and not be a part of the establishment, even if you are a senator from a small state who's doing unexpectedly well against the personification of the Democratic "establishment." You can't give millions to candidates, spend millions on lobbying and get presidential candidates to take your calls if you're not part of the establishment. You can't spend your whole life in Washington and do the fundraiser circuit and be a senator and say you're not part of the establishment, or the term loses all meaning. You can't be in Congress and not be in Congress.