The problem with Cruz & today’s electorate (on a national scale) is people want celebrity. They want charisma. They don’t want dry & wonkish. Policies and ideology matter little anymore.
I disagree. "They" no longer believe "dry and wonkish" can deliver.
Sure, there are plenty of voters who don't have the sense to pour piss out of a boot, but their existence is used as little more than a cliche to avoid the great mass of intelligent, insightful, concerned people who lack the "insider view" to make critical evaluation of the esoterica of government.