Posted on 10/01/2014 4:22:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Texas senator stands for conservative principles. Unfortunately, that's all he does with them.
Is Ted Cruz good for conservatives? Or is it the other way around?
The answer matters a lot, because it's not impossible that this guy could be the next GOP presidential nominee. A close adviser to Texas' junior senator told National Journal that there is a 90 percent chance the Tea Party star will run for president in 2016. "And honestly, 90 is lowballing it." Cruz denies that he has made plans past the midterms. But boy, he sure does look like a man preparing for a run. He goes to Iowa and makes foreign-policy heavy speeches. He makes trips to New Hampshire to stump for GOP candidates there. And so on.
Cruz was wildly popular at last week's Values Voters summit. Of all the Tea Party senators, he has the most polished presence on the hustings. He has the best nose for the grassroots. He booms that a Republican president will be "repealing every word" of ObamaCare in 2017.
But from where I sit, Cruz looks like another Sarah Palin. He is gifted at polarizing a debate in a way that gratifies the base of the party. But then what? Ted Cruz will "stand for" conservative policy goals, but standing for them is very different from realizing them.
Compare Cruz's persona and rhetoric to his Tea Party peers, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul. Each of these men have devoted themselves to conservative ideas, but they also seem to have absorbed political lessons from the last two decades. It has inspired in them a creativity in policy thinking that also seeks to enlarge the Republican tent. Rubio enfolds the story of immigration and assimilation into a larger conservative narrative about American greatness; it's an effort that could make republicanism seem less hostile to voters from the last great wave of immigration.
Rand Paul has framed libertarian policies meant to appeal to black and other urban voting blocs. Paul has attracted younger voters with his foreign policy vision, his pro-digital privacy stances, and his filibuster against unlimited drone warfare.
Finally, Mike Lee, probably the least likely in this group to run for president, has gone deep in the weeds on tax policy, in an effort to give some material benefit to the middle- and working-class families who ought to be the backbone of a conservative voting majority.
Now, no politician should be ashamed of his willingness to be disagreeable in the name of a disagreement. Ted Cruz opposed the nomination of Chuck Hagel to secretary of Defense for the simple reason that he disagreed with Hagel's view of foreign policy and defense. Fair game, I say.
But for all his advertised "commitment" to the conservative cause, Cruz's approach seems like a xerox of a fax from the 1980s, on which he has drawn some cursory scribblings. We have been told over and over how smart and intellectual Ted Cruz is, by professors like Harvard's Alan Dershowitz and Princeton's Robert George. But where is the evidence of fresh thinking, of applying conservative principles to existing problems?
Take health care. Cruz has put a ton of his energy into defeating ObamaCare. He quixotically shut down the government over this issue last fall. But for all the great intellectual firepower said to reside in Cruz, his policy ideas on health care amount to this: raising the eligibility age for Medicare, tax credits, and a promise to "throw my body in front of a train" to stop ObamaCare. Good luck with that.
Do you like Cruz? Then I have a disclaimer. I have idiosyncratic views on presidential candidates. I supported Ron Paul in 2008, and was sympathetic to Jon Huntsman in 2012. Other than the Huntsman thing, I'm a black-banners reactionary. Cruz had never made much of an impression on me, until he trolled a conference of Christians raising awareness of persecution in the Middle East. Perhaps Cruz is simply being wise and he is simply advertising his loyalties now in a run-up to the primary. Once he captures a base of voters he'll unveil creative, vote-attracting, and constructive policies. But he hasn't yet. And I just don't believe he will.
If you're a Cruz fan, ask yourself: Can you imagine a voting bloc of "Cruz Democrats?" Isn't Ted Cruz's unique appeal precisely that such a bloc is unimaginable? If that's the case, he's better suited as a firebrand in the upper-chamber than as your candidate for president.
Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Two of the bigger tea party disappointments. And has he ever seen Cruz speak? he does a pretty decent job articulating everything out.
“...I supported Ron Paul in 2008, and was sympathetic to Jon Huntsman in 2012. ...”
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“And THAT tells you everything you need to know about this ditzy, RINO apologist author. They ALL fear Ted Cruz. “
worth repeating.
He was the North American debating champion in both categories. Princeton’s debate team later named their annual novice championship after Cruz.
What kind of schizophrenic supports both Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul?
Big, big, big big bump.
I have always admired Sarah
Paid large to see her in a small venue
750...twice
But Cruz is a level up in skills
Cruz is top drawer brain
Smarter than me too
He’s unflappable too
But Sarah has great heart and gives great speeches
And she’s rocking chick wise
Cruz has Newt recall and clarity with Magnus ideology
I’m pretty dam smart but I’m willing to concede that many people are smarter than I am, sometimes much smarter — for example, Ted Cruz. It’s also clear from his record that Ted Cruz is smarter than almost everyone else in politics, government and the media.
Ted Cruz graduated with honors from Princeton and the Harvard Law School, one of whose most distinguished professors, Alan Dershowitz, has gone on record to say that Ted Cruz was one of the most brilliant students he ever taught.
Senator Cruz also served as a Supreme Court clerk; came from far behind in the polls to win his Texas Senate seat; and in a matter of little more than a year in Washington has become a front runner for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination, picking up the most coveted Conservative endorsement — Sarah Palin’s — along the way.
Ted Cruz is an expert at winning, and if he thinks he can win the presidency in 2016, who are the rest of us relative mediocrities to disagree with him? [chuckle] After eight years of President Obama, only a towering genius will be able to undo the damage. And Ted Cruz is the only candidate who even remotely qualifies. Rand Paul, his principal opponent, is a mediocre product of nepotism; he inherited his father’s supporters.
Do we want a better country or not?
Go to the site. Michael Brendan Dougherty is Pajama Boy with a beard. Likes to say “nyah, nyah, nyah” a lot.
Ted Cruz in 2016! The left is very afraid, folks.
“It’s also clear from his record that Ted Cruz is smarter than almost everyone else in politics, government and the media.”
I beg to differ — NOBODY is smarter than Gov Palin...
Wrongo - these are the reasons we want him for President...
There must be at least some Democrats left who love their country,I know not many but some,that are tired of the communists who now run the democrat smear party
After eight years of the Reign of Terror of the current Bozo, I certainly can.
If all Democrats are now of the Barack Ebola variety, there's no GOP candidate that they would ever go for anyway. Does this guy actually think a "Huntsman" or a McCain or a Romney would garner a bunch of Democrat votes? They sure haven't to date.
Thank you.
For Rubio and RuPaul, "absorbed political lessons" = sold out. (Not sure about Lee.)
But for all the great intellectual firepower said to reside in Cruz, his policy ideas on health care amount to this: raising the eligibility age for Medicare, tax credits
What's wrong with that? Much better ideas than 0bamaCare.
“Can you imagine a voting bloc of “Cruz Democrats?”
As a matter of fact... the phrase first hispanic president... brings such a bloc to mind.
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