Ted Cruz… the backstory.

A friend who has been politically active in the liberal Northeast shared with me his thoughts about Ted Cruz now that Cruz has suspended his campaign and is no longer aspiring to the Oval Office. What follows are his thoughts.

I’ve largely kept my opinions to myself seeing as how our party endorsed Cruz, but I feel I should share some of them now.  Based on what I’ve observed and heard regarding Ted Cruz this election cycle, I wouldn’t nominate him dog catcher.  

I have good friends with deep roots in the Cuban community, the old guard of the Cuban community, and they never liked Cruz or his father.  Aside from the fact that his father was pro-Castro, to the point of being party to terrorist attacks against the Batista regime, there has always been a fundamental trust deficit among the Cuban exile community.

The Cuban paper Libre is one of the most respected Cuban publications in the United States.  From what I’ve heard from my friends who are connected to Libre, they have never particularly cared for Ted Cruz.  We should ask ourselves: why?  http://www.libreonline.com/

I also personally have a problem with any political candidate whose most vocal supporters speak of him in religious terms.  Glenn Beck is definitely not John the Baptist, and therefore Ted Cruz is not Christ.  My alarm bells go off when I hear that someone’s father declares their son appointed by God to “renew America.”  Thanks, but inasmuch as I do not want Sharia law, I also don’t want someone in the Oval Office who believes they were put on earth by God to be America’s Moses.  I like the first amendment and the idea that America has a fundamentally secular government.  We would do well to remember that what bothers the Muslims most about the nation of Israel is not that they are Jewish, but that they govern with secular law; even the Muslims in Israel prefer Israel to their Sharia-ruled states.  

Furthermore, Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, is a CIA-connected political operative.  His reputation among political operatives is one of black ops and dirty tricks.  Indeed, more than one person has come out and said that the Iowa trick against Ben Carson was planned by Roe in conjunction with connections at CNN.  I have great respect for Dr. Ben Carson, and you could tell he didn’t believe that Ted was “sorry” for what happened in Iowa.  This is why, despite Trump insinuating that Carson was like a child molester, Carson still couldn’t back Trump’s primary rival, Cruz.

Finally, his self-righteous insistence snubbing of voters though delegate bribes and trickery was the icing on the cake.  The people have spoken through their votes, again and again and again, yet Ted fought on in the shadows in an attempt to subvert the popular will of the American electorate.  All of this, while legal and “by the rules,” doesn’t sit well with me and most other voters.  This is why the Cruz-Kasich pact was received so badly, and immediately crumbled.  The American people have simply had enough of the nonsense.  Cruz proved to be a chip off the old political block.

On a more prosaic level, his hostile rhetoric vis-a-vis Russia is destructive and counterproductive.  It conflates our real enemies (totalitarian Islam and their allies within the global left) with our imagined enemies (a rightist-governed Russia).  Cruz would likely remove Assad, further inflaming tensions with Russia at a time when most of our western allies are looking East for a reliable ally against Islam.

Trump, with all his warts, is a known quantity with a longer public history than any candidate in recent memory.  I believe he’ll do pretty much as he says he’ll do, because he doesn’t owe anyone political favors.  

That’s my take.  I don’t want Cruz on the Supreme Court.  I want him back in his home country of Canada.