The first primary is over, and a few barnacles have finally shaken loose (Santorum, Huckabee, Rand Paul, O’Malley) and been lost to the deep. No doubt the commentary has been quite prolix, with the fallout eliciting joy in some quarters, consternation in others.
I haven’t bothered to read the commentaries, so I don’t know if anyone has had any similar thoughts on the matter of the Cruz campaign overall. Let’s take a few facts and put them together:
- Cruz is a Senator. This gives him a national name & reach, useful to a man of ambition.
- Cruz is running without national accomplishments. In fact, his short tenure in his position has been marked with absolutist rhetoric and positions; his colleagues, even in his own caucus, are reported to dislike him.
- On the campaign trail he expresses thoughts and positions disdainful of general tradition. Perhaps the most iconic is his promise, if elected, to rip up the deal on nuclear power and weapons with Iran, rather than respect the progress and deals made by the previous Administration.
- There’s a pervasive meme in the conservative community that government doesn’t work. One of the favorite aphorisms is that the government doesn’t create jobs, for example.
- There’s a pervasive meme in the conservative community that the government is corrupt. The entire RINO movement is illustrative of this meme, as is the demonization of the concept of compromise. The left has a similar meme, for what it’s worth.
In Senator Cruz we have a man who’s managed to get his name and, well, reputation onto the national scene, first through winning his seat, and then engaging in conduct well outside the mainstream for a Senator. He doesn’t appear to work on bills, and I’ve never seen a report of him reaching across the aisle; the mainstream, seasoned political reporter finds his conduct mystifying, repellent, and certainly opaque.
But to the conservative mind of a certain bent, they may see a Senator, but without the attributes associated with abhorrency: compromise, participation, even acknowledgement of the traditions of government. Without dirtying his hands, in those eyes, he’s managed to become a major player on the stage. He has displayed his qualifications, which have nothing to do with honest achievement, but rather with a purity of spirit and commitment to the values referenced by these memes.1 Essentially, he has managed to place himself in the middle of national politics without playing the game by its normal rules, and not only in the middle, but in what, at this juncture, appears to be a commanding position.
I have to wonder how long Ted Cruz has been planning this strategy.
And then there’s the ultimate goal. Is he such an arrogant man that he believes the Presidency is within his grasp, that he can achieve that goal? But why? Simply because it’s there? Or are there higher goals in place?
“I’m a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth[.]”
(Politico)
Rumor has it that his father is a Dominionist, so one naturally wonders about the son. But does he really think he can unite the conservatives? Libertarians are not necessarily religious, and sometimes view religion with great suspicion; there’s little to keep them from voting Democrat if they can’t stomach the conservative candidate. Trump conservatives are reportedly new to politics; if their man doesn’t win the nomination, we may hear no more from them, even on Voting Day. Or he may be positioning himself for a long term leadership position in the conservative party.
Or we could simply take him at his word: a rock solid belief that his religious convictions are right; that religious freedoms are under attack; that God is calling him to be a leader in this mold. Having the glaring examples of theocracies staring at us in other countries, as well as European history, I cannot help but shiver at such a mindset; I do hope that Americans remember their history.
1Since we would typically come to such conclusions through judging his works, of which he has none, it is appropriate to insert the word alleged somewhere in that sentence.
