By Brian McKay
Trump is one thing, Senator Ted Cruz is another. One represents the worst of America and the other just scares the living shit out of me. Guess which one?
Yep, one can somewhat predict the guy that has an ego and KKK backing, but the one that is ordained by God is another problem entirely. Yes, for all the absolute craziness, Ted Cruz scares far more shit from this author than Trump ever could.
Few things are more mortifying than the thought of a theocracy. Trump may proclaim his Protestant roots but does anyone seriously believe that guy ever steps foot into a church? Ted Cruz doesn't just step into a church, he wants to create it at the presidential level. A man that believes God asked him to run for president has no problem in imposing his beliefs upon the rest of us.
Trump may claim he can build a wall and deport the hell out of innocent people but in all actuality he can't pull most of that off. The costs associated with his grandiose visions are extremely high. Congress controls the budget, not the president.
Trump's finger on the football (nuke launcher)? While a little scary, it wouldn't bode well for his championship golf courses. So maybe it isn't so scary after all. On the other hand...
Ted Cruz? Well he is proposing things he could actually pull off. Eliminate the IRS, EPA and Department of Education? Yes, the head of the executive branch of government can do that stuff. Cut the IRS and his scandalous flat tax could become a reality very quickly because there is no one left to collect..
Yes America will show that we can successfully destroy the environment, reduce the educational attainment of our kids and victimize the poor all in one election, if this guy got the votes.
Seriously, we are talking about a guy that single handily shut down the government out of a desire to eschew compromise and in turn cost this country $200 billion. Yeah, that is just as much the nuclear option as Trump might have except that Cruz doesn't own any fucking golf courses to worry about. Cruz literally doesn’t fucking care because he has nothing on the line and thinks he is doing the will of God. Yes. The will of God! God told him to run and his and his wife's statements indicate this.
Even though every state’s attorney general has absolutely found no impropriety on the part of Planned Parenthood since the release of those heavily edited videos last summer, Ted Cruz wishes to immediately instruct the Attorney General’s Office to conduct comprehensive reviews of the non-profit. There is no doubt that these reviews will not be favorable regardless of what is really found. It just so happens that having a job and putting the kids through college is usually a much bigger incentive for Attorney General’s office employees than assessing the situation in an honest manner. One can expect that a Ted Cruz presidency would be the catalyst for a massive rollback in women’s health in this country.
Ted Cruz also advocates for a flat tax in the form of a value added tax of 16% as well as a balanced budget amendment. Beyond the fact that all corporate taxes would be eliminated (a complete travesty), these two things together are an economic time bomb just waiting to happen. His flat tax proposal simply increases economic disparity by providing further tax cuts for the rich and additional burden for the poor. A balanced budget leaves the country unable to deal with the very economic disaster that such disparity must always eventually create, as the country cannot maintain its spending as tax rolls decrease.
Senator Cruz has also advocated for carpet bombing of the Islamic State. Sure it is very non-biblical to kill innocents, but it is also a war crime. A president that is willing to sacrifice what should be the integrity of the economic and military world leader is not fit to serve. America stands for more than the least common denominator. If you don’t believe that, there are more than a few extremely barbaric regimes in this world that would love to have you join them.
It may sound trivial but Ted Cruz would also eliminate Net Neutrality. The worst part is that his executive powers give him the ability to do so immediately. Soon you could be paying much more for streaming Netflix or accessing websites that Internet providers deem as bandwidth intensive. That is just a way for Mr. Cruz to appease his corporate backer that is Time Warner Telecom (and make them more money in the process). You re using the Internet right now and should be totally pissed off.
Ted Cruz is committed to repealing the recent Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage. Mr. Cruz is a strong supporter of the so called “religious freedom” movement which we all know is really the “Christianity is the only cool religion and the rest of you can bugger off” movement. He only considers the recent Supreme Court ruling to apply to four states and is primed to fight it the rest of the way. Mr. Cruz doesn’t believe in the progress of freedom unless it only applies to those he represents.
Senator Cruz is adamantly opposed to the Affordable Care Act and wishes nothing more to than to see it repealed immediately. Sure the ACA isn’t perfect but it is a start. Ted Cruz simply wishes to return to the days of, “Oh you have cancer and are poor? Sorry, but you are fucked.”
This is honestly just a short list. It could be so much longer. The scary thing is that a reading of the 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale would essentially be representative of what a certain man “chosen by God” might inflict upon our country if elected president.
Yes, there are really no good Republican candidates for the office of the President, which is very sad. A strong democracy requires dialogue that encompasses multiple points of view and seeks compromise. A Cruz presidency has only one view, that which is religiously (and revisionist history) correct, and accepts no other compromise. It is his candidacy that is the most scary.
Sure Trump is bad. Ted Cruz is worse. Is it now impossible for this political party to offer and support a reasonable option? My word, how awful is it to actually say the Donald Trump is preferable to someone else?
Brian McKay is a co-founder of zenruption and has his bachelor’s degree in political science from Gonzaga University and his MBA from Boise State University. Most of the time, Brian is convinced that presidential elections have never seen a more important period than this since 1932. He strongly advocates stockpiling beer right now just in case Ted Cruz decides to make us a dry country too (yes Ted Cruz is that clueless).
Feature photo provided by Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license