The truth is that deceiving voters about one’s past or present positions is a fairly standard political strategy. Few successful politicians become such without engaging in this kind of deception at one point or another. I see little difference between Cruz’s distortions of his record on immigration, and President Obama’s years of lying about his position on same-sex marriage between 2008 and 2012.

Perhaps Saletan means to suggest that Cruz’s lies are the most “spectacular” in the sense that they are unusually sophisticated and effective. But, so far at least, none of Cruz’s deceptions has achieved the spectacular success of Obama’s “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” That deception, and others designed to exploit what Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber called the “stupidity of the American voter” were an integral part of the effort to pass the Affordable Care Act.

AD

AD

Obama’s bad behavior, of course, in no way excuses Cruz’s or that of other Republicans. Here, as elsewhere, political partisans would do well to try to keep their biases in check and remember the sins of their own party, as well as those of the opposition.

In fairness, Cruz, Obama and other similar political leaders could potentially justify their deceptions by pointing to the dangers of unilateral disarmament in political combat. If they stop engaging in politically convenient lying, their opponents probably will not, and the more ethical candidates will be at a disadvantage. Donald Trump, whom Cruz is battling for the Republican nomination, is the proud winner of Politifact’s 2015 Lie of the Year award. To say the least, it is highly unlikely that he would reciprocate any restraint on Cruz’s part. President Obama (who won the same award in the 2013), can cite the various deceptions perpetrated by his political opponents.

If, as is likely, Cruz truly believes that the public interest would be best served by his winning the presidency, he could also conclude that he is justified in using deception to try to achieve that goal – especially if his opponents are going to use similar tactics. Similarly, Obama likely believes that his lies about same-sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act also ultimately served the public interest by helping him get elected, and enabling him to push through various beneficial policies.

AD

AD

In Cruz’s case, his dissembling about immigration actually makes me look somewhat more favorably on the prospect of his becoming president than I would otherwise. I support a strong presumption of open borders immigration, and therefore I am no fan of Cruz’s current highly restrictionist position on the immigration. But the record documented by Saletan strongly suggest that his stance is largely driven by short-term political strategy, which in turn creates the possibility that his policies on the subject in the White House might be very different from those he advocates now. In 2017 or 2018, many ignorant voters may not remember what Cruz said about immigration during the 2016 campaign, just as they are now prone to forget what he said about it back in 2013. I would prefer a candidate who takes consistently pro-immigration positions on principle. But a dissembling triangulator is less bad than a committed restrictionist.

In my book on political ignorance, I describe how President Obama quietly ignored his 2008 campaign promise to renegotiate free trade treaties such as NAFTA, most likely because he realized all along that it was a terrible idea (though one popular with Democratic primary voters). Most of the public probably did not even notice the shift. Should he become president, Ted Cruz might also end up shelving some of his less defensible campaign commitments.