Calgary Cruz

Calgary Cruz

The fact that Sen. Ted Cruz won four times as many votes in a presidential straw poll conducted among the 5,000-plus Republicans who attended the Texas GOP convention over the weekend tells you something about how out of touch those conservative activists really are. Cruz might be popular among Texas Republicans, but he couldn't get elected dog catcher in a national election, and the fact that they don't see that shows how clueless they are.

Cruz isn't an isolated example: The No. 2 finisher in the straw poll, albeit with barely more than 10 percent of the vote, was Ben Carson, the doctor-turned-wingnut who has never held public office, let alone run for one. And the wingnuttery extended beyond their 2016 dreams: Not only did Republicans ban gay conservative groups from their convention, they passed a party platform that declared that gay people are destroying America. Specifically:



The Texas Republican Party, which says "homosexuality tears at the fabric of society," also approved a policy of "reparative therapy" for gays that seek to change sexual orientation through counseling.

The 2014 Republican platform of more about 260 policies also calls for repealing the Voting Rights Act, supports open-carry of firearms, supports the repeal of a minimum wage, backs a U.S. withdraw from the United Nations, prohibits the sale of the morning after pill and demands the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare".

But the most fervid responses often came when he hinted about his future plans. “I tell you this: as good as 2014 is gonna be, 2016 is gonna be even better,” Cruz said at the Defense of Texas Marriage event.

Adding to this bigoted quackery, Republicans also dropped a party plank calling for a reasonable approach to immigration reform, instead taking a hard line against any sort of path to legal status for any undocumented immigrants. And:It takes an awful lot of crazy to make Ted Cruz for president just another bullet point, but curing gays, repealing the minimum wage and searching for an America in which everyone walks semi-automatics slung over their shoulder will do it. And if there's any good news here, it's that he was hinting that he just might do it:I'm not buying it, but mostly because I don't want to be disappointed when he folds up his tent. But if he does, it'll guarantee that 2016 will be the best show in town ... since 2012.