SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — No, Ted Cruz is not just a child throwing a temper tantrum. And the freshman Republican senator from Texas won’t disappear after cookies, a hug and nap. Cruz is also not the “Distinguished Wacko Bird,” diagnosed by GQ magazine. Cruz is supershrewd, capitalizing on the media spotlight. Say what you want, like a rock star once told me about bad press, “please spell my name right.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, departs after a meeting with fellow Republican senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Sept. 30. Reuters

Think Miley Cyrus. Her new No. 1 hit single, “Wrecking Ball.” Miley and Ted are two wrecking balls shaking up a stodgy old system. Both are growing up before our eyes. Not just competing in Hollywood and Washington. They’re suddenly worldwide media celebs in the spotlight, on parallel stages, both rocketing to fame, fortune and real power. Bring it on!

No matter how much the liberal media labels, diagnoses and degrades Cruz, as they say in the music industry, is topping the charts, he’s No. 1 with a bullet!

Cruz and Cyrus, two media geniuses, both No. 1 with a bullet!

The Cruz band of tea party capitalists is also riding the long wave of history. Look inside their collective brain, there are symptoms of a psychosis sinking deep into the American mind-set, psyche and soul. The wave began with Ayn Rand’s individualism decades ago, peaked in the great conservatism of Reaganomics, and is now fighting itself, self-destructing, driven by a blind conviction that all government is the dark enemy of individual freedom, and a bizarre willingness to sacrifice the American economy in the name of personal freedom.

Warning, this drama will not stop soon. The temper tantrums will grow wilder, riskier, more dangerous through the decade. Why? Because the conflict won’t die down until 2024, when Hillary Clinton finishes her second term. Yes, 10 more long years of wrecking balls colliding.

Seriously, listen to tea party capitalists like the Koch Bros. Surrender? No , they’re doubling down. They bankrolled campaigns to defeat Obama and Obamacare with hundreds of millions. They hate losing. Won’t give up. Will keep fighting Obama. Then Hillary. So the next decade will be more of the same. Only worse. Hopefully, as Nietzsche put it, “that which does not destroy us, will set us free.” Internally, we’ll be tested by a relentless internecine war.

So let’s reflect on these two traits of Ted Cruz’s tea party capitalism. Both the shadow side of America’s inner psychological drama. And the historical long wave from Adam Smith’s pure capitalism, through Reaganomics on the bright side, now the shadowy narcissism of Ayn Rand, and into the future for a new addiction that will eventually self-destruct the extremes of tea party capitalists, even renew the GOP as a political intelligence in the tradition of William Buckley ... at least till the temper tantrums subside in 2024.

Cruz-missile’s explosive power, dark side of tea party capitalism?

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed article, financial historian Niall Ferguson, author of “The Rise and Fall of the American Empire,” quoted Bond King Bill Gross: the negative consequences of a debt default would be “catastrophic.” Yet, we have this self-destructive psychosis, and we are thriving on the drama of catastrophe. Every human has this shadowy addiction. We hide it, can’t admit we’re our own worst enemy.

And yet, that’s exactly what Cruz and tea party capitalism want. From the bigger historic perspective, we are witnessing how America’s shadow side is taking over, wants catastrophic results, self-destruction. They even admitted it last week, celebrating the insanity in the chambers of Congress.

Remember, reports on the strong smell of alcoholic spirits surrounding our new minority rulers of America. I saw this same sad self-destructive behavior over and over while working professionally with addictive personalities at places like the Betty Ford Center.

Paternalism is dead, men angry, losing power to women, fighting in vain?

Lately the media spotlight paints Cruz as an arrogant life-long narcissist, much like Ayn Rand’s leading characters, John Galt in “Atlas Shrugged,” the mysterious rebel leader convinced he will save our world from ruin, and Howard Roark in “Fountainhead,” the idealist architect and free-market capitalist who dynamites his own building under construction when he learns some second-rate competitors bastardized his designs.

That same brand of Ayn Rand’s ultra idealism permeates Cruz tea party capitalists. That mind-set is everywhere, grounded historically and psychologically in the fact that today men everywhere feel threatened by the rising power of women, in politics, business, finance, health care, sports. The new reality is happening so fast men have a hard time adjusting. For thousands of years, world civilizations have been male-dominated paternalism. Women were treated as the property of men, lesser ... until very recently.

Men are losing this war fast, and it’s changing everything. And it’s changing fast because women think very differently from the ancient old-guys-rule politics that’s driven America for too long but is rapidly disappearing. Today psychologists know women are more rational as investors, as corporate directors, as military thinkers, as CEOs and long-term strategic planners. So in modern economies, women not only think differently, they think better, often with a competitive edge over males.

Macho male egos, old men rulers are slowly turning over the power

As a result, the male ego feels threatened, bruised. Yet can’t admit it, denies it, fights, sees women as the enemy while they keep demanding greater equality. Meanwhile, the workforce offers fewer and fewer jobs traditionally performed by men. The economy demands higher skills: When I was in law school we had just four women among more than 250 graduates. Today, a generation later, more than half of all law, medicine and business graduates are women. More women are elected to government. The male response? Threatened, defensive, throwing temper tantrums.

One perfect example: Last week after the wife of Texas Gov. Rick Perry endorsed a rape exception to antiabortion laws, calling it a “woman’s right,” Perry, a Republican, went on talk radio and publicly corrected her. No exceptions. Period. He’s running for president again.

Yes, across the power spectrum of America, men are being constantly threatened, challenged, marginalized, nursing their bruised egos. Not Ted Cruz. But most feel put down, get defensive, forced to counterattack: Witness how obsessed old-men legislators are with controlling health-care rules for all women ... how old-men rulers are doubling down efforts to deny the vote to perceived threats from minority males ... the relentless efforts of old white male birthers to delegitimize our black president.

We even see it in NRA boss Wayne LaPierre’s raging tantrums attacking regulations banning 100-round magazines because that threatens the frail egos of the macho American males. That’s the same historic long wave Cruz’s tea party capitalists are riding. As a Marine veteran we see how weak today’s male ego is when we consider the absurdity of their argument, remembering that when the Second Amendment was enacted in 1791 it took 15-30 seconds to reload a musket.

American history lessons Cruz tea party capitalists are learning

Small wonder guys like Cruz expose themselves as arrogant, angry old men. Not as real leaders, but as narcissistic egomaniacs, with psychological parallels with Ayn Rand’s narcissistic capitalists. No wonder it’s so easy to understand what former Reagan budget director David Stockman meant a few years ago when he wrote: “My GOP destroyed the U.S. economy.” And no wonder, the Cruz tea party capitalism of today is a clear heir to Ayn Rand’s extreme individualism as well as the best of Reaganomics from a generation ago.

Yes, America is at another crossroads. But isn’t America always at a crossroads. Yes, some doubt we’ll survive this one. Conservative London Times columnist Anatole Kaletsky worries about our “Old Man’s Capitalism” losing to China’s new hybrid economy, a blend of free-market capitalism and authoritarianism. Kaletsky warns us in “Capitalism 4.0”: The West “must come up with a new model of capitalism that’s consistent with our political values. Either we reinvent ourselves or we will lose.”

So ask yourself, are Cruz and his band of tea party capitalists stacking the deck against our “reinvention” ... at least till 2024?

Remember, Ted Cruz and the tea party capitalists are not just throwing a temporary temper tantrum that will soon fade. It won’t. They’re part of a long-cycle historical wave that began well over a generation ago with Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan and Reagan. And tea party capitalists are going to keep making life difficult for Obama, Hillary, both parties, the global economy and the American people for at least another decade.

But on the other hand, like Miley Cyrus also sharing the spotlight on the “Great Stage,” I suspect someday, when the history books are written, Ted Cruz may turn out to be just what America and Americans needed to reinvent ourselves.