Considering Ted Cruz

Well Iowa and New Hampshire have come and gone and reporting on the Trump phenomena, “trumps” the spin in every form of media. A less covered story…dare I say it…is how much closer Senator Ted Cruz is to the Republican nomination for POTUS. In the last several weeks, despite spending peanuts in NH, Ted Cruz has moved from Tea Party/Rebel icon to a real alternative for more mainstream, center/right voters who just cannot accept the potty mouth and incredible promises of Donald Trump. Watching interviews with people who actually voted for Cruz in the more moderate state of New Hampshire, I heard, “Rubio and Kasich are good guys but they don’t have what it takes to do the job.”

Listening to the interviews, however I am not convinced he is viewed as the lesser of the evils. The very phenomena that gave us Trump seems to be creating a new crop of involved voters willing to take a good look at Cruz and they like what they see. Anytime voters admit they did research, its a good thing in the long run for electibility and a win in the general election. It means a voter will likely stick close to that candidate. The consistency of Cruz on the debate stage, his highly detailed solutions to the major issues and his refusal to engage in talking trash about his opponents is fueling that research, even if voters do not completely agree. In a world of chaos on both foreign and domestic fronts, there is no doubt Cruz has a plan and his organized ground game, when it comes to reaching voters about that plan isn’t hurting either. As we move closer to the primary vote in South Carolina, his financial plan was discussed on Fox Business News’s where Global Markets editor, Maria Bartiromo, gave the Senator an A for his tax program after the debates on Saturday night.

I’ll admit I’ve had my eye on Ted Cruz for some time now. He captured my attention when he was first elected to Congress in 2012 and as always my interest is tied to personal experience and often local experience in politics. When Jeff first ran for the Board of Supervisors in 2007, he organized a citizens committee of people with diverse backgrounds in both business and the community at large to see if his vision for Caroline was a good one. They met numerous times and actually rewrote and created the vision together, making for a much stronger and ultimately successful platform.

Halfway through the process, the phone began to ring as the word got out that Jeff would run for office and on the end of the line were members of the current Board of Supervisors who felt they should have first been consulted in any run for office. Imagine our surprise we had failed to follow protocol! We had no idea that fellow board members had to give permission or have a hand in the successful election of those from other districts. Our bad…….. right?

When Jeff was elected, immediately the philosophy that one must get along and vote exactly like other board members became front and center. Apparently it was a crucial concept, covering your fellow board member’s buttocks when they had to make bad decisions in government. Having not taken this into account, Jeff was reprimanded routinely for failing to “go along to get along” and for his obvious lack of regard for the club rules. Like a certain Senator Cruz who took to filibuster to make his case that he would not go quietly into the night on Obamacare, Jeff took to the newspaper. In numerous op-eds, he explained time and time again, in this country we are elected by our constituency and our obligation is to represent them. I naturally watched this new Senator in D.C. who reflected the same kind of fearlessness and confidence and the novel idea that CITIZENS elected him to office and not Boehner, McConnell and company.

Many I know thought Ted Cruz’s first “take it to the people” filibuster actions were grandstanding, but what if you are on the losing side and it is the only option open? He successfully showcased this issue for days while the liberal news media covered Obamacare and its abuses by default that week, reporting on him. Painted as crazy and at best eccentric, by some in his own party, Cruz forced people to pay attention to the Republican platform for sure that week. Do you really lose when you take your case directly to the people all over the country and tell them you won’t stop fighting for liberties, some as simple as keeping your own doctor? He lost the battle but maybe, just maybe as POTUS, he just might just win the war.

One of the oft repeated reasons I hear from colleagues is they can’t consider Cruz because he flipped on the free trade bill, officially called the Trade Protection Authority (TPA) also known as “fast track.” First of all I don’t understand why an elected representative cannot re think his position and change his mind as long as the constituency knows why. There is no doubt Cruz made a huge to do, giving interview after interview about why he was NOT voting for the bill. Whats ironic to me is that many fine minds, mostly outside of the D.C. beltway (go figure) thought some of the legislation in the Free Trade bill was miserable and like Cruz knew the Import/Export bank needed to go the way of the dinosaur. What is free market about the government providing loans to private companies in order to compete against other private companies? When the loans don’t pay, tax payers pick up the tab. Lobbyists spent weeks in the offices of members of Congress pressuring them to reauthorize what is essentially a slush fund for big business on our tax dollar.

Cruz’s “grandstanding” on this issue gave me a lesson in the Import/Export Bank which was instituted in 1934 and still guarantees loans to Russian companies. In real terms, Cruz has always been a free trade advocate, supporting the opening of foreign markets to help American manufacturing and farmers, but as details emerged in the bill that would make it easier for Obama to change federal immigration laws, the Senator backed away.. He wanted GOP leaders to assure him that they had made no “secret deal” to keep the controversial Import-Export Bank alive. He also demanded that McConnell and Boehner allow amendments to ensure the trade agreements did not allow back door changes to immigration laws.

Then of course there is the faux scandal of Goldman Sachs. Cruz’s wife Heidi is a formidable force in her own right, an attractive, brilliant young wife, mother and professional and a highly valued member of the Goldman Sachs team. We are surprised they support the Cruz’s why? In the story about the liquidated assets to support the first senate campaign, the assets from Goldman Sachs were listed as a loan on one form and not on another. The real story is still the fact that the Cruz’s were willing to lay it all on the line for that Senate campaign. There are worse things than a committed wife in it for the long haul, and it is obvious there is a “Team Cruz” made up of both husband and wife. In fact, one of the real mysteries about Cruz does relate to campaign finance and his ability to raise money while opposing oil subsidies in his own state and ethanol in Iowa. So much for the theory that politicians must support cronyism in order to raise funds for election. It apparently can be done.

Today the environment in this presidential campaign year of 2016, is far more toxic and dangerous than even four years ago, considering what has happened in the Middle East and the populations of people who have been driven all over the globe. While I greatly respect the service of both the Bush’s and Senator McCain, sadly and frankly, their world is gone. Were it not so, there would be no Trump phenomenon at all.

The world is on fire, and while we try to look away and go about our daily business, pilots are burned alive, Christians are beheaded and the pathetic people driven from their homelands in the Middle East bring images of the Mediterranean, and a drowned child, whose only crime was trying to escape the bloodshed of his homeland. At home I wonder if one day the church doors will be chained when I arrive on Sunday and Freedom from Religion will be the new policy of the day, or when the certified letter will arrive telling me to hand over the firearms in my house. Sound crazy? If we made a list of all the liberties we have lost in the last eight years and really dwelled on them, none of us would sleep at night.

Lately, the dwindling objections I seem to hear are not the policies but the personal and arrogant leadership style of Ted Cruz. On that, I guess my colleagues I will have to agree to disagree. I don’t give a rip if the old guard in D.C. doesn’t like him or how arrogant he is. No president has ever been as arrogant as Barack Obama, but we give him a pass on arrogance and media manipulation. How about the same pass for Ted Cruz?

The whole Trump deal shows people are desperate for a hero. While I am not ready to place that moniker on Cruz, I think he could be the one we can get behind. Maybe not, but I hope he will stay in the Senate and I hope the electorate will look for more like him to send to D.C. Working with the old political guard has about netted conservatives 0 and the results are killing our country.

If you are interested in a candidate who collaborates with the citizens who elected him, take a second look at Ted Cruz and do some research of your own. You just might like what you see.