Sen. Ted Cruz Announces for President

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 23, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                Speaking at the late Christian Coalition Founder Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA today, 44-year-old Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was the first GOP candidate to announce for president.  Cruz wasted no time promising to be the party’s second coming of the late President Ronald Reagan.  Promising to restore the American Dream, Cruz threw the largely social and religious Christian audience plenty of red meat, promising to abolish the IRS, ban same-sex marriage, secure the borders, reverse Roe v. Wade to ban abortions and other favorite conservative causes.  Since taking over for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) January 3, 2013, Cruz made his mark quickly as the Senate’s Obama-basher-in-chief.  When it came to fighting Obamacare, Cruz staged a 21-hour filibuster Sept. 25, 2013, prompting the GOP-led House to shutdown the government from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 16, 2013.

             Were it not for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and what’s left of GOP moderates, Cruz would have defaulted the U.S. government on its foreign debt.  Cruz’s fanatical opposition to Obamacare makes him a favorite on Fox News, mirroring the repetitive talking points of its conservative talk shows hosts like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and others.  “For so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant,” Cruz told the Liberty University Audience.  Cruz opposes government entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, welfare, food stamps, Aid to Families with Dependent children and practically all other government largess designed to help immigrants and poor people get a leg up.  Born in Calgary, Alberta Canada to a Cuban father and Irish-Italian mother, Cruz touts his Cuban roots but only as proof of his disdain for Castro’s communism.

             Cruz hit all the hot button issues to religious and social conservatives.  When President Barack Obama signed his executive order Nov. 21, 2014 preventing deportations of children of illegal immigrants, conservative went wild.  Largely symbolic because the Immigration and Naturalization Service has no stomach for mass deportations, Cruz capitalized on the issue.  “Imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders,” Cruz told a cheering Liberty University audience, knowing, he’ll do no more or no less than any other Republican or Democratic President.  If former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tosses his hat into the ring, Cruz will find himself at odds with mainstream Republicans seeking to attract some fraction of the nation’s Latino community that tends to vote Democratic.  Bashing illegal immigrants only adds to the GOP’s perception as an anti-immigrant party

             Cruz’s candidacy is most likely supported from a generous grant from Freedom Partners, a Koch brothers-backed nonprofit organization.  More than any other GOP candidate, Cruz has no loyalty to common sense or mainstream politics, only restoring the Republican Party to its past glory days of GOP icon Ronald Reagan.  Unlike Reagan who was born in Tampico, Ill, Cruz only pays lip service to what he sees as Reagan ideals.  Once a Democrat, Reagan understood the value of the nation’s hard fought entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, despite building a political career bashing big government.  “God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation and I believe God isn’t done with America,” Cruz told religious conservative hoping, like Reagan and former President George W. Bush, to attract religious conservatives.

             Cruz, a Southern Baptist, hopes to do what the last GOP presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney couldn’t do in 2012 as a Mormon:  Galvanize Christian conservatives.   Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus believes the reason the GOP didn’t win in 2012 was because the nominee wasn’t conservative enough.  When it comes to so-called moderates like Jeb or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Cruz has aligned himself closely to the RNC’s specs.  Despite what appears like an open field now, the RNC—and its big donors like the Koch brothers—won’t pony up the big bucks for candidates with weak conservative credentials.  Cruz fits the RNC mold better than either Bush or Walker but comes up short compared with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose appeal as a former Fox News host and Baptist preacher is hard to top.

             As a top debater Princeton University and Harvard Law graduate, Cruz has the savvy and oratorical skills to make a splash.  Where he falls down is appealing to independents and crossover Democrats needed to win a national election.  RNC officials must decide early on whether or not they want to get back to the Oval Office or simply make an ideological statement in 2016.  If the RNC wants flame-throwing right wing ideology, then Cruz is their man.  As a high profile, media-magnet candidate, Cruz promises to challenge, cajole and antagonize other GOP candidates, especially on hot-button conservative issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, entitlements and the national debt.  Like the nation’s popular conservative radio and TV talk show hosts, Cruz has his talking points down to a science, promising to give more plain speaking candidate fits on the campaign trail.

About the Author


John M. Curtis neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma


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