Ted Cruz: How America’s most detestable senator is repackaging himself for November

[Miles Archer]

Friday, Apr 8, 2016 08:00 AM EST
Ted Cruz’s terrifying reinvention: How America’s most detestable senator is repackaging himself for November
Cruz's odds of winning the nomination are steadily increasing, and we should be very, very afraid
Heather Digby Parton

http://www.salon.com/2016/04/08/ted_cruzs_terrifying_reinvention_how_americas_most_detestable_senator_is_repackaging_himself_for_the_general_election/

On the occasion of longshot presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s campaign launch back in March, The Onion published a satirical piece about subscribers to TIME magazine bracing themselves for the awful, “inevitable” day when they would open their mailboxes to find themselves staring at a picture of Cruz on the cover under a headline like “The Game Changer” or “The Firebrand.” It was an absurd joke that went so meta that this week when TIME actually put Cruz on the cover, they also ran a story about The Onion’s piece from a year ago. Our politics have become very, very surreal.

TIME’s cover story is headlined, “Likable Enough?,” accompanied by a fetching portrait of Cruz with a mischievous look on his face and a lovely ice blue tie. He looks exceedingly likable and once you read the stories within, you’ll have to conclude that the man whom virtually everyone with the misfortune of knowing him finds repulsive is terribly misunderstood. Where you might have thought the man was a doctrinaire rightwinger, steeped in religious fanaticism and radical free market extremism, you will find out that he’s actually a good old boy, a salt of the earth populist. (One hopes for his sake that nobody leaves a copy lying around on the yachts of some of the billionaires who’ve been writing ten million dollar checks on his behalf. It could get awkward.)

***

Ted Cruz saying he’s fighting the elites on behalf of the working man sounds very nice. But let’s just say that the big money boys won’t be disappointed if his agenda is enacted. Indeed, they’ll be ecstatic. And surely the media must know this. Calling him a “populist” because he trash talks Washington just like Bernie Sanders shows just how eagerly the press allows themselves to be gulled into a sexy story line. And this one looks distressingly like something we might see cooked up in Grover Norquist’s basement: The “everyman” populist Cruz, slayer of RINOs, vs. the ancient establishment drudge Hillary Clinton, defender of the corrupt Washington cartel. And that’s ridiculous. Ted Cruz is so deeply wedded to laissez faire, free market ideology that he makes any Democrat, whether Clinton, Sanders or even Joe Lieberman look like William Jennings Bryan by comparison.

All presidential finalists get an opportunity to be looked at with fresh eyes by the press when it starts to look as if they have a serious chance. But it behooves the media not to get carried away into total fantasy in order to set up a preferred story line. Ted Cruz is a very smart guy and has been underrated throughout this campaign. But ultra conservative Republicans aren’t voting for him because of his winning personality or “populist” economics. They’re voting for him because he a far right fanatic just like they are. Just because he isn’t Donald Trump it doesn’t mean he isn’t also a demagogue. He’s just a different kind.

[hlthe2b]

1. As bad as Trump is, Cruz scares me even more

He's a true believer in his racist, bigoted, misogynistic fascist policies and will pursue that agenda with a vengeance. Just take a look at his father and his beliefs/statements to realize what an incredibly insane CIC Ted would make.

[kentuck]

2. Here is an interesting opinion from David Zephyr.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113511251