Right wing hardliner Ted Cruz in driving seat to be Republican candidate for White House
TED Cruz has shown disdain for Washington — a bold move that speaks to the swathes of America who hate establishment politics. He is a key contender for the White House.
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TED Cruz does things differently.
That’s precisely how the current contender for the White House first rose to national attention in the US.
He got to his feet in the Senate and embarked on a 21 hour marathon speech, punctuated by bathroom breaks and reading aloud from a Dr Seuss book.
This was his moment. It was 2013, and the dramatic stunt would precipitate the infamous US government shut down.
The speech was intended by Cruz to delay key government business in a bid to make his opposition to Obamacare clear.
Cruz, filling time, read Green Eggs and Ham aloud — directed, apparently, to his children who were watching him on live TV at home — when he wasn’t eviscerating the President’s plans for health care.
He showed disdain for Washington — a bold move that speaks to the swathes of America who hate establishment politics.
Two and a half years later it is precisely that anti-establishment vibe that has made Ted Cruz and Donald Trump key contenders in the White House race.
A week ago, Cruz stormed Iowa with almost 28 per cent of the vote, rendering Trump’s lead in the polls a mirage and coming out on top to take the first crucial caucus.
It is this ascendancy of Cruz and Trump that represents the problem the Republican party faces — a split between the party’s ultra conservative, anti-establishment right wing and those moderates who believe the GOP must broaden its appeal.
Languishing behind Cruz and Trump in the Iowa poll were those so-called moderates who represent hope for the GOP Washington establishment — Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
Those establishment favourites will need to consolidate their split votes and dominate in primaries in future states if one of them is to take the party’s nomination.
Cruz — who is alumni of both Princeton and Harvard — champions the right to bear arms, repealing Obamacare, and winding back gay marriage.
He proposes a flat tax on all incomes for families earning over $36,000 and wants to stop efforts to help undocumented immigrants attain legal status.
Former US President Jimmy Carter this week told British Parliament he’d choose Trump over Cruz if given the whittled-down choice. “Ted Cruz is not malleable,” the democrat said.
“He has far right-wing policies, in my opinion, that would be pursued aggressively if and when he would become president.”
Cruz admits he is immovable on his far right ideologies.
In an interview with The New Yorker, he told how he’d resisted the pull of moderate republicans to a centrist approach his whole life.
“That’s been true for my entire lifetime, he said.
“The chattering classes have consistently said, ‘You crazy Republicans have to give up on what you believe and become more like Democrats.’ And, I would note, every time Republicans do that we lose.”
Cruz is also the kind of candidate who quotes scripture at any given opportunity. It’s a voice that plays perfectly in an evangelical state like Iowa, but not necessarily in other, less religious parts of the US.
Cruz is likely to struggle in New Hampshire, but will again have the evangelical vote working in his favour in South Carolina.
If he then is able to win his home state of Texas — commanding the biggest delegate force up to that point in primary season — he’ll be well positioned to continue a genuine fight.
His best chance is in dominating early states, which are home to the kind of religious far right wing republican that flocks to Cruz.
The more progressive states, where Republican supporters are traditionally more moderate, dominate the second half of primary season.
Importantly, Cruz’s Iowa win didn’t come without controversy which may speak to his ability to replay the success in other early states.
The night of the vote, news reports circulated feverishly that fellow Republican contender Ben Carson was returning to Florida that night.
The implication? That he was on the verge of dropping out of the race.
Why then waste a vote on him, Caucus-goers pontificated.
The idea that Carson was just about done with the campaign is widely accepted to have been peddled by Team Cruz.
While it was first sore-loser Trump who made the allegations, they were picked up and supported by a host establishment republicans.
Republican strategist Karl Rove — who is no supporter of Trump’s — made similar allegations, saying that basic math suggested the messaging could have cost the real estate mogul victory.
“If this message caused precinct captains in the precincts to tell Carson people, ‘Your guy is getting out, he’s having a big announcement later this week, caucus with us’,” Rove explained.
“If that cost Carson four votes per precinct to switch to Cruz, then Cruz beats Trump. If he doesn’t switch four, then he loses.”
Cruz also faces questions about his eligibility for president.
The Texan senator was born in Canada to an American mother. Legal opinion is divided over other the constitutional requirement that the president being an “natural born citizen” is satisfied by Cruz.
Cruz has received favourable decisions on the matter from state boards, but it possible his eligibility could be challenged in the supreme court.
Cruz is batting away those questions, and instead focusing on wining one primary at a time.
Cruz will need to transition his support base from the evangelicals to a larger portion of the republican establishment, and New Hampshire will be the first test of whether that is something he can manage.
Originally published as Right wing hardliner Ted Cruz in driving seat to be Republican candidate for White House
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