Trump v. Cruz.... Not so Fast!

Cruz bears a remarkable resemblance to the last great demagogue in American politics, including a disdain for truth, facts, and the United States Constitution (that's "Tail Gunner" Joe McCarthy, Republican Senator from Wisconsin, who, after terrorizing innocent Americans, in and out of government, was eventually taken down in 1954 by a CBS expose by Edward R. Murrow in his "See it Now" program, featured in the 2005 George Clooney movie, "Good Night and Good Luck.")

For those who are looking for a "savior" to stop Donald Trump's quest for the Republican nomination and the presidency, think twice before hitching your wagon to Ted Cruz. The differences between them are night and day- and not to the benefit of Cruz. Trump is bombastic, narcissistic, thoughtless, a misogynist, rude, crude, and incurious. Trump just wants to be president because he likes the attention. He has no agenda and couldn't identify a single policy proposal he would enact if elected- other than a vague and impossible promise to build a large wall on our southern border and somehow make the people he wants to keep out pay for it. (Never mind that net immigration from Mexico is now below zero- more go back there than come here, and the vast majority of illegal immigrants within our borders entered the country legally, then overstayed their visas. A problem which no wall would solve, no matter how tall.)

Cruz, on the other hand is an excellent orator- although his dramatic pauses (a debate technique) get old pretty quickly, who has a specific agenda he would do everything in his power to enact if elected. He would do everything possible to degrade or destroy virtually every governmental program that helps the least of us- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food stamps. He would have a litmus test for federal judges that would allow only those with a disdain for the First Amendment's Establishment Clause (which protects minority religions from having Congress establish a national religion) to be seated on the bench. In effect, Cruz wants his version of Sharia law enacted- only instead of favoring Islam, it would cater to a fundamentalist Christian outlook on the world. He would derail any attempts to forestall the global climate and water crisis looming over America and the rest of the world. And in foreign policy, if he meant what he said about turning desert sand into glass- there is only one weapon in our arsenal that is capable of raising sand to that temperature, and it has been used only twice in our nation's history, both times in Japan in August of 1945.

In short, America, the Constitution, our civil liberties, and the rest of the world would have a far better chance of surviving a Trump presidency than a Cruz Administration.