Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Thomas Sowell Endorses Ted Cruz
Noting with sorrow Justice Scalia’s death, Sowell begs his readers to sober up:
The vacancy created on the Supreme Court makes painfully clear the huge stakes involved when we choose a President of the United States, just one of whose many powers is the power to nominate justices of the Supreme Court.
After enumerating these, and indirectly reminding readers that the next president is apt to be a wartime president, he makes his views about Trump perfectly clear:
Against this background, the frivolous rhetoric and childish antics in the televised political “debates” are painful to watch. If ever there was a time to choose a president with depth, rather than glitter or glibness, this is it.
Trump’s behavior is often that of an “overgrown spoiled brat,” he remarks:
If, by some miracle, Trump became president, what kind of president would he be? Do we need another self-centered know-it-all in the White House to replace the one we have now?
He suggests the Republican candidates be judged by their track record in running a governmental organization. He seems to think none of the governors are electable. This leaves him, by a process of elimination, with the painfully inexperienced Cruz and Rubio. He consoles himself with the thought that Cruz, at least, was attorney general in Texas. Rubio has no comparable experience, and Sowell suggests that his inexperience shows.
He concludes, “We can only make our choices among those actually available.”
So by a process of elimination, he endorses Cruz. Pretty much holding his nose, as far as I can tell from the prose.
I can’t argue with his logic, but I’m hoping for a miracle, because I do not look at Ted Cruz and feel confident. Or see him as electable. Do you?
Published in General
Watching this now. You can hear a pin drop. Not a cough or a candy wrapper….
He is gripping.
Great imagery from Cruz: Volcanic frustration.
Three kinds of votes:
His words resonate with me, but I think much of this is heady talk and won’t convince the millions of Americans that are needed to move right and vote Conservative.
I do hear principles and foundations in his words.
I’d follow him into battle.
Thank you Jules! I agree. And with regard to our decision in this GOP primary – where was Marco Rubio before, during and after this impassioned speech?! AWOL. Cruz was totally on his own.
I’d follow him into battle.
Ditto.
I also hear very clearly he is willing to shine a light into the dark and dirty secrets of Washington that continue to be destructive to our National Health. That willingness is worth much!
Speaking of great imagery of Cruz … here’s a Ricochet thread from @ 6ft2inhighheelshoes from this past November ….
Street Art, Pop Culture, and the Rise of Ted Cruz
I expect they do have regrets. But have they learned their lessons? Dunno.
The difference between OUR Senator that wants to run the show (Cruz or Rubio) and THEIR Senator that wanted to run the show (Obama) is that their idea of running the show is wresting every ounce of authority away from the people while ours want to wrest it away from the government and give it back to the people.
Ted has this sort of unrelenting, principles-first conservatism I very much admire. I like Rubio, but Cruz is a conservative’s conservative.
Thank you. There’s a time to get along, and there’s a time for acting on principle. Cruz, whatever his politicking shenanigans, is acting on principle. Rubio has not, nor will he.
Was he elected to call the speaker a liar? I can’t remember now, did he make that charge/slur stick?
It also makes it just about impossible to get anything accomplished. Has anyone ever worked in an office where one person is a one-person show and won’t cooperate with the rest because he/she is always polishing his/her own apple angling for promotion?
Susan, I recommend you read my excerpts from a site that criticizes at length Rubio’s activity in the Gang of Eight. His work there was no mere youthful indiscretion.
The nation’s chief executive is not a cubicle worker.
So, once Cruz is President he is going to be angling for promotion? To what? I don’t think the analogy holds. Obama does not play nice with either Democrats or Republicans, yet has gotten plenty done.
Seawriter
I think you are correct Duane. I don’t particularly want him to accomplish much of anything. I want him to stop Washington from accomplishing anything. The more those clowns accomplish the worse off we are.
Yes, he was explicitly elected to carry the Tea Party frustration with the worthless bastards of the GOP right to the very floor of the Senate. Mission Accomplished!
He didn’t call the speaker a liar. He called the Senate Majority Leader a liar. And, yes, if he merits the description. In McConnell’s case I think so on a daily basis.
According to Cruz, and I acknowledge there are 2 sides to every story, McConnell promised to leave Ex-Im bank on the trash heap of history. Ex-Im bank was re-authorized by the Senate. Your mileage may vary.
This is absolutely correct.
I recommend you watch this video of Cruz speaking out against Republican leadership. He offers a clear exposition of what voters expected when they elected conservatives and of how Republican leadership has frustrated those expectations.
Given my own style of argumentation, I wonder why he needed to accuse Boehner of collusion with the Democrats. I think this attack on Boehner’s motives is superfluous and perhaps needlessly alienating.
But the fact that he, alone of his colleagues, is willing to make the general case against spineless Republican leadership? That shows he’s the one we need in the oval office.
I can live with superfluous attacks on feckless GOP leaders. Especially if we have a principled conservative to execute the laws.
I think I have been credited with a statement someone else made.
Just to keep the record straight.
Seawriter
See e.g., Obama, Barack.
I read your excerpts, J.D., and I also read a couple of other summaries from the left and right. There are contradictions all over the place, but I don’t intend to read the bill. I know you’ve made an effort to be clear in your points (or to use others who you think are clear), but there is nowhere I can stand where I’m certain of who is fair and accurate and who is not. So I will withhold my final decision in light of that lack of clarity; the conflicting information has certainly raised doubts for me. Thank you for your efforts to enlighten me!
Same here.
I personally know trustworthy people on both sides of the Cruz-Rubio divide, some of them quite vehement about it. These people close to me aren’t dupes or liars. To suppose that either candidate has them completely fooled, or that either candidate is so charismatic as to cause otherwise honest voters to lie for him, beggars belief. So I don’t know what to believe, other than to take with a grain of salt the most vehement deprecations either side makes against the other.
Here are a few tests I ask myself in evaluating the candidates:
I think going down with the ship in order would be Cruz>Rubio>Bush>Carson>Kasich>Sanders>Trump>Hillary for question number 1.
I think again in order Cruz>Hillary>Trump>Sanders>Rubio>Bush>Carson>Kasich for #2
I think Hillary>Sanders>Trump>Kasich>Bush>Carson>Rubio>Cruz for number 3.
Just a fun game to play. Maybe there are other tests that could be given. For me, much lower would be personality and attractiveness tests. I know I’m not going to be neighbors or friends with any of these politicians. I don’t need to know their opinion on every local event, like if a shooting victim could be one of their relatives, etc.
FTFY
Then, one could accurately describe you as a Sowell Man, right?
The problem, Brent, is not that you are trying to do new things, it is that there is a lot to undo- and it has to be done in spite of interest groups. You cannot effect change that leads to freedom for people by issuing executive orders or rescinding Obama’s executive orders- the permanent bureaucracy will be able to outlast you.
No, not angling for promotion- but working for achievements. Like it or not, the president is not a king. Barack Obama has tried the one-man show thing, and he even started with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and huge good will; plus, he was even a more likable figure than Cruz. He still could not pass what he wanted, and now faces having a lot of his program dismantled, despite the Dems covering for him wherever they could. Cruz would have no one covering for him if a miracle occurred and he actually took office.
But not to worry- Cruz will not be elected president; his basic strategy of assuming that a far right base heavy turnout is all he needs is fatally flawed. Trump has already shown him that his strategy doesn’t even work to get nominated.
Hillary might make the mistake of confusing the far right with the Republican base; Ted would not.