Speaking of doing one’s homework, Sally - Cruz didn’t espouse views in running for Texas solicitor general. He was appointed. That job isn’t an elected one.
Here’s Cruz’s record. The actual work he did after he was elected. You can’t get any more conservative than this. For years now. Years. If he was going to promise one thing then turn around and do another that should have happened a long time ago. Indeed, it is almost the only thing that does happen once politicians have put that pesky election cycle behind them.
It baffles me that this is even a topic of conversation.
https://www.conservativereview.com/members/scorecard/ted-cruz/
You’ve responded with eight posts but never addressed my question - what do you make of Cruz’s tenure in the Bush administration?
And to be clear, I’m not saying Cruz is a total “constitutional conservative” phony - what I am questioning is whether he would govern as one. If there is a chance he wouldn’t - and there is evidence he would not - why would “constitutional conservatives” be so quick to back him?
Remember, it’s the CCs demanding absolute purity, no-compromise candidates. What if there is reason to believe he won’t govern along the lines of what he is selling to his supporters?
I just don’t see how this really matters since all he’s done since then is vote in accordance with Constitutional Conservative principles 97% of the time. What other politician can you say this about, anywhere?
Why on earth would he suddenly become some kind of moderate as soon as he gained the Presidency? Do you have any recent evidence of this tendency in him? I really don’t see it.
We are working with what we have, and what we have is extraordinarily stronger evidence that he would govern a certain way than would any other Republican out there.
And for the record, I consider myself a Constitutional Conservative, and I voted for Mitt Romney. I knew what I was getting, held my nose and did it. I don’t demand absolute purity because in most cases I don’t have the luxury of doing so. But this is certainly the closest I’ve ever been to being able to vote for someone who genuinely appears to be a real CC who will do at least some of what he claims he’ll do.
Well, first, Cruz’s Senate term was simply an extension of presidential campaign, and no one believes the votes he cast weren’t with an eye toward building support. Doesn’t mean all his votes were meaningless, but everyone is fully aware he had an agenda beyond simply voting his conscience.
I keep mentioning his tenure with the Bush administration, where there is no indication he did his job as anything but a GOP establishment type. Where’s the concern among CCs over his apostasy during that period of his political life?
Look, I’ve said it before - of course Cruz is a genuine right-winger. But he’s selling something to purists that he won’t (can’t) deliver, assuming he can even get elected.
Given the demands of CCs, that should be an issue.
Think of a Presidemt Cruz for a minute:
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Chances are high members of Congress will hate him (they already do, and it’s bipartisan). There will be little legislative relationship.
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Congress will not be sending him CC flavored legislation to sign (“A Bill to Repeal All the Things”). They will be sending him bills that are the product of compromise. He will sign or veto. If he signs, he’s a sellout. If he vetoes, he’s hated even more and less will get done.
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Since he will isolated on the executive branch (like Obama was), his only avenue to affect change is through the executive branch. But if he is a true CC, he won’t use that lever of power - he’d believe it to be unconstitutional to make law as president. So he’d have to preside over and direct policy over all the departments CCs think shouldn’t even be government departments.
So, in that sense, he’s govern no differently than Jeb!.
They won’t send him a bill to repeal Obamacare?
It was Texas v. Leavitt.
Cruz was such a Bush administration hack and loyalist to the moderate Republican cause that he filed a 29 page legal brief in opposition to Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act.
That’s not what I am looking for re: his actual tenure in the Bush administration, but in any event, he didn’t file it, the state of Texas did, and it was joined by quite a few other states, including that "constitutional conservative " stronghold New Jersey (which had a Democratic governor at the time, Corzine).
I’m not suggesting Cruz didn’t believe in the merits of it, I’m sure he did - but his role in it wasn’t as a “constitutional conservative” sticking his finger in the eye of the establishmentarian Bush administration.
SCOTUS declined to hear it.
They might, though I don’t think it’s a certainty, but what about bills to abolish the IRS, DOL, Social Security and Medicare, etc.? You think a President Cruz is going to see a bunch of these bills on his desk for signature?