Free Republic

Whenever Ted Cruz appears on television, I cringe as unpleasant memories of distant relatives cross my mind, reminding me of things best forgotten. And what is best forgotten is simply the Hispanic political tradition of severity. Think Francisco Franco. Think Fidel Castro. Think Ted Cruz? Yes, Ted Cruz is a would-be autocrat. My paternal grandmother, a Galician matron who despised sexism in all its forms, called it “la maldición gallega,” or “the Galician curse.” By that she meant the dreadful and familiar anti-democratic tendency in the political lives of the Hispanic world where dictators, strongmen, caudillos, and caciques have ruled...

In his 1944 opus “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” the philosopher Johnny Mercer provided some bracing imperatives that, rightly understood, explain why I am supporting Ted Cruz for the presidency of the United States. “You've got to accentuate the positive,” Mercer argued. Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between. Quite right. These imperatives, while not quite categorical, are sufficiently compelling to command our attention. Ted Cruz is the only candidate who accentuates the positive, who latches on to the affirmative. 1. Executive power. Even many ardent supporters of President Obama have been taken aback by his...

Donald Trump won North Carolina’s Republican primary last month, but many of the state’s GOP convention delegates elected so far prefer the second-place candidate: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. That could spell trouble for Trump if he doesn’t arrive at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July with the 1,237 delegates required to win on the first ballot. For the first round of voting, North Carolina’s delegate count must proportionately match the state’s March 15 primary results: 29 votes for Trump, 27 for Cruz, nine for John Kasich, six for Marco Rubio and one for Ben Carson. Any delegate who...