Posted on 04/08/2015 9:04:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
While many now identify Ted Cruz ’92 as the classic example of a conservative populist politician, few still remember a time in his life when he seem destined for the ivory tower or understand how someone so committed to the life of the mind became a grassroots phenomenon.
Cruz had already begun thinking about the topic of his senior thesis while he was a freshman, his roommate and debate team partner David Panton ’92 said.
“He was 17,” Panton said. “Not too many 17-year-olds were thinking about their thesis their freshman year first of all, and also writing about two relatively unknown, orthodox amendments of the constitution. He was very focused, very driven.”
Cruz and his office did not respond to requests for comment.
Cruz’s thesis, called “Clipping the Wings of Angels: The History and Theory behind the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the United States Constitution,” explored the meaning of the Ninth and Tenth amendments and how they were actually being applied in modern court cases.
Robert George, professor of jurisprudence who was Cruz’s senior thesis adviser, recalled working closely with Cruz.
“He was very dedicated to it, deeply interested in the subject matter. Of course the subject matter had to do with the way in which the Constitution shapes and limits the powers of the national government,” George said. “What he ended up producing was a thoughtful, original, careful, critical piece of scholarship.”
George said that he was initially surprised when Cruz decided to pursue a career as a politician, adding he was one of the top students at the University and genuinely interested in intellectual debates and ideas.
“I think it’s an occupational hazard for professors, that we tend to think that our very best students will of course want to do what we did,” George said. “I always pictured Ted as going off to law school, and then becoming a constitutional law professor, teaching at Stanford, Yale or the University of Chicago, and I just thought he would go that route and I knew that he had the makings of a very fine professor, because he was so interested in ideas. I saw him as a scholar and a teacher. I was surprised, not disappointed.”
In the last part of his thesis, Cruz had remarked that the Supreme Court was in the middle of an attempt to broaden the extent of its power.
“[T]his awakening protector of rights, which the Court is transforming into a power for itself, can remind us — from the dead — that men are not angels, but men — seeking power over the heavens … and below,” Cruz wrote.
Debate team colleague Robert Marks ’91 described Cruz as “a loyal friend” and noted that Cruz went out of his way to offer advice to other aspiring debaters when they asked for it.
“A lot of people underestimate Ted and his abilities to connect to the grassroots,” Panton said.
Nonetheless, Cruz’ academic and debate abilities could help rather than hinder his appeal to a grassroots audience, George said.
“As a debater, one might have thought he would just dig into a position and then just be tenacious about it, and be dogmatic. But he wasn’t like that,” George said. “He was able to combine conviction with an openness to counterarguments, and he was very good at anticipating the best possible lines of counterarguments to a position he was taking, articulating that counterargument and then stating his reasons for rejecting it. Now that’s something one only finds done well in truly exceptional students.”
The American public is ready for something different than what they’ve seen in the past, George said, and Cruz’s confident intellectual style could help him.
“Boldness could be rewarded in this cycle,” George said. “Often when he’s been attacked, you would expect him to counterattack with a harsh word. … He doesn’t feel the need to return that fire. That’s a rare trait in politics. Politicians tend to be thin-skinned. They get accustomed to yes men and people telling them how wonderful they are.”
Cruz has handled his campaign shrewdly thus far by not worrying about lining up endorsements from the establishment, George said, adding he believes that announcing his campaign earlier than other candidates and starting the fundraising process early will prove helpful for Cruz.
There are other ways in which Cruz is likely to demonstrate his grassroots appeal, Panton said.
Cruz also had two jobs to support himself, as his parents suffered from financial hardship, having declared bankruptcy right before he started college. He worked at a library and as a tutor for Princeton Review. Cruz was so good at tutoring the SAT that they also asked him to teach the LSAT — for admission into law schools — during his junior and senior years at the University, Panton said.
Despite Cruz’s political stances that are sometimes considered radical, Cruz does not want to force his political views on his friends, Marks said.
“We never have heated discussion about any U.S. policy,” Marks said. “We just talk about what normal friends talk about.”
Cruz has also been a good friend during hard times, Panton said.
“My father died recently, and the largest bouquet my father received at the hospital was from Ted,” Panton said, adding that Cruz’s kind action even while running for President of the United States revealed something admirable about his character.
Despite Cruz’s serious intellectual interests, he appreciated a good joke, George said. George pulled a prank on Cruz when returning his graded thesis.
George said he dog-eared the first page and wrote a ‘C+’ on it, because he thought Cruz needed the experience of not being at the top academically. Below the folded piece of paper was the actual grade, an ‘A’.
Cruz took the joke in good spirit, George said.
Marks said he recalled making a trip to Toronto with Cruz for the World Universities Debating Championships. When returning, the team passed by Niagara Falls and most of the members wanted to stop. Cruz tried to convince the few that wanted to drive home to stop at Niagara, Marks said. When that failed, Cruz jumped out of the car and took the keys, so the driver couldn’t leave without the others.
It is a little strange to know someone running for President, Marks said.
“But starting from when he was in the Solicitor General’s office, that was really a remarkable position, so I guess I’m used to it,” he said.
Ted Cruz is a very decent man. Nice article.
Finally we have a man of George Washigton level of integrity. It scares the libtards to death!
Smart people.
Yes we can.
> ““My father died recently, and the largest bouquet my father received at the hospital was from Ted,” Panton said, adding that Cruz’s kind action even while running for President of the United States revealed something admirable about his character.”
Love this man.
He sure is! I can’t wait!
The ideas are what counts, not coalitions of people.
Funny, no one at Columbia remembers Barack Obama.
Good article about Ted.
very good. thanks
The Obama supporters should want to publish the senior thesises side by side in order to display the superiority of their guy.
Cruz was working on his Senior thesis as a Freshman! No wonder the left can’t stop him. He’s several steps ahead of them. Usually the left is several steps ahead of their opponents, but not Ted. He’s going to make a fantastic President.
I would rather they compared his to Hillary’s on Ode to Saul Alinsky
that Pakistani on the sofa does!
Yes, and they would probably try to convince us that his autobiography, which Bill Ayers wrote, came from his thesis.
So, people “just read his autobiography.”
Cruz went out of his way to offer advice to other aspiring debaters when they asked for it.
Well, here is the difference between him and Obama.
He didn’t give them unsolicited advice as we have
seen Obama do countless times.
bump
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