Posted on 01/04/2016 4:15:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
While Donald Trump proceeds in his buffoonery, another candidate lurks in the shadows patiently waiting to seize America by the throat.
Political media coverage has been singing a song of late. You might have noticed it, it goes a little something like this: 'Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump TRUMP'. It's no secret that everybody is talking about Donald Trump. A heck of a lot of this coverage is negative, with plenty of extremely creative columns being put out there to warn readers of the dangers of a Trump presidency -- not to mention the problems his campaign has caused in trivializing what should be a more sophisticated primary season.
But I'm not scared about Trump. Even if he does win the primaries, there's plenty of well-backed data to show that he literally cannot win the presidency against any of the potential Democratic candidates. To use a well-worn turn of phrase, he is all bark and no bite. No, the person I'm worried about is Ted Cruz. A skilled and Machiavellian politician, not to mention an incredibly talented debater, Ted Cruz has been playing all the right moves as he slowly but surely continues to creep up the polls. A master of PR, Cruz capitalizes on events, public moods and demographic trends to surest effect. Watch him gatecrash the release of Kim Davis as if it were his own campaign rally, slyly and successfully flip-flop his positions for political expedience and even dramatize his image as a family man for political ads.
Worst of all, he masterfully appeals to the social conservative and evangelic wing of the Republican Party. In the debates, listen to his elevated rhetoric as -- with a well-placed wobble in his voice -- he dogmatically expresses his fear for America's security, trivializing the complexity of international relations into a zero-sum battle between good versus evil. Ted Cruz knows the fears, desires and tendencies of his voter base like the back of his hand, and he certainly knows how to exploit this for his own advantage.
Trump has also been a blessing for Cruz. With his dogmatic charisma, Trump has been sensationalizing and bringing attention to the issues that Ted Cruz has been talking about for years. Trump's controversial proposals and well-reported bigotry has also allowed Cruz to escape the heat that usually comes from being one of the most right-wing candidates in the field.Though Donald himself may be too politically tone-deaf to realize it, but there is very good and strategically sound reason for Cruz's decision to publicly express admiration for Trump, rather than attack him alongside every other candidate.
Cruz is banking on the slow decay of Trump's popularity, and is already standing with open arms to take in his voter base once they finally grow tired of the current front-runner. Trump has done wonders for politically activating the low-educated, white working class, and Cruz is hoping to reap the rewards.
Whilst everyone insatiably fixes their attention on a man who could never be President, Cruz is working hard to legitimately secure a viable route to an election victory. For Game of Thrones fans, he is the Littlefinger of 2016; slowly and quietly advancing his position in the shadows of Trump's over-dramatic displays of sensationalism (... King Geoffrey?).
Trump's entertaining but ultimately unsustainable candidacy is certainly a discomforting look into the state of American politics, but the fact that Ted Cruz -- a man who wants to make the Middle East 'glow in the dark' with carpet bombing -- could actually end up being our President is one of the untold scare stories currently facing US Politics.
Yes Leftists, Fear Ted Cruz.
Cruz has successfully gained the conservative high ground, though there are doubts about him.The question is, can he get the votes? The Presidency is for the one who reaches out and TAKES it, not the one who would logically be best.
I have to agree with the writer. Cruz is the biggest threat to a Hillary Presidency.
I thought the world ended when Reagan became President and started World War III.
He reportedly has the best ground game & organization in the early states and beyond. Right now his in-state volunteers, supplemented by over 500 out-of-state people, are knocking on doors in Iowa.
It’s going to be one or the other, libtards. Make your peace!
I’m still trying to recover from the radiation burns.
Why is Trump a buffoon?
This is the standard attack that anyone who is on the right (even nominally like Trump) is an idiot or worse.
It grows tiring, that anyone the right is never given the benefit of the doubt like everyone on the left is. IFF you’re on the left, you’re super smart, uber capable, and on the correct side of history.
I have to DISAGREE with the writer.
He hates Trump. He hates Cruz. Both for the same reasons.
Because the writer is a Leftist, without a single valid point except to say the Middle East is oh so complicated, as if Obama and Hillary have helped it in any way except to get more complicated and much more of a mess.
The Arab Spring has brought a new dark age with the democrats cheering on the Muslim Brotherhood and its goals of a world-wide Caliphate.
The writer believes Trump is a buffoon—you don’t make a multi-billion $ fortune being a buffoon. He also believes Cruz is a Machiavellian Simone LeGree bent on imposing his fundamentalist Christianity on the world.
Neither is true; both are Left wing fantasies about conservatives.
Just NOPE.
I look forward to the Cruz-Trump tag team moment. The left and GOPe are going to go absolutely spasmodic.
“Whilst everyone insatiably fixes their attention on a man who could never be President,...”
Whilst? really?
Bwah ha ha ha ha !!!
Who is this maroon, Mr Darby?
Count Dracula a muslim? Who knew?
Hard up for American writers, and you are posting a left wing Brit blog for news?
I have to check twice to make sure I am not reading an old post. Is anybody actually seeing any of this?
A Leftist British publication would get their panties in a wad over Trump after they are used to seeing Cameron for so long.
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