Ted Cruz, the only Republican arrogant enough to be president

Ted Cruz is intellectually arrogant, like Ronald Reagan. The difference is that Reagan masked his arrogance with self-deprecating humor. Sen. Cruz does a Reagan impression that would do a nightclub comedian proud, but he doesn’t have Reagan’s easy and spontaneous humor.

One doesn’t think of Reagan as arrogant, but he was in fact the most arrogant leader we have had since Lincoln. He ignored the whole of the foreign policy establishment in his conviction that America stood to win the Cold War and bring down Communism. Then as now, the foreign policy establishment resembled Jonathan Swift’s scientists on the floating island of Laputa, treading perilously close to the edge with noses in the air.

Sen. Cruz is authentically bright, sufficiently so for the liberal Alan Dershowitz to declare that he was the best student he had ever had at Harvard’s Law School. The conservative legal theorist Robert P. George, who taught Cruz at Princeton, says the same thing. He’s so smart that he is not the least impressed by the conservative foreign policy establishment.

That’s what qualifies Ted Cruz for the presidency. Among the Republican candidates, Cruz is the only one to state plainly that we stayed too long in Iraq and erred in trying to turn it into Switzerland. (I exclude Rand Paul, who is a dumb rube isolationist of the old school and unqualified for national office). Contrast this to Jeb Bush, who thinks we didn’t stay long enough. Cruz still has some things to learn, to be sure. Sending arms to Ukraine, as he proposes, is pointless. Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to keep Ukraine in civil war indefinitely, and will match whatever we send in order to do so. Putin wants revenge for the West’s effort to break Ukraine out of the Russian sphere, and leaving the West with a bloody, bankrupt, ungovernable mess on its doorstep is his best move. As Prof. Angelo Codevilla told a Claremont Institute gathering last October, the way to frustrate Putin is to let him keep the Russian-majority Eastern Ukraine, a rust-bucket and money pit of no value to the West; the Western part of Ukraine would then be Catholic and pro-Western.

Sixteen years of George W. Bush and Barack Obama will leave the next president with a different world: a new Sino-Russian entente directed against theUS, and chaos in most of the Middle East. Both are the consequence of foreign policy utopianism. We destroyed the century-long balance of power in Iraq and Syria by forcing majority rule in Iraq, and stood godfather to a perpetual Sunni-Shi’ite civil war. We tried to flip Ukraine to the West, and Putin allied with China. We have scored nothing but own-goals. We are spending a trillion and a half dollar on the Edsel of the air, the F-35, and have allowed China to narrow the technology gap that once made the United States the dominant superpower.

The foreign policy establishment of both parties agrees that it is America’s mission to remake the world in its own image, although the liberal Wilsonian and the neo-conservative Republican versions of this utopia have minor differences. We need a president arrogant enough to ignore the whole pack of them, just like Reagan did. That requires arrogance more than any other quality.

Things looked bad when Ronald Reagan came into office. Most of the intellectual elite in Europe as well as the US thought that Russia would win the Cold War. Of course, Reagan had one gigantic advantage: the US was the only venue in the world where an entrepreneur could raise money for disruptive new technologies. The talent of the world came to America, while Russia and China remained paralyzed by Communism and Europe remained moribund. That’s not true today: China and other Asian countries are innovating, in some cases faster than we are. If you don’t believe me, visit the Science Park in Shenzhen where Tencent and other Chinese computer firms have facilities. The next president will have a much tougher mission. Sen. Cruz is the only candidate I who is tough, smart and arrogant enough to do the job.

Marco Rubio is a bright and personable young man with an attractive message, but he is callow enough to think that Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer are foreign policy sages. Rubio speaks eloquently of his support for Israel, but a great deal of what he proposes will damage Israeli interests. For the past ten years, Russia has told us that it would hurt us in Iran in retaliation for Western efforts to get control of Ukraine. Russia is threatening to give Iran sophisticated air-defense systems; if it wants to, Russia can create a huge amount of trouble for us in Iran. America’s stupidity in Ukraine turns Israel into collateral damage; every Israeli I know thinks that American policy toward Ukraine is crazy.

Scott Walker is a terrific governor and an attractive candidate, but he has no foreign policy experience–unlike Reagan, who did a weekly foreign policy radio broadcast for a decade, and did his own research. Walker could persuade me that he knows what he’s doing, but I haven’t heard much from him yet. Foreign policy is too important for the next administration for us to elect a president who needs on-the-job training.

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. It's a weird approach, but gets to the right destination. :')

Heâ€™s so smart that he is not the least impressed by the conservative foreign policy establishment. That's what qualifies Ted Cruz for the presidency. Among the Republican candidates, Cruz is the only one to state plainly that we stayed too long in Iraq and erred in trying to turn it into Switzerland. (I exclude Rand Paul, who is a dumb rube isolationist of the old school and unqualified for national office). Contrast this to Jeb Bush, who thinks we didn't stay long enough. Cruz still has some things to learn, to be sure. Sending arms to Ukraine, as he proposes, is pointless. Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to keep Ukraine in civil war indefinitely, and will match whatever we send in order to do so. Putin wants revenge for the West's effort to break Ukraine out of the Russian sphere, and leaving the West with a bloody, bankrupt, ungovernable mess on its doorstep is his best move. As Prof. Angelo Codevilla told a Claremont Institute gathering last October, the way to frustrate Putin is to let him keep the Russian-majority Eastern Ukraine, a rust-bucket and money pit of no value to the West; the Western part of Ukraine would then be Catholic and pro-Western... We need a president arrogant enough to ignore the whole pack of them, just like Reagan did. That requires arrogance more than any other quality.

It's not arrogance, it's leadership. Vlad isn't seeking "revenge", Vlad is bent on world domination and vast personal wealth. What he's likely to get is a really early retirement.

Gwjack, thank you for sharing some keen insights into the character of Ted Cruz that you have observed. I recommend others read your excellent post.

Ted Cruz developed confidence in his beliefs over a long time and by careful deliberation in large part due to his father, Rafael Cruz, as mentor who instructed Ted throughout his upbringing on the two paths that mankind follows. Ted heard his father often describe in gruesome detail the violence, horror and conformity of tyranny from personal experience starkly contrasted with the miraculous salvation of liberty granted by a truly unique and relatively new political system that recognizes rights given to all of us by God Almighty. Ted grew up hearing truth from both sides of the argument.

Compare that to the one-sided influences and upbringing of Barack Obama, growing up in a broken home without a father, who was indoctrinated from an early age by mentors convinced of the benefits of communism. Obama grew up learning predominantly one side of the story convinced of the evils of western civilization and the failings of the USA in particular.

Ignorance of facts from both sides of an argument leads to arrogance. That is what separates Obama's arrogance from the confidence of Ted Cruz.

Nice Democratic talking points, dude. You should write for Rachel Maddow or Joe Biden...

I like Walker, and I respect what he's done to unions and for his own State-wide re-electability. I get that. But unlike Cruz, Walker hasn't beaten the GOPe -- the enemy from within, This is every bit as meaningful as is slaying the Dems.

Walker doesn't intimidate the Left with his intellect, poise, or precision the way Cruz does. Cruz makes diaper-wetters of his opponents. The Left are not intimidated by a college drop out. By contrast, Cruz is the smartest guy in the room and the Left now admits it (thanks Dersh-bag).

The author of this article projects his own arrogance onto both Reagan and Cruz. A smart guy like Gingrich might be fairly tagged as "arrogant" from time to time, but not Reagan or Cruz. It is a well written piece in other respects, but he conflates those with intellectual heft and the stream of consciousness required to articulate conservative principles with "arrogance," and in that he makes a gross mischaracterization.

Cruz's detractors could stand to be reminded of a few things

A hat tip to Reaganite Republican for this one:

"Now That Ted Cruz has Declared His Candidacy- You Ever Seen the Guy's Resume? Reaganite Republican ^ | 23 March 2015 Posted on ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2015‎ ‎6‎:‎41‎:‎11‎ ‎AM by Reaganite Republican

Pretty damn impressive...

•Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 - May 2008, Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in the entire country, not to mention the longest tenure in Texas history.

•Partner at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice.

•Cruz has authored 80+ SCOTUS briefs and presented 40+ oral arguments before The Court

•Cruz served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States

•Described as a 'superb' constitutional lawyer, the man's considerable skills and laser-like focus were on display for all when he took oily reptile Eric Holder by the neck and made him answer the damn question.

•In the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, Cruz assembled a coalition of 31 states in defense of the principle that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.

•Cruz presented oral argument for the amici states in the companion case to Heller before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

•In addition to his victory in Heller, Cruz has successfully defended the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools and the majority of the 2003 Texas redistricting plan. Cruz also successfully defended, in Medellin v. Texas, the State of Texas against an attempt by the International Court of Justice to re-open the criminal convictions of 51 murderers on death row throughout the United States.

•Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission

•Domestic Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.

•Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation

•Ted Cruz is currently junior US Senator from Texas. In order to win the 2012 Republican nomination for the Senate seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cruz had to defeat Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst -heavily favored/backed by the DC old-guard GOP- in the Republican primary runoff. In the event, TEA Party favorite Cruz crushed Dewhurst, 57-43%...

he then beat Democrat Paul Sadler in the general election by a similar margin, 56-41. Cruz is also endorsed by the Tea Party Movement and the Republican Liberty Caucus.

•AWARDS: "America's Leading Lawyers for Business," Chambers USA (2009 & 2010)

"50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America," National Law Journal (2008)

"25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century," Texas Lawyer (2010)

"20 Young Hispanic Americans on the Rise," Newsweek (1999)

Traphagen Distinguished Alumnus, Harvard Law School

•On November 14, 2012, Cruz was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He is now spearheading efforts in the Senate to have root-and-branch...

FReegards!

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