Cruz is an Adult Child of Alcoholics. For people who know little or nothing about the psychological dynamics at work in adults raised in such an environment, ignorance really is bliss. They posit a well rounded, well balanced, socially/psychologically/emotionally well adjusted person has emerged from the witch’s brew of damaging factors the child endured. In real life It doesn’t happen that way.
In Ted’s case, he was abandoned at a vulnerable age, then reunited with a man who said he’d found Jesus, but who centered his life on a bizarrely unChristian doctrine and who practiced polygamy. [I’m not doing your vetting for you on this, but if you doubt it check on the divorce dates of both Rafael Sr’s wives. The dates are public record, and incompatible with anything other than polygamy.]
An ethically perverse, theologically wacko father doesn’t raise the kind of son you’ve created in your mind. He raises the kind of son so many people have recognized in Cruz. Ted plays loose with facts, history and truth. He publicly cloaks himself in evangelical claims while devising the kinds of lies against Trump that would make an atheist blush. He looks you in the eye and says that when he told his most faithful and devoted fans/followers that he supports mass legalization of ‘undocumented immigrants,’ he was merely lying.
In short, he’s exactly the person an alcohol-dominated family would produce. Ask anyone with first-hand experience of Adult Children of Alcoholics whether what I’ve stated is true. People whose lives have not been touched by this scourge see Cruz as a well adjusted, psychologically upstanding individual. People intimately familiar with Adult Children of Alcoholics saw through the act a long, long time ago.
Well said.