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Ted Cruz, The Lone Stranger
The Huffington Post's The Blog ^ | September 28, 2015 | Richard North Patterson, Author and political commentator

Posted on 09/28/2015 2:22:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Armchair psychoanalysis of political figures can be a dubious and even disreputable business. But one presidential candidate presents the following symptoms: feral aggression, reflexive demagoguery, self absorption, paranoia, grandiosity, disdain for social norms and an inability to cooperate with others. When such a person habitually imagines himself as Winston Churchill, the effect is truly destabilizing. So let us add to the DSM a newly discovered malady: Ted Cruz Syndrome.

For the historic figure Cruz most evokes is not Churchill, but a nascent Joseph McCarthy. It is not his fault that he resembles the young McCarthy (though he does), but that his words and actions bring the vulpine loner from Wisconsin to eerie recall. Like McCarthy, Cruz is capable of a casual cruelty which is startlingly gratuitous. Hard upon the death of Beau Biden, Cruz chortled to an audience, "Joe Biden. You know what the nice thing is? ... [J]ust walk up to someone and say,' Vice-President Joe Biden,' and just close your mouth. They will crack up laughing."

Shortly after Jimmy Carter revealed his grim diagnosis with admirable grace, Cruz ridiculed Barack Obama and Carter as having identical failed presidencies, as if merely attacking Obama was not pleasure enough. Sometimes, it seems, all one has to do is cross the senator's radar screen, no matter how tragic the circumstances. For with Cruz, like McCarthy, merely calling his endless array of self-selected opponents wrong does not suffice to slake his psychic need to demean and disparage.

The targets of these rhetorical drive-by shootings are often his fellow Republicans. During Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearings, Cruz implied that Hagel had received money from North Korea. In the skirmishing over the Export-Import Bank, Cruz accused his own Majority Leader of telling a "flat-out lie."(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: atlanticcouncil; cruz; tedcruz
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Why attack Ted Cruz if he's only polling in the middle of the pack? Or is he? Show me the plethora of attack articles about Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio or Rick Santorum. Hint: You can't.
1 posted on 09/28/2015 2:22:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Cruz is living in their heads rent free and it shows every time a budget showdown crisis comes up.


2 posted on 09/28/2015 2:25:36 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

3 posted on 09/28/2015 2:25:53 PM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“feral aggression, reflexive demagoguery, self absorption, paranoia, grandiosity, disdain for social norms and an inability to cooperate with others.”

Every single one of those things is fairly said about Obama.


4 posted on 09/28/2015 2:26:15 PM PDT by DesertRhino ("I want those feeble minded asses overthrown,,,")
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To: piasa

You got that right


5 posted on 09/28/2015 2:27:02 PM PDT by basil ( God bless the USA!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Because Cruz is the Left’s worst nightmare.


6 posted on 09/28/2015 2:27:02 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Imagine the GOPe spending half as much energy attacking liberals as they do conservatives!)
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To: DesertRhino

He described Hillary to a T.


7 posted on 09/28/2015 2:28:01 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hagel was getting donations from Saudi Arabia and Turkey... don’t know about N Korea unless he was getting goodies from Tongsun Park...


8 posted on 09/28/2015 2:29:45 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: DesertRhino
Every single one of those things is fairly said about Obama and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, etc., etc. etc.
9 posted on 09/28/2015 2:32:11 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
feral aggression, reflexive demagoguery, self absorption, paranoia, grandiosity, disdain for social norms and an inability to cooperate with others.

A reminder, if we needed one, that they hate us as people much more than we hate what they stand for, and we know how much we hate what they stand for.

10 posted on 09/28/2015 2:33:26 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I consider this an endorsement.


11 posted on 09/28/2015 2:33:33 PM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: DesertRhino

And Hillary.


12 posted on 09/28/2015 2:33:46 PM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

13 posted on 09/28/2015 2:35:17 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Let me make some comments:

Armchair psychoanalysis of political figures can be a dubious and even disreputable business like HuffPo bloggers?.

But one presidential candidate presents the following symptoms: feral aggression, reflexive demagoguery, self absorption, paranoia, grandiosity, disdain for social norms and an inability to cooperate with others. When such a person habitually imagines himself as Winston Churchill The New Caliphate, the effect is truly destabilizing.

So let us add to the DSM a newly discovered malady: Ted Cruz Syndrome Obama Fatigue.

14 posted on 09/28/2015 2:36:47 PM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (BREAKING: Boy Scouts of America Changes Corporate Identity to "Scouting for Boys in America")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Armchair psychoanalysis of political figures can be a dubious and even disreputable business. But one presidential candidate presents the following symptoms: feral aggression, reflexive demagoguery, self absorption, paranoia, grandiosity, disdain for social norms and an inability to cooperate with others.

Just described Barack Hussein Obama to a T. Ironic this nonsense being spewed forth at Cruz from a 0 worshiping extreme Leftist like this isn't it?

15 posted on 09/28/2015 2:37:17 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Giving more money to DC to fix the Debt is like giving free drugs to addicts think it will cure them)
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To: piasa

Richard North Patterson and the Huffington Post should tell us how they REALLY feel about Ted Cruz. I am sure they believe they were only providing thoughtful and helpful but entirely constructive criticism.

Come on, guys. Ted REALLY wants this input from you, you know? But hey, sort of stick to the facts, and none of this side pleasantry about Ted’s physical appearance, or his casual remarks....

(Oh, hell, do I HAVE to include the < /sarcasm > tag?)


16 posted on 09/28/2015 2:39:59 PM PDT by alloysteel (If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
It is not his fault that he resembles the young McCarthy (though he does)

I seem to be the only person I know who thinks Cruz looks like a 21st century version of young LBJ, complete with the nose. That he is a Senator from TX doesn't hurt. That is where the analogy ends, thank goodness.

17 posted on 09/28/2015 2:40:28 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: alloysteel
(Oh, hell, do I HAVE to include the < /sarcasm > tag?)

As a formality, yes. (/s)

18 posted on 09/28/2015 2:41:25 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I remember back in the days of George W. Bush when the thought of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi taking over Congress gave me a sizable twinge in my stomach.

Is that the same feeling the libs get when the think of Ted Cruz?

19 posted on 09/28/2015 2:44:11 PM PDT by Slyfox (Will no one rid us of this meddlesome president?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They hate Cruz because of hi Conservative values. Just like they hated Reagan. All the RINOs that hated Reagan in the 70s and 80s, that would be the Bushes, Ford, McConnell and the Rockefellers and the rest of the establishment. Cruz would win a landside if he is not taken out by them!!!


20 posted on 09/28/2015 2:44:38 PM PDT by Busko (The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain.)
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