Posted on 03/06/2015 9:52:12 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz is coming out with a book that promises to explain his conservative agenda in his own words.
Convinced the mainstream press has systematically misinterpreted and demonized him, the Texas senator and putative Presidential candidate will explain his vision for America's future, based on his experiences from its past. He says the political right has been characterized as "stupid, evil or crazy,'' when in fact it is none of the above.
I wouldn't choose those words. My adjective would be "scary.'' Cruz says no.
As one who has looked at Cruz as emblematic of far-right extremism, I intend to read his book with an open mind because I'd like evidence that it might be safe for me to be a conservative again, too. Trust me, I'll need a lot of convincing.
Still, you never know. When I did talk radio at Holyoke's WREB in the 1980s, I was considered the house conservative.
It was not a designation I liked, for I would have preferred no designation at all, but I did vote twice for Ronald Reagan and that pretty much qualified me.
In the 1990s, I even briefly belonged to the Republican Party. That lasted about a month before I realized that being a modern American conservative involved more than calling for across-the-board spending limits to reduce debt, an issue even more important today.
Almost from the moment I joined, the conservatives began scaring the hell out of me. From their comments, I began to wonder why, while not every conservative was a bigot by any means, every bigot seemed to be a conservative.
Cruz brings a Hispanic background to the national dialogue. For all his right-wing passion, I do not see him as a bigot, so I am interested to hear his views on healing the nation's racial divide through conservative means.
The right doesn't agree, but conservative philosophy these days is often flavored with resentment, hostility, anger and bombast. Maybe that's to be expected, given the presence of a liberal President the conservatives can't stand, and one Cruz indirectly compared to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, whose 1938 appeasement of Adolph Hitler is - according to Cruz - being copied by Barack Obama with Iran today.
Some parts of conservative thought are part of my DNA. I grew up in a military family that believed in traditional American values, and, unless you count Social Security, we never took a dime of government aid beyond my father's Air Force pension, the one he collected after serving in Vietnam.
Liberal hypocrisy and intolerance irritate me as much as conservative flamethrowing does. If you want to watch free speech inhibited, try to praise the George W. Bush Administration on almost any large college campus.
I agree that welfare has morphed from a temporary bridge to a way of life, though I don't agree that a 50-year-old problem can be solved with radical abrupt steps. Does anybody really think cutting off benefits today will magically solve the problem tomorrow?
I think the separation of church and state has been taken to a ludicrous degree. I oppose legalized marijuana for recreational use, though that issue follows much less of a liberal-conservative breakdown than one might think.
Much of what passes for mainstream entertainment is tasteless and disgusting to me. I am trying to keep an open mind on the Affordable Care Act, but I still think it was shoved down America's throats without fair debate.
These beliefs are shared by many conservatives, so maybe there's hope for me yet. But before I sign back on, I would like Ted Cruz or other spokesmen from the right to assuage me with answers to a few questions.
Can you be a conservative and still accept moderate gun control? Can you believe that not every homeless or jobless person has chosen that situation as a shrewd ploy to suck money out of the system?
Can you be a conservative and not instinctively reject or rebuff minority concerns on racial questions? Does being a conservative require a lifelong fight to keep gay people from being treated with legal and social respect?
Is there any room in the conservative agenda for compromise, or is every line item a crusade? These are sadly fair questions in a poisoned, polarized climate where us-against-them is being passed off as not just conservative, but patriotic.
Charlie Baker is my type of conservative. The Massachusetts governor is not correct about everything, but he seems willing to tackle fiscal responsibility without taking a wrecking ball to every social program that transfers tax money to people without money.
Predictably, many hard-righters don't consider Baker a conservative at all. To this element, "compassionate conservatism'' is a contradiction of terms and a cave-in to the giveaway instincts of the left.
Cruz has been portrayed as one of those extremists, but I want to hear his side. If his goal is a nation where everyone has a chance for self-reliance but must be held accountable, we're not as far apart as I've thought.
Cruz is a rising Republican star. I hope he can articulate a better conservative vision than one based on resentment, anger, exclusion and - for as much as I abhor using this phrase - abject hate.
Some of us might be conservatives again, at least on certain key issues, if the conservatives didn't keep scaring us away. Cruz says it's not like that. I await his chance to explain why.
Kinda figured it was about time for some to pop up. “Briefly in the 90’s” ..... What a pantload of utter crap.
I found his ranting to be “confused” to the max.
I don’t think he knows what he believes .. which is not a good place to start when you’re trying to make others believe you WANT to be a conservative .. “but they’re scary”.
Conservatives are NOT scary. Extreme right-wingers .. they are scary. Obviously, this guy does not know the difference.
This navel gazer is wasting Jim Rob’s bandwidth.
NO “conservative” thinks like this. I don’t know of any “former conservatives” either.....
The constitution isn’t “far right”. Its the roadmap.
Hey Ron, Ted doesn’t care what you think, and neither do I
“as a former Republican”
That usually means “I pretended to be a republican to fool everyone until I came out of the closet and announced to the world I am a homo”.
There's a car guy who does a radio show on KLIF in Dallas who claims to be a former conservative. His name is Ed Wallace.
Can't stand him.
“Former conservative”? What is that? The missing link? I doubt if any conservative is losing any sleep over what this so-called “former conservative” thinks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.