>> Cruz and Trump are both imperfect but they agree far more than 80% of the time <<
I don’t see it. Not at all. The two gents agree on securing the border, and they agree that Obamacare needs to be replaced — although they don’t agree on the details of a replacement..
But where else do they agree?
As far as I can tell, they don’t agree on tax policy, not on trade policy, not on eminent domain, not on bankruptcy, not on the role of the free market, not on the importance of the Constitution, obviously not on the rule of law, not on NATO, not on the nuclear triad, not on the rules of civility and “presidential” behavior, and not on the need for a potential POTUS to have a serious and deep understanding of the issues.
So out of 13 issues that I mentioned, the two men would seem to agree on only two. Therefore, in terms of the “raw” percentages, giving equal weight to each issue mentioned, they would seem to agree on 6.5% of the issues.
Or if we take my 13 issues and assign a triple weight to the issues of border security and Obamacare, with a unit weight assigned to each of the other issues, Mr. Trump and Sen. Cruz would seem to have an “agreement index” of only about 35%.
Still, if you can change the model or the issues or the weights — and thereby come up with a radically different score — I’d be most interested to see your calculations.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Ted_Cruz.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/Donald_Trump.htm
Trump opposes late-term abortions and wants to stop funding for Planned Parenthood. Cruz opposes all abortion and wants to stop funding for Planned Parenthood. They are not identical on that issue, but they are close.
Trump wants to reduce spending and use the debt limit for leverage. Cruz agrees. They disagree on some points in the “budget and economy” area, but there is also significant agreement.
Trump strongly supports the death penalty and paid for a full page NYT ad in support of it. Cruz strongly supports the death penalty and won a case he argued in front of the Supreme Court to execute a murderer who was a Mexican citizen.
Trump supports school vouchers and opposes Common Core and the Department of Education. Cruz wants to abolish the Department of Education.
Trump is now strongly pro-gun, and Cruz has always been strongly pro-gun.
There is a lot of overlap between Trump and Cruz, in particular on key issues.
Some of the issues you mention (eminent domain, bankruptcy, and the rules of civility and “presidential” behavior) do not strike me as central for a presidential selection, especially the behavior when at least some of that is a showmanship tactic for the free press attention to his campaign. Others (tax policy, trade policy, NATO, and the nuclear triad) do not strike me as critical issues at this point in our history.
The most important question for the next eight years is how much of Obama’s destructive legacy a real president can actually dismantle. In that area, Trump and Cruz seem pretty close.