Ted Cruz: Smarter than Michele Bachmann, and just as effective
National Review editor Rich Lowry
just doesn't get it:
Democrats and liberal pundits would surely dislike Cruz no matter where he went to school, but his pedigree adds an extra element of shocked disbelief to the disdain. [...] One of the left’s deepest prejudices is that its opponents are stupid, and Cruz tramples on it. [...] Cruz lacks all defensiveness about his positions, another source of annoyance to his opponents, who are used to donning the mantle of both intellectual and moral superiority. [...] He could spend decades making liberals recoil at what Princeton and Harvard hath wrought.
So, according to Lowry:
- Ted Cruz is great because he drives liberals nuts
- Ted Cruz drives liberals nuts because he went to Harvard and Princeton, and liberals don't believe conservatives should be allowed to go to Ivy League schools
I have to confess, I'm an Ivy Leaguer—I went to Yale—and I'm also liberal. But I don't hate Ted Cruz—I love him. I don't love him because he was born in Canada, though I've lived most of my life a two hour drive from the Canadian border—I love him because he's hilarious, from start to finish. I love Ted Cruz because he's a rare Republican who gives his own party more heartburn than he gives the Democratic Party. And most of all I love Ted Cruz because he's utterly and completely ineffective—and proud of it.
Hardline conservatives couldn't ask for anything more than Ted Cruz. Unlike most of the clowns on the far right, he's intelligent, he's articulate, he's passionate, and he's true believer. But even despite all that, Cruz is still a sideshow, which makes him the exception that proves the rule. If someone with all the strengths of Ted Cruz can't turn teahadist dreams into reality, then nobody can.
I probably don't love Ted Cruz in the way that Rich Lowry would like. But I don't hate him either. There's a difference between laughter and fury.