Ted Cruz looks undeniably good on paper, especially from a libertarian perspective.
He wants to shut down the IRS and 4 other federal agencies, all of which were created in the 20th century.
Ironically, I agree with a lot of his platform except for his foreign policy -- which is exactly what a lot of conservatives said about Ron Paul in 2012.
What concerns me the most is that he surrounds himself, or did surround himself, with the neocons.
As
The New American reported in October 2015:
Recently, Infogram published brief but illuminating biographies of several of Cruz’s key foreign policy advisors. The information disclosed in these revelations could trouble many constitutionalists otherwise keen on the senator and who rely on him to restore the rule of law to the White House.
It goes on to mention Chad Sweet, Victoria Coates, James Woolsey, and Elliot Abrams (although I think that Abrams is no longer on the campaign,
if he ever was; in fact, RedState called him a
Rubio mentor), all of which have neocon bona fides.
Daily Caller has a story saying Cruz consulted Abrams, but this doesn't mean he was on the campaign.
Abrams doesn't appear to be an adviser in any official capacity, or ever have been. But there is reporting that says Cruz has consulted him. Part of me believes he's a Rand Paul 2.0 just trying to ride the waves of whatever will gain him support.
This is journalism that stretches the facts.
My problem is this: I know how the deep state works, or at least read about it, and I don't want him to be systematically presented with bad information. A former Reagan official recently wrote about the deep state:
"Many Americans regard the White House as the lair of a powerful being who can snap his fingers and make things happen. The fact of the matter is that presidents have little idea of what is transpiring in the vast cabinet departments and federal agencies that constitute “their” administration.
Many parts of government are empires unto themselves. The “Deep State,” about which Mike Lofgren, formerly a senior member of the Congressional staff has written, is unaccountable to anyone. But even the accountable part of the government isn’t. For example, the information flows from the cabinet departments, such as defense, state, and treasury, are reported to Assistant Secretaries, who control the flow of information to the Secretaries, who inform the President. The civil service professionals can massage the information one way, the Assistant Secretaries another, and the Secretaries yet another. If the Secretaries report the information to the White House Chief of Staff, the information can be massaged yet again." ~Paul Craig Roberts || Presidential Crimes Then and Now
This is why the very presence of the neocons in a Cruz administration is so dangerous to liberty.
I'm not sure how many times Senator Paul can filibuster the commander-in-chief's foreign policy. Hopefully, the presence of the neocons awaken the sleeping Democrat Anti-war movement, which was really the anti-Bush war movement, as they've been quiet about Obama's illegal use of force. But maybe it's a dead movement, in which Cruz may have to resurrect it?
But other than that Ted Cruz, on paper, would probably be my #2 preference. I couldn't vote for him because of his carpet bombing comments.
