Cruising for a bruising

“For God and Country” is a collection of speeches by Ted Cruz, the Texan senator and presidential candidate who controversially refused to endorse Donald Trump after losing the Republican primaries, and even more controversially *did* endorse Trump just the other day. The collection is badly edited, no publisher is given, no date is given for the speeches, and the video features don't work on my Kindle. Thus, I couldn't amuse myself by listening to Cruz reading the bedtime story “Green Eggs and Ham” for his daughters during his infamous filibuster against Obamacare. Indeed, over half of the e-book contains Cruz' filibuster, suggesting either that Cruz is a narcissist (if his campaign is behind this pamphlet) or that said campaign *isn't* responsible for the pamphlet, after all. The fact that an anti-Cruz advertisement inexplicably shows up in the middle of the e-book suggests the latter (or perhaps that pro-Cruz Super PACs have an exotic sense of humor).

I can't help quoting two other short passages from the filibuster speech.

“So my dad learned to flip pancakes. Let me tell you, as a kid on Saturday or Sunday morning and your dad is making pancakes, it is very cool when he can flip them--you could make him flip them high in the air and catch them. But he could do that. I will credit my father; he invented--this wasn't for the restaurant, but he did it anyway--he invented green eggs and ham. He did it two ways. No. 1, the easy way, is he put green food coloring in the eggs, chopped up ham in it. `Green Eggs and Ham' was my favorite book when I was a boy. The food coloring is a little bit cheating, but if you take some spinach and mix it into the eggs, the eggs turn green.” (Kindle Locations 1196-1203)

“I wanted to make an embarrassing admission first. For many years, when I was in private practice and when I was solicitor general, I wore a particular pair of boots, my argument boots. They were black ostrich boots. Litigators are kind of superstitious, so anytime I went into court to argue a case I wore my argument boots. I had them resoled four or five times. When I had the great honor of serving in this body, of being sworn into the Senate, when I was sworn in standing on the steps just in front of us, I wore my argument boots. I have worn them every day since. I don't believe there has been a day on this Senate floor that I haven't worn my argument boots.” (Kindle Locations 1501-1508).

I always wondered how a filibuster speech sounded like. I learned something new today! Thank you, Ted.

On a more serious note, I wondered when reading the other speeches why Cruz didn't endorse Trump at the RNC. On point after point, the policy positions of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are identical: immigration reform, “shock and awe”-type air strikes against ISIS, opposition to any deals with Iran, repeal of Obamacare, a more “nationalist” trade policy, criticism of “nation-building”, calls for less regulations and lower taxes, and attempts to bring out the conservative Christian vote. The only difference is that Trump wants peace with Russia, while Cruz takes a more confrontational stance – but Trump, too, originally took the same position (for instance in his book “Crippled America”). So what is the *real* difference between Donald J Trump and Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz? Is it simply a matter of personality or ego (both men have considerable quantities of the latter merchandize at their disposal)? Or is it something else?

Perhaps Cruz suspects that Trump isn't a genuine conservative. He is probably right on that score. The Donald is more likely to be a Caesar or Bonaparte than a strict constitutionalist. Or perhaps it's Cruz who is the phony. After all, the GOP establishment tried to use him to stop Trump, not the other way around! Perhaps the old party elite knows that the Tea Party (which endorsed Cruz) is a spent force, while the new movement around Trump is seen as more threatening, especially so since the real estate tycoon isn't dependent on outside funding. Thus, the old guard could “use the Cruz”, perhaps to broker a convention, while Trump was impervious to their advances.

Still, Cruz probably had to endorse the official nominee, sooner or later. While Trump may not be a real conservative, or even a real Republican, he *does* make a tolerably good imitation of one (when he isn't busy selling his moonshine populism), while Hillary Clinton is visibly opposed to just about anything the Tea Party (or even Glenn Beck) ever stood for. Also, Cruzbots and Trumpistas are close in some states. Finally, Ted Cruz may not have much choice, as most of the Republican establishment has decided to jump on the Trump Train (or bandwagon) before it's too late…

The sequel to “For God and Country” may prove interesting.

Oh, and Kobani is in Syria, not Iraq.