Sen. Ted Cruz’s continuing “bear hug” of Donald Trump has been one of most obviously cynical and pathetic presidential campaign maneuvers in recent memory — one that should disqualify him with conscientious conservatives whose political and moral values run deeper than winning at any cost.
Cruz’s strategy vis-à-vis Trump has been apparent for some time: draft behind him, never directly attacking in order to maintain the anti-establishment credibility that would make him the obvious beneficiary of Trump’s eventual decline. And so the audio from a Cruz fundraiser released by the New York Times, in which the senator questions Trump’s judgment and explains that he will continue to “bear hug” the frontrunner, was hardly a surprise.
The danger of the tape for Cruz was two-fold: First, the obvious double-dealing between the voters and his donors undercuts his carefully-manufactured straight-shooter persona. Second, and more acutely, the candid and accurate assessment of Trump threatened to scuttle the détente that had served him so well.
Cruz responded with this tweet: “The Establishment’s only hope: Trump & me in a cage match. Sorry to disappoint — @RealDonaldTrump is terrific. #DealWithIt”
This is repulsive. Sen. Cruz didn’t resolve the disparity between his public and private statements about Trump, instead reaffirming a sentiment we know he does not believe. But, like Trump, Cruz knows he can get away with lying because a critical mass of Republican primary voters will summarily dismiss information reported by traditional media sources, even with undeniable proof. In fact, it is precisely and perversely in lying that Cruz bolstered his reputation for authenticity because the lie positions himself against “the establishment” and the media, which are by definition inauthentic.
In other words, frustrated by a political and media elite that insists on being regarded as the sole arbiter of political truth but which has demonstrated itself to be unreliable and self-serving, rebellious voters are not applying a healthy skepticism to all political voices but are instead searching for a new authority in which to put their absolute trust. Trump has stumbled into this position and continues to stumble around as he awkwardly attempts to exploit this serendipity. Cruz, on the other hand, is consciously pursuing this role for himself — and unlike Trump he has the savvy and discipline to be a frighteningly efficient demagogue.
A conservative might reasonably wonder where the problem is. Cruz has positioned himself as the most conservative member of the field with a shot at the nomination. Haven’t we been waiting for a conservative with Cruz’s level of political intelligence to take on the unscrupulous left?
But Cruz’s dance with Trump is more than cynical; it’s pathetic, belying a moral weakness that, were it not for Cruz’s posturing as a reliable man of the right, conservatives would decry as unfit for the Oval Office.
Donald Trump has political power in the form of credibility with a large class of anti-establishment voters, and Ted Cruz wants it. In order to get what he wants, Cruz has lied. He has flattered. He has groveled. He has shorn himself of whatever self-respect he has in a frantic attempt to keep Donald Trump happy — a serial adulterer who favors single-payer healthcare and previously supported abortion on demand, a man who represents the very things Cruz claims to abhor.
Let’s remember last year, when the tables were turned and Ted Cruz had the power to confer legitimacy on a group who desperately needed it: the largest gathering of Eastern Christians in a millennium, in Washington to beg for U.S. aid against ISIS. But the senator judged the crowd insufficiently supportive of Israel and walked out on them, politically kneecapping the very people he claims to love.
If Ted Cruz is willing to grovel to Donald Trump, to whom else is he willing to grovel? If he’s willing to kneecap Middle Eastern Christians facing genocide, who else is he willing to kneecap?
Anyone who holds the key to his ambition; and anyone who stands in the way of it.
Conservatives are understandably looking for a political messiah, but in this month more than any other we ought to remember that we await only one Savior. Sen. Ted Cruz, however, is more reminiscent of His betrayer.
Brandon McGinley is a writer and editor in Pittsburgh. You can follow him on Twitter at @brandonmcg.