What Is Little Teddy Cruz

Are there any skeletons in Ted Cruz's closet?

EVERYONE has skeletons in their closets; Demagogues like Cruz simply deploy the trick of revealing the skeletons that they believe they can spin into attributes and admirable qualities.Example: If it were revealed tomorrow that Cruz has been cheating on his taxes for his entire life, Cruz would puff up his throat pouch and sanctimoniously claim he did it because he was "representing the good, decent white christian Americans who are sick of tyranny and unfair taxation, to which Jesus was so opposed." - And never admit that he was simply trying to shave a few bucks back into his own pocket.Cruz is a religious bigot and xenophobic fearmonger, who successfully presented that disgusting vice to a segment of the American populace as an unimpeachable virtue. When Cruz's campaign reached the numerical limits of that segment, his campaign died. Plain and simple. He will continue to try and parlay that limited appeal as his quest for public office and/or position as a conservative talking head goes on, because he's a grandstanding little pipsqueak that craves the limelight, the adulation and the popularity; So much so that he is willing to accept it from some pretty lowbrow folks - But that describes a lot of politicians. Nothing special about Teddy Boy there.

Can anyone make an objective case as to why Ted Cruz would be able to beat Hillary Clinton in the national election?

Perception is reality.  The Koch Political Machine (I'm using that term deliberately to allude to the political machines of the early 20th century) has assembled a war chest of $1B to help secure the White House and Congress for exactly the kind of radical conservatives that Ted Cruz represents.  Very, very little of this money has been spent so far.  It is very likely that if Cruz is able to secure the nomination, the flood gates of this money will open and the populace will be inundated with TV ads speaking about the dangers of Iran and Russia, the failings of the Obama Administration, the problems of high taxes, etc.  No mention will be made of Cruz's wildly unpopular positions like an all-out ban on abortion including cases of rape, incest and health; or his desire to eliminate all social welfare programs including food stamps and temporary assistance for needy families.  The Koch's effort will be to reframe the question and promote the important of issues that Ted Cruz has more popular opinions on, hoping (much like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have, as their challengers emerged as more potent competition) distract and conceal from the voters his less popular ones.  As for whether or not this can work - only once since 1960 has the presidential campaign that spent less won the campaign.  Money matters in politics, and the Kochs are willing to spend a *lot* of money to buy the White House.

How feasible is Ted Cruz's idea that Americans could "file their taxes on the back of a postcard-size form," shrinking the IRS by such a staggering amount that it could become a tiny division within the Treasury Deparment?

Organizationally, radical simplification of the tax code is doable. And in terms of economic policy, it's desirable. But politically, it would be very hard. And I resent it when a politician pretends that it's easy. Pretending that radical tax reform is easy changes nothing about the (low) likelyhood of radical tax reform and actually makes it less likely that incremental tax reform will come to pass.You have a congress that can't even pass budgets and you want to rewrite the entire tax code? In a way that's going to piss off pretty much every interest group in the country? When there's pretty much no support for it in either party? (And if you see politicians who claim they do support it, be aware that it's awfully easy to claim you support something that won't pass anyway. You have to ask follow-up questions like "so that means you're in favor of eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, right?")I'm not saying this sort of thing hasn't been done before. It has. In Estonia. In a country of less than 2 million people that had just shaken off decades of Soviet occupation, tax reform was one of the less radical changes that were being made. They also disbanded the entire intelligence apparatus, because Mart Laar famously believed it was better to have no intelligence service than an intelligence service full of former KGB agents. Laar basically got his tax policy from an old Milton Friedman paperback, and that was acceptable because everybody already basically agreed the whole thing had to be re-invented from scratch, and when there is no status quo to contend with, a very simple tax system sounds pretty reasonable. And, yes, tax reform spread to a number of surrounding countries. But that's primarily because people discovered it was an effective way to deal with very high rates of tax evasion.The US does not have extremely high rates of tax evasion. It is not recovering from a recent revolution. And it is not a small country where all the major politicians fit in a room and can hammer out compromises very easily.I think there's serious reasons to think about tax reform in the US, but we have to think about it seriously. Inventing the ultimate utopian solution and declaring it's not your fault when it doesn't pass is not something that qualifies as taking the problem seriously, in my eyes.

Does Ted Cruz have another shot at running again during a later election cycle and winning?

I seriously doubt Ted Cruz will ever win a race to be the Republican candidate for President. As voters become more acquainted with his history of lying, being a Koch Brother minion combined with he and his father's religious Dominionism beliefs failure is the only answer. He is one of the most disliked Congressman by his peers for a reason. I will give him credit he is smart, a great debater and great speaker.

What do you think of protesters who confront politicians in public establishments like Ted Cruz was in D.C. recently?

I am torn in both directions on this topic. When I look at my role models in life, like my wife and her dad, they would never be caught yelling at anyone in public, especially a low life like Typhoid Cruz. They can’t be convinced he is worth the waste in energy. However, they might say something brilliant and irrefutable (quietly), and get drowned out in the process. I grew up in a home of yelling (drunk dad, berated mom), and I hate it. If you hear me yelling, it is because I am speaking to someone very far away….However, in the case of mental and moral midgets like “I am Canadian” Cruz, the Apricot Satan, “alexander the not so great” jones, “annie get yer gun” coulter, “teddy leave it to beaver” carlson, and the other spawn of Satan who are frequently confronted in public, they have traded away their soul for a wooden nickel and their rights to be treated decently when they started trampling on the rights of anyone that doesn’t have the same little mind as they do. I can’t see myself ever openly confronting scum like Tedium Cruz in public, but I sure understand the rage they feel. I see how insulated these spawn of the devil feel from the people they marginalize everytime they vote or make another ignorant comment on TV. I am a very confrontational person that will stand up to anyone on a personal level if I believe they are being a bully in front of me or doing something completely fucked up (like horrifically bad engineers at work, etc.), but I never get caught up in the “mob mentality.”I won’t criticize these groups that confront politicians or the talking heads, nor will I chastise their actions, but I don’t join in. I guess that since I don’t take Tuberculosis Cruz’s actions personally, I won’t confront him in a personal level. I am a straight white boy, so I am rarely the target of the assholes in the white power house and congress. They vote with the deeply mistaken assumption that I am on their side. However, since Testicular Cruz has a deeply overinflated sense of worth and intelligence, and a catastrophic loss of honor and dignity with his voting record and publc comments, I will do whatever I can as a voter to prevent Tendonitis Cruz from having such a horrific effect on this country’s future…… I vote for someone else whenever given the opportunity. This is one of the very rare times I ever wish I lived in Texas.