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It's time for a Ted Cruz thread.

Trebuchet said:
Your last two posts are completely off-topic. The topic is Ted Cruz.

ETA: Three posts now.
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My apologies. Either way, I have no doubt he'd behave as a theocrat as president, all the way down to trying to virtually ban abortion and promote Christian charter schools, etc. He'd just be doing it to appease his voters who are into that stuff, tho, and keep up the pretense that the Republican establishment is made of "Good Christians."
 
I don't think Cruz's theism is anything remotely similar to Trump's or Obama's.

5 faith facts about Sen. Ted Cruz: It’s all about God’s work
“Believing is not simply sitting aside and doing a polite little golf clap,” Cruz told the congregation at his friend Robert Jeffress’ congregation, First Baptist Dallas. “Believing is putting everything you have, your heart, soul, life, putting everything (into) standing for what’s right.”

His campaign website and his U.S. Senate biography tout among his accomplishments as solicitor general of Texas that he fought for the “constitutionality of the Ten Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol and the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance.” ...

3. Forget “dog whistle” politics with coded messages to religious voters. Cruz has a trumpet....

4. Religious liberty is his basic stump speech theme.

“In the past month, we have seen religious liberty under assault at an unprecedented level,” Cruz told the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition outside Des Moines in April....
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Ziggurat said:
This is what the left wants to think that the right thinks. That doesn't mean it's what the right actually thinks.
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Depends on what you mean by "the Right." Some on that side of the aisle definitely do hear "someone who is secular, liberal, and quite possibly Jewish" - who is hopelessly out-of-touch with (if not outright antagonistic toward) "real" Americans - when they hear "New York values."

Also, for Senator Cruz, "New York values" include a "focus on money and the media." Yeah, not a dog whistle at all. :rolleyes:
 
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Loss Leader said:
That's the was I see it, and it makes me angry. Cruz decides that he can't win New York, so it doesn't matter how mad New Yorkers get. It's a very divisive form of politics. He should have some sense that he's running to be President of everybody. Instead, he just wants his electoral votes.
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Mr. Cruz seems little interested in being "president of everybody," but laser focused on being in power.
 
kellyb said:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-gops-affinity-ayn-rand-wont-go-away

This is completely incompatible with actual Evangelical Christianity.
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Yes. Ayn Rand taken as a whole is completely incompatible with the Bible taken as a whole. So in a very
broad sense that means one of four things.

1) he is taking the bits of the Bible he likes (e.g. God hates fags) and the bits of Ayn Rand that he likes (e.g. don't touch my stuff!).

2) he is sham Christian and a true and authentic Ayn Rand believer.

3) he is a true and heartfelt Christian and a sham Ayn Rand believer

4) he is a sham Christian and a sham Ayn Rand follower. I.e. He says whatever he thinks the audience wants.​

At first glance, I don't think I have enough evidence to completely rule any of them out.

I guess his willingness to make and break deals with fellow Republicans might be evidence against his being a sincere Christian, but then again, there are hard-core Christians who believe that all that matters is one's relationship with God and if relationships with one's fellows are inconvenient then **** them.

ETA
if he were a sham Christian, then if he won the presidency there would be no need for him to want to put Ten Commandments monuments at the White House, The Capitol, and the SCOTUS building. But somehow I suspect that he would really try to do that. That is why I am hesitant to call him a sham Christian.
 
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if he were a sham Christian, then if he won the presidency there would be no need for him to want to put Ten Commandments monuments at the White House, The Capitol, and the SCOTUS building. But somehow I suspect that he would really try to do that. That is why I am hesitant to call him a sham Christian.
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A debate over something like that would be a wonderful controversy to stir up his base when re-election time rolled around. Whether they're actually there matters little, sort of like keeping "In God we trust" on the money and "under god" in the pledge.

eta:
3) he is a true and heartfelt Christian and a sham Ayn Rand believer
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As a former evangelical, I don't think that's possible. Not at least with that specific theocratic evangelical Christianity.
 
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DavidJames said:
Nonsense, it's textbook. You don't get to decide who is an evangelical and who isn't. Therefore you can't say he's not really an evangelical.

Sorry.
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I absolutely CAN make the claim that religious con artists exist, and that all signs point to Cruz being one. Calling Ayn Rand a "personal hero" is VERY strong evidence that the Evangelical thing is a shallow act for political gain.

ETA:
No True Scotsman is a kind of ad hoc rescue.

Which: http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#AdHoc Rescue
Ad Hoc Rescue

Psychologically, it is understandable that you would try to rescue a cherished belief from trouble. When faced with conflicting data, you are likely to mention how the conflict will disappear if some new assumption is taken into account. However, if there is no good reason to accept this saving assumption other than that it works to save your cherished belief, your rescue is an Ad Hoc Rescue.

Example:

Yolanda: If you take four of these tablets of vitamin C every day, you will never get a cold.

Juanita: I tried that last year for several months, and still got a cold.

Yolanda: Did you take the tablets every day?

Juanita: Yes.

Yolanda: Well, I'll bet you bought some bad tablets.
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kellyb said:
As a former evangelical, I don't think that's possible. Not at least with that specific theocratic evangelical Christianity.
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Why not?
[i ask out of curiosity, not out of desire to prove you wrong]
 
kellyb said:
I absolutely CAN make the claim that religious con artists exist, and that all signs point to Cruz being one. Calling Ayn Rand a "personal hero" is VERY strong evidence that the Evangelical thing is a shallow act for political gain.
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No, it's very weak evidence. One can admire someone without sharing all their beliefs. Not everything Ayn Rand said requires one to be an atheist to agree with it. But even supposing that the two are incompatible (which, again, is a false assumption) and so he cannot be telling the truth, why are you further assuming that it's his religious beliefs and not his admiration for Ayn Rand that he's lying about?
 
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