Ted Cruz Is Proof That Nice Guys Really DO Finish Last
Being an asshole is no impediment to achieving one's ambition
The best way to avoid dicks: Don't be one.
- Mark B. Borg Jr., “Don't Be A Dick: Change Yourself, Change Your World”
He can’t breathe because he’s got asthma, whereas you’re just an asshole for no reason.
- Shaun David Hutchinson, “Feral Youth”
I should begin by dismissing one of the most prevalent impressions of Ted Cruz- that he’s stupid. He’s certainly not. The man has a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Ted Cruz is no one’s idiot…though he sometimes manages to camouflage his intelligence by making some foolish decisions. I could riff on his trip to Cancun as his constituents were freezing and, in some cases, dying…but that horse has been thoroughly flogged by people far more capable than myself.
Besides, my concern isn’t with whether or not Cruz is intelligent. Nah, it’s with why the man’s such an asshole. I’m not talking about the sort of person generally disliked because he’s disagreeable. I’m talking about the sort of narcissistic, me-first, I’ll-throw-my-wife-and-kids-under-the-bus-to-satisfy-my-ambition asshole that even his Republican colleagues despise.
For whatever reason, Texas seems to be the #1 supplier of assholes to Congress. Once upon a time, Rep. Tom DeLay ruled the roost as the most powerful man in Washington. A man who had no use for morality, decency, or niceties of any sort, DeLay was the sort of person who could shake your hand as he reached around you to insert a dagger into your back.
Ted Cruz makes Tom DeLay look like a Boy Scout. Former House Speaker John Boehner once described Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.” If memory serves, no one stood up to defend Cruz on that occasion…because Boehner was merely giving voice to what most on Capitol Hill think of him.
If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
In the world Cruz calls home, compassion is a crime, and kindness is a sign of moral weakness. And weakness, at least as he defines it, is something he despises. He’s all about projecting strength and power…as long as he doesn’t have to put himself at risk through the projection of that strength and power.
Finding people who actually like Ted Cruz is a surprisingly difficult undertaking. Is there anyone he isn't using to achieve his boundless ambition outside of his wife and family (and perhaps his parents)?
Finding people willing to say something truthful about Cruz anonymously is no challenge at all. It’s what happens when you’re a jerk and almost universally hated by friend and foe alike.
He would send memos on everything to everyone. He would come to meetings where he wasn’t invited—and wasn’t wanted.” In fact, this Bush alum recalls, “the quickest way for a meeting to end would be for Ted to come in. People would want out of that meeting. People wouldn’t go to a meeting if they knew he would be there. It was his inability to be part of the team. That’s exactly what he was: a big asshole.”
The Bush vet goes on: “I don’t know anyone who had a decent relationship with Cruz.” And when Bush became president, his top campaign aides agreed Cruz should not be offered a job in the White House. “No one wanted to work with him,” this source remembers. “George W. Bush couldn’t stand the guy.” This person adds, “It’s a real quandary for Bush campaign people: Trump versus Cruz, who to vote for? And it would be a big quandary even if it’s Cruz versus Hillary Clinton. That’s how much they cannot stand him.”
It may be easy for someone to lob anonymous shots at Cruz. But there are plenty of others, including prominent Republicans, who have not been shy about sharing their feelings about Cruz on the record.
Of course, finding people willing to say something ON the record about Cruz isn’t terribly difficult, either. For instance, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) said that “He doesn’t have any friends in Congress. He called the leader of the Republicans [Mitch McConnell] a liar on the Senate floor.”
The late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was no fan of Cruz. A McCain confidant once said of his boss, “He fucking hates Cruz.”
Even former President George W. Bush, who rarely had a cross word to say about anyone publicly, said of Cruz, “I just don’t like the guy.”
The aforementioned John Boehner also called Cruz “that jackass” and a “false prophet.”
Kinda makes you wonder what they said about the guy behind closed doors, eh?
Ted Cruz is not in the Senate because of an altruistic desire to serve his fellow man. He’s in public life for one reason- his own self-aggrandizement. Cruz in the Senate because he sees it as a stepping stone to his ultimate goal- the Presidency.
And I haven’t even delved into his Far-Right, Gideon-style Christianity or his smarmy subservience to Donald Trump. I could go into great detail, but I’d merely be belaboring the already painfully obvious. The truth is that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a 24-carat, first-class, USDA Prime, Grade A, top-shelf asshole. He knows it, and he knows that you and everyone else knows it.
Here’s the thing that separates Cruz from mere mortals: HE DOESN’T CARE THAT HE’S AN ASSHOLE. Nor does he care that you and everyone else know that he’s an asshole. The ONLY thing he cares about is his all-consuming ambition, that brass ring (the White House) that he can see but hasn’t yet been able to reach.
Yet.
You see, Cruz knows that being an ambitious asshole is no impediment to winning the Presidency. Donald Trump proved that, so Cruz knows that he can, should, and will do whatever it takes to reach his goal. If that means being universally hated, even by his colleagues, so be it. Because, in the world Ted Cruz calls home, nice guys are losers.
It’s what Jesus would do, don’tchaknow??