Is Ted Cruz Becoming Sarah Palin?

For years the most ignorant and insane elements of the Republican Party have found their titular leader in the dimwit from Alaska, Sarah Palin.  Now, they seem to have found a new chief court jester in the person of Texas Senator Ted Cruz who is likely to cause the so-called GOP establishments all kinds of fits and consternation as he needlessly bloviates and takes insane positions that only play well with the most toxic elements of the GOP and alienate the majority of would be voters.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at Cruz's transformation into a Sarah Palin equivalent.  Here are excerpts:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is fast becoming the king of useless fights and empty gestures. First came his destructive government shutdown gambit. Then came his half-baked idea for fighting the Islamic State. Then he set up a showy albeit unnecessary confrontation with a Christian group, managing to be the only one on the right these days magnifying differences between Jews and Christians . . . . 

And now Cruz is pushing a constitutional amendment to prevent federal courts from vindicating the rights of individuals who challenge state bans on gay marriage.

 

On foreign policy he began strongly, dousing the sparks of isolationism with very solid speeches on Russia and Iran. In his trip to Israel and Eastern Europe he came across as informed and poised. But also showed himself to be erratic, joining with the isolationists in opposing enforcement of the red line in Syria. As the National Review reports:

Cruz has repeatedly said he embraces a Reaganite foreign policy. He made headlines in recent weeks for walking out of an event when a group of Arab Christians booed his vocal defense of Israel, and he has used his seat on Armed Services Committee to travel abroad during his time in office. But those I spoke with were, across the board, unimpressed. They universally characterized his worldview as shallow, opportunistic, and ever shifting to where he perceives the base of the party to be.

[H]he now is imploring the president to come to Congress for war authorization (so far so good), but simultaneously spouting talking points that reflect both a lack of political courage (e.g., like Obama he won’t acknowledge ground troops are essential), denigrating the political work that is essential to rally the Sunni tribes in Iraq and spinning hooey that air power may be sufficient to defeat the Islamic State that has captured Fallujah and Mosul. 

If Cruz is trying to act presidential, he is failing miserably. If he is trying to replace Sarah Palin as the darling of the far right who is accountable to no one and responsible for nothing, he is doing a bang-up job. It is a shame and a waste for a man as intelligent and capable as Cruz. It is, one suspects, the triumph of ambition and arrogance over reason and good judgment.

To me, it is no surprise that Cruz was the top vote getter at the Values Voter straw poll: he's a dangerous demagogue who plays the fears and insanity of the Chtistofascists and their Tea Party first cousins.  He is only going to further damage the GOP brand in the long run.