Think Donald Trump is outspoken? Rival Ted Cruz believes God wants him as president

SENATOR Ted Cruz may be dubbed the most despised man in Washington but he’s certain that God wants him to be the next President of the United States.

After kneeling in prayer for two hours at a Baptist church in Texas, Cruz’s family wept as his wife Heidi said she’d received a message from above that told Cruz to run for the White House. According to Cruz’s father, born-again pastor Rafael: “Ted just looked up and said, ‘Lord, here am I, use me. I surrender to you, whatever you want’.” And that’s why today, barely four months before the Republican Party chooses its presidential candidate, Cruz is still in the race, the only man with a realistic chance of stopping Donald Trump.

Many on this side of the Atlantic will find it commendable that someone seeking high office should have such deeply-held Christian views. We might prefer our politicians to do their worshipping in private – Cruz opened a recent campaign speech with the words “To God be the glory” – but we can still admire a man with such strong convictions and a burning desire to do what’s right.

What’s disconcerting is the paradox that such a religious person as Cruz can attract such hatred, especially from those who know him closest. If you think hatred’s a strong word, this is what Cruz’s college room-mate says of him: “I would rather have anybody else be the President of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book.”

In case America didn’t get the message, Craig Mazin – now a 45-year-old Hollywood scriptwriter – added: “Ted Cruz will become the thing you need him to be so that he wins an election. No principles, no moral centre, no values. Just ambition.” Mazin, who wrote the screenplay for The Hangover and Scary Movie sequels, said this came from Cruz’s upbringing: “Ted has wanted to be President ever since his father told him that’s what Jesus really, really wanted to happen.”

Indeed, there’s no doubting the massive influence his father plays in Cruz’s life, both publicly and privately. He frequently quotes Rafael to urge people to vote by God’s values – which to Cruz senior is an extremely hardline version of Christianity. He has called for fundamentalist Christians to gain control of most aspects of American society, and he launched a series of attacks on President Obama, gay rights activists and other spiritual enemies.

Rafael called Obama an “outright Marxist” who “seeks to destroy all concept of God” and urged Americans to send him “back to Kenya.” He said it was “appalling” to have a gay mayor in Houston and said Satan was behind the Supreme Court decision to legalise same-sex marriage. Undoubtedly, Cruz junior is a chip off the same shoulder. For years he has used his father’s fi re and brimstone reputation to win support from the far Right.

Even Cruz’s favorite black ostrich-skin cowboy boots are used to portray his credentials. “These are my argument boots,” he says. Parts of the media have given Trump a reputation for having extreme policies – although many British voters would happily support him – so it may come as a surprise that Cruz is even more extreme. Strangely for a second-generation Cuban-American (although he was actually born in Canada) Cruz has vehement anti-immigrant views.

Anyone without paperwork should be kicked out, he says, with no amnesty even if they’ve been in America for years. Unsurprisingly for a fundamentalist Christian he is totally opposed to abortion, although he hasn’t gone as far as Trump and called for women having abortions to be punished. He wants the repeal of Obamacare, which gives free medical treatment to poor people.

On gay marriage, he says only the four states which were named in the ruling that made same-sex marriage legal (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee) should abide by the law. The other 46 states should ignore it, he says. On crime Cruz says: “The simple and undeniable fact is the overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats.” He claims that Democrats are soft on crime because criminals tend to vote Democratic.

On foreign policy he’s a hawk: carpet-bomb ISIS, tear up the nosanctions deal with Iran. At home he’s tough, too: supports the death penalty, wants mandatory tough sentences, will never ban guns. Cruz’s most radical policies are economic; he would introduce a 10 per cent flat rate of income tax which wouldn’t kick in until a family earned more than $36,000 and he would slash red tape so the Internal Revenue Service (America’s taxman) could be abolished.

Businesses would get a massive boost by scrapping corporate taxes on profits, making up the lost revenue with a 16 per cent VAT-style tax on consumption. For all his apparent self-confidence, Trump fears Cruz could snatch the Republican ticket away from him. If Trump fails to get more than 50 per cent of the delegates’ votes in the primary elections, it’s highly likely the elders of the Grand Old Party – as the Republicans call themselves – will railroad through another candidate at the July convention.

The dawning realisation that it could be Cruz prompted Trump’s most senior policy adviser to tell an audience in Wisconsin: “I’m going to tell each and every one of you the real truth about Ted Cruz. He is a radical Wall Street globalist who will rip the beating heart of manufacturing out of the United States of America.” Strong stuff. Trump weighed in this way: “He’s a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him.”

Even President Obama put the boot into what he said were Cruz’s “draconian” immigration policies. “People expect the President of the United States and the elected officials in this country to treat these problems seriously,” Obama said. “They don’t expect half-baked notions coming out of the White House. We can’t afford that.” It’s clear the man who believes he has God on his side certainly doesn’t have many of his fellow Republican senators on his side.

According to GQ magazine, under the headline “the distinguished Wacko Bird from Texas”, in less than a year Cruz has been likened to Communist witch-hunter Joe McCarthy, accused of behaving like a schoolyard bully and smeared viciously by senior party members. When asked who they’d like to run for President, many people who have worked with him closely say: Anyone but Cruz.

Even President Obama put the boot into what he said were Cruz’s “draconian” immigration policies. “People expect the President of the United States and the elected officials in this country to treat these problems seriously,” Obama said. “They don’t expect half-baked notions coming out of the White House. We can’t afford that.” It’s clear the man who believes he has God on his side certainly doesn’t have many of his fellow Republican senators on his side.

According to GQ magazine, under the headline “the distinguished Wacko Bird from Texas”, in less than a year Cruz has been likened to Communist witch-hunter Joe McCarthy, accused of behaving like a schoolyard bully and smeared viciously by senior party members. When asked who they’d like to run for President, many people who have worked with him closely say: Anyone but Cruz.