Poor Ted Cruz. After yesterday’s “unforced error” that resulted in the swift and brutal demise of his communications guru, he’s got an uphill climb to regain the trust of his social media supporters. Fool me once, as with Ben Carson, shame on Ted. Fool me twice…shame on me for thinking this was all a bad dream that we were going to wake up from with a normal slate of Republican Presidential candidates.
Anyway, Ted’s now in a tough position: since yesterday’s meltdown, which obviously tarnished his campaign’s reputation, and since his slide in the standings down to third, he’s not the heir apparent to Team Anyone-But-Trump. Despite his histrionics yesterday, Marco Rubio is rumored to be earning the collective support of both Establishment and non-Establishment Republicans (according to whispers we hear from the Senate locker room, of all places). If the end of the week sees everyone coalesce around Rubio — and Cruz’s campaign isn’t helping matters much — all hope of President Cruz putting his cowboy-booted feet on the Oval Office desk may be lost.
But it won’t be for lack of trying, even haphazardly, of course. Even yesterday evening, Cruz made a valiant attempt to ramp up his rhetoric on immigration, perhaps hoping he could swipe a few of Trump’s hardliners who are looking for a Presidential nominee to support with, say, a more stable haircut.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is taking a tougher position on illegal immigration, saying he would deport the estimated 12 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
“Listen, we should enforce the law. How do we enforce the law? Yes, we should deport them,” the Texas senator told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly on Monday.
“We should build a wall, we should triple the border patrol,” Cruz added, emphasizing that “federal law requires that anyone here illegally that’s apprehended should be deported.”
“That’s what ICE exists for,” Cruz added during another exchange. “We have law enforcement that looks for people who are violating the law, that apprehends them and deports them.”
O’Reilly brought up a hypothetical example of an Irish immigrant with kids who had settled in Long Island, N.Y. — O’Reilly’s home.
“And you, President Cruz, are going to send the feds to his house, take him out and put him on a plane back to Ireland?” the host asked.
“You better believe it,” Cruz responded.
He’s gonna build a wall! He’s going to deport an estimated 12 million people! He’s gonna ramp up border patrols! No, wait! He’s gonna build two walls! Yep, that’s the ticket!
Sigh.
Look, there are a host of problems with this statement, but we’ll focus on two. One, Ted Cruz knows, from years spent in government, that these are impossible propositions to manage. Rounding up 12 million people would involve one of the largest police operations in American, if not world, history. And while we have a semblance of a wall, a more complete project seems little more than a pipe dream, though we could heavily ramp up enforcement and make significant technological strides on our southern border. Coming from Ted, these promises are little more than overtly cynical attempts to pick off Trump voters ahead of some very important contests. But unlike Trump, people consider Cruz to be somewhat trustworthy, managerial, even practical. What seems achievable coming from Trump is mere fantasy coming from Cruz, because we consider Cruz to know better.
The other problem? This damages Cruz’s reputation as a stalwart while accomplishing next to nothing. People are looking for alternatives to Donald Trump, not Donald Trump-lite. And those who are looking for Trump-lite have probably already considered Cruz and passed on him, hence why they’re still in Trump’s camp. Senator Ted Cruz has built a reputation on being a strong force for anti-Establishment good. This makes him look swayed by the winds of trend.
I feel bad for the guy. I know it’s got to be frustrating. But if we all learned anything in high school, running with the crowd isn’t the way to get popular. It’s just a really quick way to get a wedgie and an order for homework.
