By SEAN ILLING
If you’re considering feeling sorry for Cruz, don’t. He got what he deserved. Trump is a menace and a huckster in his own right, but a potential Cruz administration is the stuff of nightmares. An avowed theocrat, Cruz has peddled misogynist garbage and anti-gay pseudoscience under the flag of “religious liberty” for years. He tried to shut down the government in order to block funding for Planned Parenthood and he’s boasted that he would “not surrender” on issues like same sex-marriage, no matter what the law or the general will or the Supreme Court declares. He’s also, incidentally, a climate change denier.
If elected, Cruz would be the most regressive and dangerous president in modern history. A political chameleon if there ever was one, it’s hard to know what Cruz actually believes, but he appears earnest about one thing: his religious fundamentalism. And make no mistake: Cruz was determined to impose that fundamentalism on the rest of us.
Although we’re now faced with another nightmare in the form of Donald Trump, it’s a good thing that Cruz is gone. He’s a liar and a preternaturally gifted demagogue. His brand of self-promoting brinkmanship encapsulates everything wrong with Washington. Frankly, I’m glad he lost. You should be too.
