Courageous Conservative?

Yesterday was the Iowa Caucuses and Ted Cruz won the Republican nod.  In his speech, he referred

to a win for courageous conservatives all across the nation and implied that he is the last best hope for true conservatives.  I guess I see where some of his support comes from as he massages the fears of folk who feel as if "their country" is melting away or already has.

I don't like him and would never vote for him under any circumstances... but for those who are considering him, let me make a few observations.

Ted Cruz is not a conservative.  The root of the word comes from "conserve."  There is nothing that Ted Cruz wants to conserve.  He has shown again and again that he does not believe in government (except when it interferes in individuals' lives around the "hot" sins he rails against) and his sole agenda is to destroy not conserve.  The values upon which this nation was founded seem to hold little attraction to him - equal justice for all, opportunity for all, the right to have the government stay out of one's personal life, true freedom of religion, etc. etc.

He is no brand of Christian that I recognize as following Jesus.  He comes from a strain called dominionism where "the Church" is called to take over the institutions of society and establish what can only be seen as the Christian equivalent of the radical Muslim vision of the Caliphate.  The movement (and Ted Cruz) obviously has either not read or not understood John 18:36 "Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'"  While Ted Cruz has been careful not to say these kinds of things directly, his father is a prominent preacher of this theology and a number of other prominent dominionist preachers have said that God is advancing Ted Cruz as part of the plan to take over the seven mountains of society.  Terry Gross has a wonderful interview regarding this brand of theology.

While Ted Cruz is certainly not a traditional political insider... he is Princeton and Harvard educated.  His wife is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  His career includes stints on the Federal Trade Commission, as an assistant deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice, Solicitor General of the state of Texas, and of course, the junior senator from Texas.  You can't get much closer to the center of power than that.