Seventeen candidates are engaged in the Republican primary,* but two stand out from the pack: Donald Trump, the controversial billionaire, and Ted Cruz, the ultra-conservative. Yet, according to our contributor, Axelle Hazard, Ted Cruz is not the more worrisome of the two.
I recently participated in a conference on the U.S. primaries at the Institute for Higher Social Communication Studies based in Brussels. Naturally, the speakers there talked a great deal about the phenomenon that is Donald Trump. On the whole, I found their analyses very pertinent, but something nevertheless jarred me. Some of them insisted on reminding the students participating in the event that, although less talked about, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was just as “dangerous” as the billionaire New Yorker. To quote one of the speakers: “Honestly, Ted Cruz scares me much more than Donald Trump.”* *
It was not the first time that I had heard such an opinion being voiced. If truth be told, I hear it more and more often: Ted Cruz may be just as – or more – dangerous than Donald Trump. Really? Having attentively observed the U.S. election campaign from the start, I do not think so.
Of course, Cruz is far from being a moderate candidate. Just like Trump, he claims to want to deport the 11 million people currently living illegally in the United States. He is a fervent opponent of Obamacare which he has committed himself to scrapping. He plans to completely do away with certain government agencies such as the IRS, responsible for collecting federal taxes.
Cruz is also a representative of the evangelical Christian right. As such, he is categorically opposed to abortion as well as same-sex marriage. He also believes that women should be denied access to certain combat positions in the army.
I can well understand that those who do not share Cruz’s opinions are concerned about the idea of seeing him become president due to the policies that he might implement. Yet is the argument that Cruz is more dangerous than Trump because he is “more right-wing” or “more extremist” justified? My answer to this question comes in two parts.
“Ted Cruz Has No Trouble Disavowing the Ku Klux Klan”
Firstly, do we really know what Trump’s true intentions are? Despite a few flagship measures, such as constructing a giant wall on the border between the United States and Mexico, ultimately, we hardly know anything about his political agenda. Most of the time, he avoids answering questions on the precise measures he plans to implement if he is elected. He prefers to simply assure people that he will return America to its former glory, that he will “Make America Great Again.”
Trump has regularly changed his mind about numerous subjects. It is therefore hard to tell what his true colors are. Under these circumstances, can we objectively compare him to Cruz and say for certain that the policy that he would put in place would be less extreme?
Secondly, is Cruz really more “extremist” than Trump? Undoubtedly he is, as far as societal questions such as abortion or homosexual rights are concerned. But Cruz has never compared all Mexican immigrants to rapists, nor has he ever had any trouble repudiating the Ku Klux Klan. Cruz has never called for a “shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” or insisted that he saw thousands of Muslims celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks in New Jersey. Cruz has not declared that he is prepared to order the American army to kill innocent members of terrorists’ families either, which would amount to a violation of international law.
“The Greatest Jobs President that God Has Ever Created”
Beyond this, there is something about Trump that worries me more: his oversized ego, his demagoguery and what seems to me to be a tendency toward the cult of personality and authoritarianism. I am not sure whether we can go as far as comparing him to Adolf Hitler, as some do. Yet what I do know is that having kept a close eye on the presidential campaign, I have witnessed troubling drift. And yes, I am starting to wonder whether a Trump presidency would threaten democracy.
No matter what I think of Cruz’s political or religious opinions, I do not have the same concerns about him. After all, I have never heard Cruz systematically insult all those – political opponents and journalists alike – who make even the slightest criticism of him. I have never heard Cruz declare in all seriousness that he will be “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” I have never heard talk of threats voiced by members of Cruz’s campaign team toward a journalist, in an attempt to have her removed as debate moderator. I have never heard Cruz threaten to restrict the freedom of the press. I have never heard Cruz proudly declare that he could kill someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose voters’ support. Finally, I have never heard Cruz declare that a man who was badly beaten by his supporters during one of his rallies had perhaps deserved it. Nor have I seen Cruz ask his supporters to raise their right hand and pledge allegiance “no matter what the conditions.”
Shouldn’t these signals be a warning to us? Isn’t the very fact that Trump thinks to act in such a way worrying? Some will retort that Trump is just joking, that it’s all just for show. Maybe. But maybe not. I do not particularly want Americans to run the risk of electing him in order to find out. For all of these reasons, if I had to choose between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, I would probably not hesitate for more than half a second. No, I do not think that Ted Cruz is more dangerous than Donald Trump.
*Editor’s note: Of the original official candidates for the Republican nomination, three currently remain: Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Donald Trump.
**Editor’s note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.
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