Young senator, Harvard law graduate, might not have been born in the United States: these are only some of the similarities between the current president and presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
Cruz publicly announced his campaign for the presidency Monday, March 23, making him the first out of the gate in the presidential race. CNN immediately posted an article outlining the similarities between Cruz and President Barack Obama. Both graduated Harvard Law and then went on to be constitutional lawyers. They both served one term as senators before launching into presidential campaigning. They both have young families with two young daughters. There is a chance they could not be considered American citizens.
OK, that last one is a bit of unnecessary campaign drama. Rumors last campaign season (proven false) claimed Obama may not have been born in the United States, and the American people, aka the Republicans, demanded to see his birth certificate. Meanwhile, Cruz openly acknowledges the fact that he was born in Canada and is a naturalized citizen because his mother was American. Of course, that may be a low blow to the Republicans, but it’s out there in the open, fair and balanced. The American public doesn’t give this a second thought; he is a Republican after all.
Cruz was quick to make statements separating himself from the president, claiming the differences are far more important than the similarities. The most obvious difference is Cruz is a Republican.
The most notable difference, which was quite hard to actually find by the way, is how they spent their short four years in the Senate. Cruz calls out Obama for being a “back-bencher” during his senate term. Cruz has obviously done far more work in his years in the Senate, including strongly opposing the Affordable Care Act with all his might, only to sign up for it late last week. Insert Kermit the Frog “but that ain’t none of my business” meme here.
Another difference between the two: Cruz can do bipartisanship! Because the two-party system has left us with plenty of bipartisan opportunities, which is why so much has changed in the past few presidencies.
Now, just to keep everything fair and balanced, we have to poke some holes in Cruz’s campaigning policies.
Let’s start with the most obvious one. Cruz is running policies based on religion. Whatever happened to separation of Church and State? Granted, religion can be your moral compass, but if you are basing specific policies on your religion, I have to draw the line.
Cruz announced his candidacy at Liberty College. The Evangelical private school fined students $10 if they did not attend the weekly gathering where Cruz made his announcement. Guys, he did this for a reason – for several reasons actually. First, he is guaranteed an audience of 10,000. Second, religion guides his policy. I believe it is safe to say that Cruz, being the great orator that he is, was able to preach to that audience better than most pastors.
Another little bump to note in Cruz’s campaign is his border security policies. Cruz is hoping to get the Hispanic vote by connecting with his Cuban ancestry. His father’s heroic tale of escaping Cuba is fantastical. But does he really think it is enough to hide the fact he wants to further secure the border and make it even harder for Mexican immigrants to enter the United States?
And this is another little bump, which is really the one that keeps my vote far out of his reach. Cruz wants a federal ban on same-sex marriage, which he is basing off of his religious views. Come on, Point Park. We all know how we feel about that little hiccup.
Who knows? Maybe all of these generally bad ideas lead for a fair president who will evoke meaningful change. We will just have to wait and see who else puts their names up for presidency. I am expecting a great election year with some fantastic joke-worthy campaigns.
