General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Which of the Top 3 Republican Candidates worries you the most? [View all]haele
(13,597 posts)pay off political debts. I get the feeling he's looking for a cushy think tank job to line his pockets with in the future, because he's been jumping to the next electable level every time he gets a position. He doesn't seem to be re-electable once he gets an office, because he doesn't really want to govern, he just wants to glad-hand.
Trump...well, you never know from one day to the next who you're going to get because it's all a game to him. He's actually probably the least damaging of the bunch, because even though he's loud, pig-headed and obnoxious he's not going to do anything that's going to interfere with his hedonistic tendencies, which means he'll be relatively liberal in most social matters, and he does have some understanding that as resources are finite, if there's going to be a future, there has to be some management of them.
He's all hot air, playing a part like Reagan did. All his talk of war is really bully diplomacy; he's always backed down when the stakes could get too high. He gives lip service to the Talibornagain to get votes, but chances are we'll get another more "business friendly" administration. Reagan's third term, with a little more dementia, as it were. If he gets the nomination, I'll bet he will run with whomever the GOP establishment tells him will make a great "second in command" as V.P. (ala Calvin Coolidge or Richard Nixon - you just know the industrialist/financial power brokers held Nixon over Ike's head to keep him in line...), so when he gets bored and quits, they'll take over and it will be business as usual.
Cruz is straight-up batshit; petty, vindictive and overbearing. He is the most dangerous. He honestly thinks he's king of the world, and the Texas Republicans I know always wonder why their pet "Jesus is coming" evangelical vote puppets are more willing to vote for him than for the "reasonable businessman" GOP establishment favorite when given the choice.
No one with half a brain likes or trusts him, and he takes that as proof of his Dominionist daddy's prophecy and thinks it's perfectly virtuous to lie to anyone who doesn't live under the umbrella theology of his sect and their fellow-travelers.
The danger with Cruz coming anywhere near the presidency is that if there is any situation that could affect voter turn-out against him, he will win. Not that more people will vote for him, but that his people can be depended on to come out and vote, even under a massive disaster situation or if it causes significant damage to their own family resources or their health. They will sacrifice put his "Godly" election above their and their families well-being, just for a promise of Heaven.
Of the three, I deem Trump the least damaging, despite his bluster. Rubio will be ineffectual, but with the current congressional make up, he could cause a lot of damage and tip us into a permanent corporate-fascism or into anarchy that will effect the splintering of the United States as we know it. Cruz - well, he'll just wants Jesus to come back in his lifetime to let him know how great he is, and will do his best to ensure it.
Haele