Apart from his family and his affection for “The Princess Bride,” there isn’t much to like about Cruz. He oozes negative energy and ambition from every pore. Even people who should be his ideological allies view him as a user. His extremism is a matter of record.
And yet, the left should be rooting for him, for the following reasons:
- He is the only plausible GOP alternative to Trump.
- A contested GOP convention can only help the Democrats.
- It is at least arguable that he would be an even weaker general election candidate than Trump if he gets the nomination.
- If, in spite of the odds, he won the general election, he would probably govern as a generic Republican; his tax plan, which sets him apart from the GOP mainstream, would never pass even a GOP Congress, because it has too many losers. He wouldn’t tear up all of our treaties or threaten the use of nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip. In other words, he is a much less risky choice than Trump.