Cruz Up Close

Passion.  Real Passion.

Cruz headlined a revival.  

When I see Ted Cruz on news shows he talks about political things: taxes, war, Planned Parenthood, Obama.    But in a rally that packed about 400 people into an event venue in exurban South Carolina front and center was faith.    Faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The warm up introducers spoke of faith and led the group in prayer concluding, "in the name of Jesus Christ."   Mark Sanford, the South Carolina congressman (and former governor and former hiker on the Appalachian Trail) spoke of faith when he introduced Ted, then amid enthusiastic cheers Cruz came to the front.

Cruz gave essentially the same speech I heard in New Hampshire in November.  But it was different.   It was much more "Southern".   Cruz said "y'all" and "aint".   The New Hampshire speech was angry and about politics.  This speech was about sin and redemption.

Yet it was the same essential speech.   The difference was that Cruz dropped in references to scripture and said overtly what I don't remember being referenced in New Hampshire: that we were in a war to preserve "Judaeo Christian values."   The event ended with an exchange of tokens between Cruz and his state co-chair.   The co-chair spoke for 8 minutes, in detail and without notes, about various Roman centurions who interacted with Jesus, affirming their faith, explaining that they acted under the authority of someone greater.  This related to Cruz because Cruz acted under the guidance of Christ and the authority of the Constitution.   Cruz handed back a token of some sort himself.


I expected the shuffling of feet, or rustling of impatience from the crowd as they stood during the long and unexpected biblical lesson.   It did not happen.

This moment, on MSNBC, as I write this I hear an announcer say Cruz is "drafting in Trump's wake", saying Trump-like things only with a bit more discipline.    No.  Cruz is grabbing a special audience.  And it is a big one.

Trump is secular.  Trump speaks to American identity.  Cruz speaks to Christian identity.   The two groups overlap, of course, but a voter oriented toward Trump issues, who is also a faithful churchgoing Christian accustomed to frequent scriptural references has their candidate.   "Tell your friends," Cruz concluded.   "You can have the power of ten," Cruz said, "by spreading the word."   There is a network of the devout that can spread under the radar and Cruz speaks directly to that group--in a rally.

There were a dozen cameras in the back of the room.   What Cruz says is not secret, and someone who watches a whole Youtube event will see it for himself.  But the news-Cruz is more like the New Hampshire Cruz: a Conservative Republican, not a Christian Republican.

MSNBC this morning is going on and on about Cruz's authenticity, questioning whether it is plausible that a Princeton, Harvard Law, Goldman-spouse like Cruz is credible being critical of the Establishment.   Joe Scarborough is wrong.  

Cruz is credible and genuine.   He criticizes the Republican and Washington establishments openly and fiercely.   No hedging.  No triangulating.  (Nothing careful or Hillary-like, as I referenced in yesterday's post.)  He is full-throated in saying "If the Washington establishment likes you, run for your life!!!"   He has thrown in his lot with cowboy boots and Duck Dynasty and traditional political conservative Christian churchgoers.  

Cruz is not holding a lifeline back to the Establishment.   He is says it right out there.   He is pro-gun.   He is pro-Christian.  He is absolutely against Planned Parenthood.  He is black and white, un-nuanced, and he has staked his ground, without compromise.   Cruz thinks there is a giant silent majority of people who think as he does and those are the votes he solicits.