Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Ted Cruz, Rising Republican Star

Earlier in the year, I heard a guest speaker at a Republican women's district meeting that left me with much hope for the Republican future of the state of Texas. The speaker was Ted Cruz and he is running for state attorney general. I wrote about my impressions of him then.

Recently Mark Hemingway wrote a piece on Cruz for National Review Online weekend digital column. Cruz is gaining national attention as a rising star in the Republican party. This is his first effort at elected office. He is 38 and a new dad. His most powerful attribute is his ability to communicate to an audience. And, he most of all is unhappy enough with the Republican party to run for office and share his vision for the future. He fully understands how critical it is to be a good communicator in order to win elections. "I think what we misunderstand is that the ability to persuade and inspire is the single most important tool any public leader has." He went on to explain to Hemingway the importance of history changing speeches by Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate and Churchill's "We shall never surrender" speech.

He is a common sense conservative. "One thing Republicans do that I think is disastrous is that many conservatives try and beat their chest and say, "We are so terribly conservative --Attila the Hun, he was such a squish! But what Reagan did was say, 'The values I'm talking about are commonsense American values that have been part of this country for over 200 years. They're the values that have been in every small town and every business throughout this country.' And he connected with people."

Cruz possesses an impressive record of accomplishment even before running for public office. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is a debate champion. He has argued before the Supreme Court - successfully. He is the youngest to be appointed solicitor general of Texas and the longest serving. He won the Best Brief Award form the National Association of Attorneys General for 5 years in a row. And, he clerked for Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist. He presented 8 oral arguments before the Supreme Court. He won a landmark second amendment case - District of Columbia v. Heller. He was a domestic policy adviser for George W. Bush's 2000 campaign and then became an honest critic of the administration as it strayed from the core Republican principles.

He is an advocate of federalism. And, his vision forward is that of "opportunity conservatives", a simple and direct policy of enhancing opportunity, personal responsibility and the chance to realize the American dream.

Ted Cruz has a bright future ahead of him.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I worked with Ted Cruz at the AG's office. He was friendly and pleasant to anyone with power and an elitist jerk to everyone else. For AG - I'd want someone with more experience. He is an inch wide and a mile deep in appellate law. No other professional experience. No executive experience. No military. No criminal justice. The Attorney General's office has more investigators than the Texas Rangers! How does he have the experience to be the top law enforcement officer for the state?