An Example of Why I Like Ted Cruz

When Ted Cruz entered the United States Senate as junior senator from Texas in 2013, he ran roughshod over that body's established norms of behavior...newly installed senators are NOT supposed to make waves.  Instead he openly clashed, not just with the Democrats on the other side of the aisle, but also with his own party leader, Mitch McConnell...as well as pressuring likeminded representatives in the House to shut down the government.  Cruz's politics have been consistently on the Tea Party end of the conservative spectrum...and although I disagree with some of their stances on different issues, I also recognize that they legitimately speak to a significant spectrum of the voting electorate.  I initially despised Cruz because his speaking demeanor seemed to me extremely patronizing...and, quite frankly, his very smile made me cringe.  But when he ran for president in 2015-16 and came up against Trump and his shamelessly insulting ways, Ted Cruz didn't crumble.  Instead he showed a great deal of self-deprecatory humor and class...and his defiant-yet-diplomatic speech at the Republican National Convention stands out to me in terms of courage, considering how the entire hall seemed to be booing him at the end.  Well, Cruz is still around and he's running for reelection for his Senate seat against a strong Democratic challenger.  Were I in Texas instead of Florida I'd probably vote for Beto O'Rourke, but that doesn't mean I don't respect Cruz.  A recent example demonstrates this...

Recently posted on my MSN desktop newsfeed (here's the link) is an article about a one-on-one charity basketball game played this past Saturday between late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and Cruz. Kimmel, who is known for going off on acerbic political rants against Trump and Republicans on his show, had said that Senator Cruz resembled an ocean bottom-dwelling blobfish.  Had this depiction been leveled against our president, he probably would have gotten personally indignant and tweeted something doubly insulting back, throwing in allegations of treason coupled with a lawsuit threat.  Instead, Ted Cruz took advantage of the opportunity to challenge Kimmel to that basketball game, played at Texas Southern University with the proceeds going to charity.  Now that's a class act...if I'm going to have a conservative Republican sitting in the White House, why couldn't it have been him instead of the unstable, narcissistic, and probably compromised character we're saddled with?