“Judeo-Christian values that built this great nation”—this may have been the reason most cited by Senator Ted Cruz while making a case for himself as the Republican nominee for President.
The party’s presumptive nominee Donald Trump has made many controversial statements on Muslims and Islam, but it is Mr. Cruz who has characterised his campaign as a movement to save the Judeo-Christian values from “radical Islamic terrorism”, another of his favourite terms. Mr. Cruz’s campaign unapologetically portrayed the world as a theatre of civilisational confrontation, himself as the anointed one to deliver the believers from evil. The evil, in Mr. Cruz’s campaign, was not abstract – it was President Barack Obama, who he said not only refused to confront Islamists but was even funding jihad through the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Obama “showed more respect to the Ayatollah of Iran than the Prime Minister of Israel,” Mr. Cruz said in his speeches.
Revivalist talk radio host Glen Beck presented the candidate to his listeners as someone put on this earth by god to rise “at this critical juncture” and lead America. But it was Heidi Cruz, who put the rationale of her husband’s candidacy in clearest terms. “We are at a cultural crossroads in our country, and if we can be in this race to show this country the face of the God that we serve — this Christian God that we serve is the foundation of our country, our country was built on Judeo-Christian values, we are a nation of freedom of religion, but the God of Christianity is the God of freedom, of individual liberty, of choice and of consequence.”
Knight of the faith While his evangelist father Rafael Cruz and his numerous associates spread this message, the thread of all his campaign ads too was his pitch as the knight of the faith. “I’m a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth.. I’ll tell ya, there are a whole lot of people in this country that feel exactly the same way,” Mr. Cruz said in January. He promised to “crush” and “carpet bomb” enemies abroad, and steamroll under the force of the state those who did not fall in line, and did not find any contradiction in ads featuring guns and the cross together. He is the only candidate who opposes abortion rights even for rape victims. He argues for absolute social control over a woman’s body and absolute right of personal property at the same time.
Those who moan over the ascent of Mr. Trump might want to ponder what they just escaped. “He is Lucifer in the flesh,” former Republican speaker John Boehner said last week, of Mr. Cruz.
