Former PBS fixture Bill Moyers recently touched on Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth, but not with an eye toward whether or not Cruz is eligible for the presidency. Rather, it was to contrast Canada-born hockey enforcer John Scott with Cruz, who’s “another kind of enforcer.” Each has a large and enthusiastic following: fans voted the journeyman Scott into this year’s NHL All-Star game, and Cruz, of course, won the Iowa Republican caucuses.
Otherwise, though, Moyers and co-writer Gail Ablow contend that Scott is “a nice guy,” “humble,” and “a team player” while Cruz is a “brute” with “malice in [his] swagger,” a “Crusader Warrior” with a “forked tongue” who thinks that he’s “a new Messiah” and President Obama is “the Anti-Christ.”
The piece was first posted last Friday at BillMoyers.com and has since appeared on high-profile left-wing sites such as Talking Points Memo. Highlights (bolding added):
We found ourselves this week talking about two very different guys, both born in Canada…
Scott…relies more on brute force than technical skill. He protects his teammates by starting a fight; defends the goaltender by starting a fight; and entertains the crowds by, yes, starting a fight…
…[T]he other Canadian-born guy in this story is Ted Cruz. He is another kind of enforcer who is always spoiling for a fight. Instead of brawling on the ice, he brawls in the courts, on the Senate floor, and on the campaign trail…Cruz is a brute, the Crusader Warrior, armed with spike and shield and holy zeal, summoning true believers to war against the infidels. Deus vult! they cried out in those days. “God wills it!”
Unlike John Scott, who is said to be a nice guy, and humble, there’s malice in Ted Cruz’s swagger. When the Christian right in Iowa bested Trump and the GOP establishment on Monday, lofting him to victory, he shouted to the exultant worshippers, “To God be the Glory” — his self-referential pronouncement that a new Messiah had come to town…
…[T]here’s nothing inherently wrong with ambition, but here is another striking difference between John Scott and Ted Cruz. Even as the fiercest of enforcers, Scott remains a team player…
Ted Cruz is no team player. He’s out for no one but himself…
…[I]n the Senate his goon-inspired behavior soon antagonized just about everyone, including his fellow Republicans. No one was beyond the reach of his brass knuckles, sharp elbows, and forked tongue. He fought against the Affordable Care Act (including a 21-hour rant on the Senate floor), immigration reform, Planned Parenthood — and against the Anti-Christ, Barack Obama.
Now, to win the White House, Cruz has switched to the God Squad. He is the new Chosen One. His ground game in Iowa relied on scores of fundamentalist clergy, hundreds of volunteers, and his own father, Rafael, a Texas pastor…
It is as calculated as any of his previous plays.
