# I am Moderate America, sell me on Ted Cruz **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 2, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921 "2016-02-02T04:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/81 "2016-02-04T22:06:07Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > He’s a snowback. Maybe he’ll bring single-payer health care and gun control ideas from his home country. Given that he was the lawyer who wrote the amicus curiae brief for the Supreme Court in the _Heller_ case, I don’t think that’s likely. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/82 "2016-02-04T22:07:12Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I believe that successful governors are the best candidates for President, followed by **CEO’s** and Generals. One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/83 "2016-02-04T22:15:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > WTF happened to him? Stroke? Ambition. How does a first term Senator get wide exposure, support and opportunity? By being loud. Note ‘Loud’ doesn’t need to be obnoxious, but if you’re trying to cultivate an outsider image of challenging “the Establishment”, then what he’s done hasn’t harmed his ambitions, just his reputation. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/84 "2016-02-04T22:16:42Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Given that he was the lawyer who wrote the amicus curiae brief for the Supreme Court in the _Heller_ case, I don’t think that’s likely. Besides I heard somewhere that Canada is swimming in guns so no worries from a Canuck on that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/85 "2016-02-04T22:37:42Z")
Yup. And getting Swimminger. You should see the gun section of my local Cabelas. You want a military-style tactical rifle? A pistol with a 15 shot magazine? No problem. One of the limiting factors for new gun owners here in Edmonton is that it’s almost impossible to join a gun range, because they are all full and have waiting lists. Just between October and December of 2014, 100,143 licenses for guns were issued to Canadians. That’s not the number of guns sold - we no longer require registration for long guns, so a single license will allow you to buy as many as you want. As for registered handguns… As of the end of 2014 there were 4,799 prohibited and restricted weapons 100,000 population in Alberta. That’s mostly handguns, but also includes grandfathered machine guns, sawed-off rifles and shotguns, etc. I’m sure the U.S. is higher, but that means just in my city alone there are almost 50,000 handguns in private hands. And yet, we don’t tend to shoot each other. Maybe Michael Moore was right when he discovered how many Canadians own firearms and said, “Guns don’t kill people. _Americans_ with guns kill people.” ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/86 "2016-02-04T22:41:24Z")
Why hasn’t anyone opened a new gun range to rake in all that overflow? Regardless, Canada does in fact have a strikingly lower gun ownership than the U.S. despite your window shopping experiences. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/87 "2016-02-04T23:05:00Z")
I’m not sure. According to Wikipedia, the U.S. has 112 guns per 100K population, and Canada has about 30. However, if they are basing the data on Canada’s now-defunct gun registry, the number is almost certainly a lot higher as there was a lot of civil disobedience and refusal to register guns when that came into being. Some estimates are that the real number is close to twice the ‘official’ number. We don’t have anywhere near as many handguns, however. But we still have enough that if a miscreant wants to get his hands on one, it’s really easy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/88 "2016-02-04T23:40:25Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And yet, we don’t tend to shoot each other. Maybe Michael Moore was right when he discovered how many Canadians own firearms and said, “Guns don’t kill people. _Americans_ with guns kill people.” Canadians have guns because they are proud and free. They don’t use them because that would be impolite. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/89 "2016-02-04T23:51:22Z")
Well when you make a mint opening up a gun range you owe me a free membership. But let’s not make this a gun thread. More than enough of those. ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921/90 "2016-02-05T02:29:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And Hillary got $750,000 for a speaking engagement with Goldman Sachs. Are you accusing her of corruption as well? Or with her do you need actual evidence of wrongdoing? > > The actual evidence we have with Cruz is that he took a principled stand against one of the strongest lobbies in the country. Hillary and Bernie both caved to them. Are you kidding us? Clinton’s association and business relationship with Goldman Sachs has been one of the biggest criticisms of her lately. When I searched Google News for “Clinton Goldman Sachs” then clicked “Explore in depth” literally the whole first page, 30 links, were all less than 24 hours old. She has been getting pummeled for her close relationship with Wall Street, Goldman Sachs in particular. There is a [whole thread about the ethanol issue](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=782863), focusing particularly on Sanders and Cruz. The notion that Sanders caved to them doesn’t seem correct since he voted against the ethanol subsidy in 2011, but that’s probably better left to the other thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-moderate-america-sell-me-on-ted-cruz/744921.md?page=4)