# Where would be be today if we had president Cruz instead of president Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 18, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197 "2021-03-18T18:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/21 "2021-04-02T20:41:21Z")
I’m not sure how a Ted Cruz presidency would pan out. The thing about Ted Cruz is he’s a striver. He decided in high school that he was going to be President and it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that every decision he has taken in his adult life has been shaped by that goal. And he has been intensely focused, driven and ruthless in achieving that goal. To armchair analyze, I think it’s a “child of immigrants” mentality that creates incredible pressure to prove oneself by rising higher and higher in the new country. But a personality like that, having achieved the end goal, can be prone to aimlessness. When there’s no more ladder to climb, what do you do? Maybe he’d be fine – Nixon had similar motivations and he did OK (for a while anyway). But here’s hoping we never have to find out. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/22 "2021-04-02T21:00:16Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Cruz, OTOH, would have just wanted the ACA gone. That’s much easier. Quick party alignment. The lie to people “the tax cuts will make up for your medical costs.” And it’s gone. Plus one gets a feeling he would not have gone out of his way to piss off John McCain, probably avoiding the epic thumbs-down. OTOH, Lindsay Graham once said, if someone killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate you could not find anyone to say they saw anything, so as **Elendil\_s\_Heir** mentions, for all we know the Senate might have felt they did not even have to pretend to be with the President at all times. We’d still be getting a sackful of Federalist Society judges and justices, though – although probably far more presentable in society than the likes of Kavanaugh. And as mentioned earlier the transformation away from inclusive liberal democracy towards a religio-identitarian plutocracy with trappings of republic would have moved ahead steady-as-she-goes. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/23 "2021-04-03T23:23:56Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > One thing for sure, birther-ism would have made a comeback, just from the opposite side (given that Cruz was born in Canada.) How so though? Cruz being born in Canada isn’t a nasty rumor started by his political enemies. He was actually born in Canada and he doesn’t deny it. As I recall he’s renounced his Canadian citizenship so if dual citizenship was an issue he’s taken that out of the picture. I think there are a lot of reasons to criticize Ted Cruz but I can’t see birther-ism having any real traction. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/24 "2021-04-03T23:37:46Z")
IIRC, the issue was never whether Cruz was born in Canada or not - he doesn’t deny it - but rather that Canadian may not be “American-born.” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/25 "2021-04-03T23:47:59Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > I think there are a lot of reasons to criticize Ted Cruz but I can’t see birther-ism having any real traction. - > [@Velocity](#): > > IIRC, the issue was never whether Cruz was born in Canada or not - he doesn’t deny it - but rather that Canadian may not be “American-born.” - Cruz is an Originalist. If he had actual principles (snerk), he wouldn’t run for President. You know he would slam the door behind himself given the chance. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/26 "2021-04-04T00:21:12Z")
I keep wondering, if Trump hadn’t won the nomination, are we sure it would’ve been Cruz? If Trump had burned out sooner (say, before Super Tuesday) rather than later, might it have been Rubio or Kasich or A Third Bush instead? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/27 "2021-04-04T13:29:27Z")
Whoever he would have chosen as VP would have to be a doozy to act as his anti-impeachment insurance. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197/28 "2021-04-04T14:06:34Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I think a Cruz presidency would have had a somewhat better, more sane response to the Covid crisis and would have resulted in many fewer deaths. Meh… I am 100% sure that oily amoral casuist would have gone full “muh stayts rahts” over COVID. I don’t think he would have been stupid enough to try to ignore it altogether. I think he’d have signed large checks to pharm companies like Trump. I think he’d have told everyone to “please protect yourself from this mild illness by making individual decisions about your personal risk tolerance, but we’re not mandating anything.” Oh, and expect a constant and merciless flogging of China, like Trump. Trump was a thick tree that got blown down because it was too rigid. Cruz would be a bit more willow-like, but just enough to avoid getting snapped in half. Many high-profile Republicans make me nervous, but for some reason Cruz gives me more heebie-jeebies than the rest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-be-be-today-if-we-had-president-cruz-instead-of-president-trump/938197.md?page=1)