In addition to Cruz’s penchant for bloated duplicity, however, his reputation as an anti-politician is helped by the fact that he is stands no chance at actually winning an election. Thus, it’s easy to mistake his marginal status within the political ecosystem for genuine iconoclasm or ideological fortitude. As a society that instinctively sympathizes with underdogs, it is natural to assume that the long-shot is in his or her current situation because they are somewhat a threat to—or at least deviate in some meaningful and positive way from—the “establishment.”
As with everything else about Cruz’s presidential ambitions, this notion is belied by the bald facts. If you look at what Cruz has said and done, what you see is a politician as dishonest and entrenched in establishment ways as any other. Because he hopes to be elected president in 2016, Cruz has attempted to cast himself as an honest man in a racket filled with con artists. Fortunately, it seems most Americans realize that he is just as much a huckster as the rest of them.
