Ted Cruz's Vision of America, Unlike the Fixes of Others, Is Reaganesque

Michelangelo said : "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Five hundred years later, David ben-Gurion put it more succinctly : "To be a realist, you must believe in miracles." ~~~~~ Michelangelo and ben-Gurion were both talking about vision. We had another glimpse of vision last week when General David Petraeus spoke out about the failure of current American Middle East policies. Without ever mentioning President Obama, Petraeus put the lack of vision in Obama's efforts in Iraq at the heart of our troubles there : "Where I think a broader comment is perhaps warranted has to do with the way we came to think about Iraq and, to a certain extent, the broader region over the last few years. There was certainly a sense in Washington that Iraq should be put in our rearview mirror, that whatever happened here was somewhat peripheral to our national security and that we could afford to redirect our attention to more important challenges....In retrospect, a similar attitude existed with respect to the civil war in Syria - again, a sense that developments in Syria constituted a horrible tragedy to be sure, but a tragedy at the outset, at least, that did not seem to pose a threat to our national security. But in hindsight, few, I suspect, would contend that our approach was what it might - or should - have been. In fact, if there is one lesson that I hope we’ve learned from the past few years, it is that there is a linkage between the internal conditions of countries in the Middle East and our own vital security interests. Whether fair or not, those in the region will also offer that our withdrawal from Iraq in late 2011 contributed to a perception that the US was pulling back from the Middle East. This perception has complicated our ability to shape developments...shaken many of our allies...made it harder to persuade them to support our approaches. This has been all the more frustrating because, of course, in objective terms, we remain deeply engaged across the region and our power here is still very, very significant." We might say that General Petraeus believes that for lack of a vision, Iraq has been temporarily lost, and with it, the Middle East. ~~~~~ When President Obama is reminded of his lack of vision and subsequent failures, he becomes angry and defensive. This is at the heart of his "temper tantrum," as Senator McCain described it yesterday, aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu stood before the US Congress and said : "For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves. This is why - this is why, as a prime minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel. You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors." Obama had no answer for those visionary words because he has no vision of a "better" world or his place in it. And so he lashed out in anger. ~~~~~ Americans see the lack of vision. They speak out for it in every opinion poll and election. They may mention taxes or Obamacare or same sex marriage -- these are markers for their broader quest, and they often use one word as a repository for all their fears and desires. The word? Constitution. Why do Americans today cry out for allegiance to the Constitution when in earlier crises they were satisfied to demand specific actions? Because there is no visionary leader on the American national political scene today. There is no Washington...no Jefferson...no Lincoln...no FDR...no Robert Kennedy...no Ronald Reagan. There are only political tradesmen who can "fix" -- fix taxes, fix healthcare, fix education, fix job creation. But those fixes are not tied to the larger dream...to the American vision of itself. That is why there is no thrill of having discovered the perfect 2016 candidate in either party. Hillary and Jeb and Rand and Scott are all political tradesmen. ~~~~~ But, today we heard from a visionary...a man who spoke in simple, stirring terms about the America he loves, the America that changed the world, the America he wants to restore, that he says can be restored. The longest word in his entire speech was the word "Constitution." The man was Senator Ted Cruz. He has been a Supreme Court clerk, led a Houston-based firm's Supreme Court practice, taught litigation at the University of Texas and was charged with representing the state before the high court as its Solicitor General. He also served in the George W. Bush administration, at both the Federal Trade Commission and as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department. So, while his detractors who like to make him out to be an addle-brained quixotic extremist say he lacks experience, they are wrong. And his experience has led him to the heart and soul of the living US Constitution. But instead of getting tied up in the legal niceties of his experience, Ted Cruz wants simply to return the Constitution to the American people. He said this today in clear Reaganesque terms : "From the dawn of this country, at every stage America has enjoyed God’s providential blessing. Over and over again, when we face impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. You know, compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain’t all that tough....It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States. I am honored to stand with each and every one of you courageous conservatives as we come together to reclaim the promise of America, to reclaim the mandate, the hope and opportunity for our children and our children’s children. We stand together for liberty. This is our fight. The answer will not come from Washington. It will come only from the men and women across this country, from people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the Constitution. It will only come, as it has come at every other time of challenge in this country, when the American people stand together and say we will get back to the principles that have made this country great. We will get back and restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America." ~~~~~ Dear readers, Ted Cruz has a long march ahead of him. But one thing is certain -- there is no other presidential candidate of either party who can match his eloquent call to share in the vision promised to every American in 1789. The Constitution -- Liberty - Independence - Respect for all Mankind. ~~~~~ (Here is a site that contains the transcript of Senator Cruz's speech. It tells a personal story that is well worth the reading. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-ted-cruzs-speech-at-liberty-university/2015/03/23/41c4011a-d168-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html)