By Mark Swarbrick

Why I’m voting from Cruz and not Trump

We Republicans are blessed to have such a lineup of excellent candidates. They are all outstanding people and any one of them would be lightyears ahead of Obama or Hillary in making an excellent president. Right now, Trump is the frontrunner. I like Trump. I love the way he boldly flies in the face of the politically correct crowd. I like that he is not part of the Republican Old-Guard establishment. In other words, he is not likely to be a RINO (Republican In Name Only), and sell out to the Democrats, as too many of our Republican leaders have. Whoever gets the Republican nomination, I will vote for the nominee, whether it be Trump or someone else.

But in the Primary, I believe the best choice is Ted Cruz and here is why…

Actually, before I get into the “why,” let’s review the prerequisites for a good president:

1. HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGABLE: There is a huge learning curve for any president to deal with to discharge his duties efficiently, so it helps if the president is aware of certain things at the get-go. He needs an extensive knowledge of history. Not just American history either, but world history as well. He needs to have been a student of recent American history and current events. He needs to understand what has worked well previously in our government and what has not. He needs to know what other countries in the world are dealing with and what they have done in the past. He needs to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Without such a firm foundation a president will make a disaster of America’s foreign policy.
2. CONSTITIONAL AWARENESS: A candidate for president needs a thorough understanding of the Constitution, Separation of Powers, and an awareness of the whole foundational reasoning behind our unique form of government, as well as a thorough understanding of American Exceptionalism. A president needs to understand that we do not have a king, that our constitution is king, and understand the ramifications when he takes the oath to defend our Constitution from all enemies foreign or domestic. Along with this he needs a basic understanding of law. Although he can rely on experts, he needs a basic understanding of the law, particularly as regards what a president, or the government, can and cannot do.
3. A STATESMAN: The dictionary definition of a statesman is: “A person who is experienced in the art of government or versed in the administration of government affairs and is a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of a government on in dealing with important public issues.” A president needs to understand how the three co-equal branches of government are intended to function and all the intricacies of how the Congress works, so that he can best interrelate with them to get things done.
4. MILITARY AWARENESS: Military experience is desirable but not necessary if the candidate takes the time to learn what he needs to know to be Command-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. An understanding of the deterrent doctrine of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and how that relates to our TRIAD defense system, is just one of the many things a president must understand.
5. MORAL COMPASS: The president must be a good man. Our country is founded upon the Judeo-Christian ethic. Our best presidents have had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, which gave them a solid foundation of morality, helping them to determine right from wrong. On top of that, a president needs to have an understanding of the conservative principles that have benefitted our country, as well as recognizing evil when they see it in its various forms, such as, Communism, Liberalism, Radical Islam, and so forth.

   Without a moral compass a president has no clue what to do other than take polls and be blown about by every political whim which they think is expedient for themselves. One of the indicators of a man’s moral compass is to look at who they have for friends and associates. Obama is the perfect example: His pastor said “Not God bless America, but God damn America,” and Obama launched his campaign from the home of Bill Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist who participated in the bombings of the New York City Police Departmentheadquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972. America largely ignored the low character of Obama’s associates and elected him anyway. Thus we should not be surprised that he apologizes for America to foreign powers, bows before foreign Islamic princes, and continually
   sides with Islamic Terrorists against America, releasing them to fight again, selling them arms, and funding rouge states bent on terror, and opening the flood gates to let in hordes of Muslims and illegal aliens by the tens of thousands. I’ll say it again: A good president will be a good man, a righteous person. Obama is the perfect example of a bad man being a bad president. So when considering a president his character and his associates are of prime importance.

6. A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN: There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who have committed their lives into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ and put their faith in Him, and those who have not. Those who have done so, have the Spirit of Christ in them, the Holy Spirit alongside as their helper, and our Almighty Father in heaven attending to their prayers. Their eyes have been opened. Those without Christ are walking in darkness. Jesus said that such men are blind and do not know where they are going and will fall into a pit. Presidents need Godly wisdom and divine help to govern. If we do not realize the importance of this, then we are in danger of becoming the blind following the blind. George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” Ronald Reagan said, “If we ever forget we are one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.”

7. A GOOD COMMUNICATOR: Ronald Reagan was known as “The Great Communicator.” A president is not the “boss” of the country. He can’t just do what he wants. (someone please tell Obama) He has to persuade others as to why his course of action is right and is in the best interests of America. He must be able to persuade members of Congress of both parties. He needs to be able to go on television and explain to the American people what he believes is the proper course and why we should believe it also. Without the country behind him, a president is limited in what he can accomplish. He also has to reason with foreign leaders, both good and bad. For these reasons, communication, debate and public speaking experience are all essential skills that must be combined with accomplished interpersonal relationship abilities. And all of this must be applied judiciously and wisely with firmness of principle.
8. A GOOD RECORD: Scripture says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.” (Pr 22:1) We have seen too many politicians promise the moon and deliver nothing. How can you know who will keep their promises? The candidate who has kept their promises in the past is the one you can trust in the future. Therefore, a candidate with government experience is desirable as you then have a record you can look at. You can see what they voted for or how they have governed in the past.
9. A WINNER: In this election, the Republican candidate has got to win against Hillary. They must beat her. This election is the most important one our country has ever had. Obama has so weakened our country that we literally may not survive unless we reverse course. Our government has been borrowing and printing money like it’s going out of style. The economy is headed for a crash far worse than the Great Depression.

   Our military has never been so weak. We are weaker now than on 911. Yet, the world is far more dangerous and our enemies are strengthening their militaries, while we have degenerated ours. As Jon Voight said, playing President Roosevelt before the attack on Pearl Harbor, “We’re building refrigerators while our enemies build bombs.” ISIS is planning an EMP attack on America. Our electric grid is so outdated and vulnerable that one EMP weapon detonated at high altitude will leave the U.S without electricity for three years or longer. Congress organized a commission to study this threat in 2004 and they concluded an EMP attack would kill 9 out 10 Americans by starvation. Democrats could care less about any of this. They have their heads buried in the sand. Bottom line, if Hillary wins, it may literally be the death of us all.
   

WHY NOT TRUMP?

HE CAN’T BEAT HILLARY: My main concern is that he will not beat Hillary. If she wins, we all lose, in a big way. We will have more of Obama’s policies if she is elected. It would be a disaster from which America may never recover. Trump is popular now but much of that is a reaction to the Democrat’s political correctness nonsense and the RINOS betrayal of the people.

When it comes right down to voting, things may be much different. There are lots of Republicans and Independents that dislike Trump for his outspoken and occasionally vulgar ways. These people are likely to stay home on election day. Conversely, there are a lot of Democrats and Independents that despise Trump and consider him to be mean, obnoxious and rude. These would be likely to turn out in droves to vote for Hillary, whereas they might have stayed home or have voted for a more reasonable Republican candidate. Losing to Hillary is the greatest risk that goes along with voting for Trump.

NO HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE or MILITARY AWARENESS: As noted above this is essential for crafting foreign policy. In the most recent debate, Trump was asked a question about our nuclear triad. Trump gave a meandering response of, “I think we need somebody, absolutely, that we can trust, who is totally responsible, who really knows what he or she is doing. That is so powerful and so important,” Of course that did not answer the question so he was pressed further with a follow up question: “Which of the three legs of the triad would be your priority.” His answer: “For me, nuclear, the power, the devastation, is very important to me…” But “nuclear,” “the power” and “the devastation” aren’t the three legs of the U.S.’s nuclear triad.

Clearly Trump had no idea what the nuclear triad consisted of. Senator Marco Rubio explained, for the benefit of the audience, what the triad was, “The triad is the ability of the United States to conduct nuclear attacks using airplanes, using missiles launched from silos from the ground and from our nuclear subs.” The audience can be forgiven for not knowing what the triad is, although I bet anyone over 40 knew. But a presidential candidate cannot be given slack on that. Several other candidates went on to discuss the state of our triad defenses and knew the exact age and class of submarines, aircraft, and land based nuclear missiles and what needed to be upgraded. That discussion was over Trump’s head. Trump lacks the prerequisites 1 & 4 listed above: Historical Knowledge and Military Awareness.

NO CONSTITIONAL AWARENESS & NOT A STATEMAN: Trump is not a lawyer. You don’t have to be a lawyer to be president, but it sure helps. Neither has he ever worked in any kind of government position, not local, state or federal. He has never been a senator or governor, or even a mayor. With no government experience of any kind and no legal training I do not know how well he understands the Constitution or all the legal ramifications of running a government of laws. Trump is lacking in point 2 & 3 above, Constitutional Awareness and a Statesman. With no government experience, how can we analyze his record when there is no governing record to analyze? We can’t. As mentioned in point 8, A Good Record, He can promise the moon, but how are we going to now if he will deliver? There is no record to check. Running a real estate business with money you got from your dad and being the boss of everyone, is not the same thing as running a government and knowing all the ins and outs of how to get things done legally and politically. Trump fails prerequisite 3, Government Experience and also 8, a Good Record. He doesn’t have a bad record. He just has no record.

NO MORAL COMPASS: I can’t say Trump has no moral compass. I just don’t know if he does. I don’t know enough about his business dealings to judge. They are not all as public as a governing record would be. I have concerns. The way he is so quick to insult and quarrel with others concerns me. It is not the mark of a statesman.

NOT A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN: Trump made the statement, “I don’t think I’ve ever asked God for forgiveness.”  Clearly anyone who makes such a statement has no understanding of the need for Christ’s atoning work on the cross and that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” When asked who his pastor was, he replied that it was Norman Vincent Peale. The problem with that is that Peale died in 1993. Why couldn’t he name his current pastor? I don’t think Christianity is a big part of his life. Lacking these basic understandings, I would say that Trump is not a born-again Christian. As I watch him on the debate stage I do not detect the Spirit of Christ in him.

NOT A GOOD COMMUNICATOR: He really doesn’t give intelligent reasoning when he speaks. It is pretty simple stuff about how great he is and how great he will make America, but we never hear specifics of exactly how he is going to accomplish some of the things he wants to do. For example: He is going to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. That’s wonderful, but how is he going to get it done? With good management, he says. How will the money be appropriated by Congress? The Mexicans will pay for it. How will that happen? He doesn’t say. It takes more than just saying, “I’m great, I’m smart, I will do it,” to convince the public and move the wheels of government. Its takes excellent, thoughtful, intelligent communication. Trump fails point 7, he is not a great communicator.

Let us remember that Obama ran on non-specifics also – “Hope and Change” was his motto, but he never told us what or how. We don’t want to elect another leader who doesn’t spell it out for us. “Make America Great Again,” sounds good, but we need specifics, not platitudes, or as with Obama, we may be horribly surprised.

NOT A WINNER: Trump has won in the world of real estate but that is not the same as winning an election. I don’t know if he can beat Hillary but I am very worried he will not and here’s why:  Hillary will make him look like a fool and a simpleton on the debate stage. As bad as Hillary would be as president, she is not dumb. I’m not saying Trump is dumb. I’m saying he lacks governing experience, he is not a statesman, he is not a lawyer and he is not a good communicator and has no in-depth knowledge of the Constitution and government. Hillary has, and is, all of that. She has a wealth of experience, as a lawyer, a senator and as the First Lady. She will mop up the floor with Trump in a debate. I can promise you that Hillary knows what the nuclear triad is and a thousand other intricacies of government, economics, the federal trade commission, foreign policy, world affairs and details of military readiness. Trump won’t have a clue. Putting Trump up against Hillary is too risky.

Having said all that, let me say this: If Trump wins the nomination, I will be in his corner. I’ll be hoping and praying and rooting for him to win and using all my persuasion to get others to vote for him. He would be way better than Hillary, for she has no moral compass and is a Communist/Socialist at heart (not to mention a criminal) and has said she will continue to do the same things Obama has done in regard to foreign policy, which has literally resulted in genocide throughout the world.

WHY TED CRUZ?

But there is a better choice than Trump and that is Ted Cruz. He meets or surpasses all of the nine prerequisites for president I have listed above. His list of accomplishments is too numerous to enumerate here, but let me just give some highlights.

After memorizing the entire Constitution at the age of 13, he studied 4 years at Princeton and then 3 more years at Harvard Law, graduating magna cum laude with the degree Doctor of Jurisprudence. He served as law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit and later as clerk for William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States. Cruz was the domestic policy advisor to the George W Bush presidential campaign, advising Bush on a wide range of policy and legal matters, including civil justice, criminal justice, constitutional law, immigration, and government reform. Cruz assisted in assembling the Bush legal team, devising strategy, and drafting pleadings for filing with the Supreme Court of Florida and U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of  Bush v. Gore, during the 2000 Florida presidential recounts.

After President Bush took office, Cruz served as an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department and as the director of policy planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. He was appointed to the office of Solicitor General for the state of Texas and argued nine times before the Supreme Court and won five of those cases. He has authored 70 United States Supreme Court briefs and presented 43 oral arguments, including the nine before the Supreme Court. Cruz’s record of having argued before the Supreme Court nine times is more than any practicing lawyer in Texas or any current member of Congress.

Cruz has consistently fought for conservative and constitutional values. Cruz drafted the amicus brief signed by the attorney generals of 31 states, which said that the D.C. handgun ban should be struck down as infringing upon the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He also successfully defended the constitutionality of the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds before the 5^th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 best litigators under 45 in America. In private practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice.

In 2012 he was elected as a Texas senator and here is where it really gets good. Instead of bowing to the liberal wishes of the RINOS in charge of the Republic party he has so often stood for the truth and for conservative values that he is hated by the old-guard RINO Republicans – and that is a good thing! These RINOS have totally sold out to Obama and have given the Democrats everything they want, from Obamacare to out-of-control deficit spending. Cruz has fought them every step of the way, calling the RINOS the “Surrender Caucus” and “The Washington Cartel.” If you are disgusted with the Republicans in Congress for betraying those who elected them, then you want Cruz as president, for he has been a consistent thorn in their side and will continue to push for reform.

Cruz has sponsored 25 bills of his own, including:

• 177, a bill to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the health-care related provisions of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, introduced January 29, 2013
• 505, a bill to prohibit the use of dronesto kill citizens of the United States within the United States, introduced March 7, 2013
• 729 and S. 730, bills to investigate and prosecute felons and fugitives who illegally purchase firearms, and to prevent criminals from obtaining firearms through straw purchases and trafficking, introduced March 15, 2013
• 1336, a bill to permit States to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote in federal elections, introduced July 17, 2013
• 2170, a bill to increase coal, natural gas, and crude oil exports, to approve the construction of the Keystone Pipeline, to expand oil drilling offshore, onshore, in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and in Indian reservations, to give states the sole power of regulating hydraulic fracturing, to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard, to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses,  to require the EPA to assess how new regulations will affect employment, and to earmark natural resource revenue to paying off the federal government’s debt, introduced March 27, 2014
• 2415, a bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to eliminate all limits on direct campaign contributions to candidates for public office, introduced June 3, 2014

It is clearly evident from the above that Cruz has clear and definite ideas on how to make America great again by tapping our vast energy resources, to stopping illegal aliens from voting to securing our borders. With Cruz it is not a slogan, it is solid ideas and plans.

Cruz has actively participated in debate clubs throughout his education and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship. In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year, and with his debate partner David Panton won Team of the Year. Cruz and Panton would later represent Harvard Law School at the 1995 World Debating Championship. In short, Cruz is the top debater in the country and would thoroughly trounce Hillary in a debate.

Cruz is a born-again Christian and talks openly about his faith in his book, A Time For Truth. He has a moral compass, refusing to give in to pressure from RINOS in Congress to compromise his principles. He has all of the other presidential prerequisites: The governmental and legal knowledge, the historical knowledge, the constitutional awareness, the military awareness and a proven history as a real statesman.

In conclusion, although Trump would certainly make an interesting president, there are lots of unknowns, and worst of all, he may lose to Hillary. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, has it all: The ideas, the experience, the knowledge, the track record and the moral character to make an excellent command-in-chief and a true statesman, and that is why I am voting for Ted Cruz instead of Donald Trump. If I have not convinced you, consider the prerequisites I have enumerated above and as you watch Trump in future debates, compare him to Ted Cruz and ask yourself who you think is most likely to beat Hillary and who best has the qualifications to be a leader on the world’s stage.