I’m A Progressive Who Admires The Courage And Integrity of Ted Cruz

It’s no secret– I’m not a fan of Ted Cruz.

In fact, I found him to be the least desirable out of all the of the Republican candidates who sought the presidency this year. I believe his ideology is dangerous. I believe his ideas are wrong. And as a fellow Christian, I think Ted Cruz has a profound misunderstanding as to what being a Christian means and looks like.

But for as much as I have been critical of Ted Cruz, last night– for the first time– I found myself respecting him, and even admiring him.

I’ve been watching Republican conventions since I was a kid. In fact, I’ve recorded every Republican convention in my adult lifetime– something I did with the anticipation that one day I’d re-watch those glory days with my own children. What can I say? Back in the day I was a Republican’s Republican.

In all those years, and with every speech I have sat through, I cannot recall a moment at a GOP convention that demonstrated the courage of conviction that Ted Cruz demonstrated last night.

A party’s political convention is a coronation. It’s a moment when a new leader is crowned, and everyone– friend and former foe– ceremonially bow down to kiss their ring and pledge their loyalty. Ted Cruz had his moment to do so last night; it was a moment on the stage, a prime-time slot, speaking face to face with his own party and millions of Americans.

It was Ted Cruz’s moment to fall in line, and kiss the ring.

And Ted Cruz used his moment in the spotlight to basically tell everyone they could screw off.

For as much as I dislike Ted Cruz, and think he would have been a worse president than Donald Trump, in that moment I smiled hard as I watched him demonstrate the courage of his conviction by standing in defiance, instead of bowing down and kissing the ring.

Many of Cruz’s peers threw their integrity to the wind by standing on stage to endorse Trump. After spending more than a year of their life making the argument that Trump would be a horrible president, they somehow had a change of heart and a change of mind, the moment Trump assumed all the power.

There’s nothing respectable about that.

But I’ll tell you what: There’s a ton of things I respect about having the courage to take that stage and give everyone the finger.

It takes courage to say, “I’m sticking with my convictions, and I don’t care if the group approves.”

And last night? The group didn’t. He got booed. His wife had to be rushed out of the building by security. The tribe was not happy.

I don’t have to agree with the convictions, or even like the person, to be able to pause for a moment and admit that I find such defiance beautiful. I always have. I always will.

While I don’t agree with Ted Cruz on much– or perhaps, not on anything, I do want to be someone who has the same kind of courage of conviction that he has.

Conservatives aren’t the only group who consolidates around “group think” and then expect everyone else to get in line and bow down to it. Progressives do it too. In fact, when a progressive doesn’t get in line behind the rest of the pack, the Progressive Police can get just as nasty and hateful as the conservative version. They might not boo you off stage, but they’ll try to boo you off twitter.

All tribes work the same way– they may think differently, but tribal structure crosses all boundaries between liberal and conservative.

As much as it pains me to say it, I’m admiring Ted Cruz pretty hard today.

Like Ted, I don’t want to ever sell out my convictions to please the group. I don’t want to ever fall in line, embrace the group-think, or to paint my tail white so I can go run with the other gazelles, if I don’t feel it’s the right thing to do in my heart.

Instead, when those moments come, I want to be like Ted. I want to have the courage to take the stage, to look them in the eyes (or their twitter handles), and respond to them with sheer and unapologetic defiance.

I hope you will too– because there’s something beautiful, something exquisite, and something admirable about the sort of soul who has the courage to face an angry mob of group-thinkers, and to give every last one of them the bird.

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