HANDS triangled in prayer, then a sideways karate chop. Those two gestures, often performed in quick succession, were the signature gesticulations of Ted Cruz’s stump speeches during his now-abandoned bid for the Republican nomination. They also embody the main themes of his campaign, namely piety and violence, both real and rhetorical, which he promised to inflict on enemies from the corrupt halls of Congress to the glowing sands of the Middle East.
The rationale was that yoking religiosity to anti-establishment ire would tie up the evangelical vote with those of other disgruntled conservatives—millions of whom, in the estimation of the Cruz campaign, had stayed away from the polls in recent elections because no true believer was on the ballot. The strategy seemed to be vindicated by the Iowa caucuses, the season’s first contest, in which Mr Cruz narrowly beat Donald Trump. “Father God, please,” ran his regular sign-off in Iowa, “continue this spirt of revival, awaken the body of Christ.”
But although the plan was sufficiently sound for Mr Cruz to outlast the other non-Trump contenders, and despite his...Continue reading
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