Forget Donald Trump for now. Is Ted Cruz the possible US Republican candidate that we should really be worrying about? Cruz is from Texas. He is a Princeton University graduate (1992). He has worked at the Office of Policy Planning at the US Federal Trade Commission (1999-2003), served as an associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice and served as a Domestic Policy Advisor to (later) President George W.Bush during the latter's dead heat presidential election campaign in 2000. He later served as Solicitor General of Texas (2003-2008) and taught law at the University of Texas in Austin as an adjunct professor (2004-2009). He became a Republican US Senator for Texas in 2012. He chairs two US Senate subcommittees- one is a Judiciary subcommittee that deals with Oversight, Federal and Rights and Agency Activities, while the other Commerce subcommittee is focused on Space, Science and Competitiveness. Cruz is one of three current US Congresspeople of Cuban descent. He is a fundamentalist Protestant. He was educated at Faith West Academy and Second Baptist High School in Houston. During high school, he also participated in a centre-right educational forum entitled the Free Market Educational Foundation, where he was exposed to the work of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Frederic Bastiat and Ludwig von Mises. After his graduation from Princeton, he also attended Harvard Law School, where he had editorial responsibilities for two journals- theHarvard Law Reviewand theHarvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.As a lawyer, he worked on the abortive impeachment campaign against President Bill Clinton and theBush v Gorecase at the US Supreme Court which handed George W.Bush his ill-fated presidency in 2000. Notably, while he was Texas Solicitor General, he did not participate in the defence of archaic US state "anti-sodomy" laws duringLawrence v Texasin 2003. However, he was active on other core US social conservative causes such as opposition to gun control legislation and support for religious monuments and displays in public space. During his successful US Senate campaign in 2012, Cruz was backed by fundamentalist former Republican Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, former Reagan era US federal Attorney-General Edwin Meese, Tea Party Express, Young Conservatives of Texas, Republican Senator Rand Paul, former Republican US Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and other Republican social conservatives, which gives one some idea of his political philosophy. He opposes orthodox scientific perspectives on climate change and supports gutting environmental safeguards to prospect for oil and gas within the United States. Cruz has repeatedly lambasted President Obama, denouncing him as an "unmitigated socialist" and condemned the US-Iran nuclear agreement in 2015, as well as the normalisation of diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2014. He has also attacked other Republicans for moderate attitudes toward the neccessity for gun control and argues that the party has insufficiently protected gun owners rights. Another target has been the establishment of the US Export-Import Bank, which Cruz opposed, but which other Republicans supported. Moderate Republicans castigated him for his intemperate language within the US Senate on both occasions. Cruz is also opposed to the US Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Cruz is an extreme social conservative. He is anti-abortion, only allowing it when a woman's life is at threat. He opposes marriage equality and civil unions, but says that states should be left to dictate marital status legislation and related public policy. He is "pro-gun" over gun control issue, supports capital punishment, opposes cannabis decriminalisation, supports free trade, and opposes a legislated minimum wage. At the World Congress of Families IX in Salt Lake City (May 2015), his father Rafael Cruz accused LGBT communities of "wanting""legalised pedophilia." During a right-wing talkback radio session, he complained about pending "mandatory gay marriage" as a violation of "religious liberty" during the same international US Christian Right-led conference. After theObergefelldecision at the US Supreme Court, Ted Cruz accused the US Supreme Court of judicial overreach, as he also did over Supreme Court endorsement of Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act in June 2015. In November 2015, at a fundamentalist "National Religious Liberties Conference", he remained silent and noncommittal about fundamentalist minister Kevin Swanson, who believes lesbians and gay men should be executed. Thus far, he has been endorsed by three US Christian Right groups- the American Family Association, Family Leader and the anti-equality "National Organisation for Marriage." Watch this man. Recommended: Wikipedia/Ted Cruz:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ted_Cruz Neal Broverman: "Ted Cruz' father says gays want legalised pedophilia"Advocate: 30.10.2015:http://www. advocate.com/religion/2015/ 10/30/watch-ted-cruzs-father- says-gays-want-legalized- pedophilia Dawn Ennis: "Ted Cruz said 'Supreme Court Justices violated their judicial oath"Advocate: 29.06.2015:http://www. advocate.com/p olitics/marriage-equality/ 2015/06/29/watch-ted-cruz- says-supreme-court-justices- violated-their-judi Dawn Ennis: "Cruz dodges questions about antigay pastor"Advocate: 07.11.2015:http://www. advocate. com/election/2015/11/07/watch- ted-cruz-dodges-cnns-question- about-antigay-pastor Sunnivie Brydum: "Mandatory Gay Marriage the Greatest Threat We've Ever Seen" Advocate: 15.05.2015:http://www. advocate. com/politics/election/2015/05/ 15/ted-cruz-mandatory-gay- marriage-greatest-threat-weve- ever-seen Craig Young - 23rd December 2015