system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: While neither are good options, a Cruz presidency would be worse for America than a Trump presidency.

First, let me provide a little bit of context as to where this thought comes from. I am a Bernie supporter, and while I'm still holding out hope, I recognize the likelihood that Hillary Clinton will be the democratic nominee. Meanwhile, Trump is rising seemingly by the day over on the Republican end. Now, this could only be a regional thing, though I've seen the sentiment echoed online as well--but many, many people who I interact with on a day to day basis see Trump as an unfortunate "lesser of two evils" in a matchup against Hilary. I don't share this view, but I've been hearing it in just about every discussion I've had pertaining to the election lately. "It can't be worse than Trump unless it's Hillary," "I'd only vote Trump if it came down to him and Hillary," etc. This notion terrifies me, but it does lead me to another point: Trump is not the Republican favorite of any of these people, either. Nearly every republican I know supports Ted Cruz, who looks to be rapidly approaching the status of Trump's only contender for the nomination. 

At first, I wanted to root for Cruz getting the Republican nomination. While I knew that he wasn't an ideal choice, I assumed that he would be a safer alternative than the Donald. But then I looked into his platform, and now I'm not so sure.

A few points that stood out to me:
-Ending corporate income tax
-Denying subsidies for producers of renewable energy 
-His immigration policy is basically "Trump with less shouting."
-Against net neutrality
-Stances on social issues are a nightmare 
-The same ridiculous "flat tax" that everyone ripped on Carsen for 
-Opposed to protections on ocean, coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems 
-Everything regarding the Middle East. 

I could go on and on, but you get the point: pretty typical far-right fare. However, Cruz takes it a step further with fanatical religious rhetoric akin to people like Huckabee and Santorum. Cruz religiously fueled manifest-destiny attitude terrifies me--we have a separation of church and state for a reason, and fanaticism combined with power is, historically, not awesome. I feel that it Trump weren't in this race, then Cruz would be the one everyone considered a crazy extremist. Trump's outlandishness has had a ripple effect of making other extremists look moderate by comparison.

Which brings us to the tip of all this: the Cruz vs. Trump argument. Yes, Trump's rhetoric is just as backwards and insane as Cruz's, often worse, but the key difference is that Trump doesn't seem to have any ACTUAL plans. His entire "platform" is reliant on buzzwords, blanket statements, and pandering to his base--no substance, no actual plans or policies, which, in any other case, is a bad thing. But Cruz seems to HAVE plans. He knows what he's going to do and has at least some idea of how he'll do it. And I don't think that anything good could come of that.

Trump, meanwhile, has no idea what he's doing. He's politically and economically incompetent, and likely would struggle to make anything happen legislatively speaking. In addition, he has a rather wishy-washy history, certainly none of the hardline convictions that drive Cruz. While I've hesitated to make these sorts of statements about Trump up until now, the fact is that we still can't be entirely certain WHAT he believes, as a whole. There are grey areas, though at the very least I can agree with some of the stances he seems to have held in the past. And he feeds off of his popularity right now, but celebrity is fickle--he doesn't have the same unshakable "moral" convictions that drive Ted Cruz. While I hold no illusions that Donald Trump would be easy for anyone to work with, his "convictions," if you can even call them that, stem from a much more transient, negotiable place than Cruz's fire-and-brimstone religious extremism.

What it boils down to is that, under a Donald Trump presidency, there is some ambiguity as to what might happen. But we can KNOW that a Ted Cruz presidency would be disastrous. 

So, people of Reddit, change my view.
gpt
Either one would be a disaster. You're absolutely right about Cruz's tax plan. He would cause significant economic damage in that regard. But not any worse than Mitt Romney would have caused, or what George Bush's administration did. Trump is another story, however.

I think there are two things that make Trump a hundred times more dangerous than ANY candidate.

The first, is his childish and simplistic attitude toward public relations, world negotiations, and foreign policy. He has this idea in his mind that, because he's Donald Trump, he'll be able to twist Mexico by the arm and have them fund his border control projects. He thinks he'll be able to "bomb the shit" out of Iran and ISIS in general. He thinks he'll be able to call the shots with China on trade. And, scariest of all, he thinks that he'll be able to waltz up to Putin and spit in his face, and that it will fix everything.

He wants to strain, or even stomp on, our already rocky relationships with middle eastern countries. He wants to create NEW enemies with Russia and China, countries that are already leaving us alone, for the most part. And worst of all, he wants to cut ties with some of our strongest allies, like Mexico, or the UK. He would toss our allies aside and take them for granted, taunt and provoke our existing enemies, make NEW enemies, and underestimate huge imposing threats like Russia and North Korea.

It's not that simple. You can't just be the playground bully of the world and think it will solve all our problems. You need to forge alliances, make agreements, make coalitions, and he has no intention of doing any of that.

This will paint a huge target on the back of the US. We would be seen as the world's biggest threat, and the world would turn on us. Ted Cruz wouldn't even come close to creating a tension that big.

The second is his nonchalant attitude toward racism, violence, and intolerance. Hate crimes and assault happen to protesters at his rallies all the time, and he just sits there and laughs. He won't denounce the KKK, and refuses to turn away his white supremacist and neo Nazi followings. He's putting wood on the fire of racism, just before it was about to die out. Minorities and ethnic groups in our country would tear each other apart before long.

I agree with you. Cruz would cause extreme economic damage within our country. But it wouldn't be irreparable, and we would survive. Trump has the scary combo of tearing our country apart socially from the inside with racism, making our allies hate us, lighting the fire in the middle east, awakening dormant threats, and underestimating current ones.

Ted Cruz would weaken our country economically. Trump would destroy it socially, then turn the entire world against it afterwords. We would stand no chance.