By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Well, the guy who ushered in the recent government shutdown with a 21 hour filibuster sure gets it honest. Texas senator Ted Cruz, that darling of the Tea Baggers, is no longer the Harvard educated political mystery man who chides the administration at every turn and who rabble rouses what is loosely referred to as the Republican base. Seems he learned the techniques of fact-free demagoguery at daddy’s knee and not amid the ivy in Cambridge (or at Princeton as Elaine M reminds me). That’s right, the Right (as in far) Reverend Rafael Cruz has embarked on his own freewheeling magical mystery tour armed only with the credential that he sired that darling of the Rebel flag wavers. Cashing in on sonny boy’s status among some on the right, Rafael Cruz is now touring the country demanding Obama “go back to Kenya” and turning the Treaty of Tripoli* on its head claiming divine sanction in decreeing that the land of the free and home of the brave is also the exclusive dominion of the Christian. And if that isn’t a big enough stain on his vestments, the representative of the Savior commands all Tea Baggers to shinny on up to the latest polling place to vote Republican.
IRS are you listening?
Speaking to the faithful at a Republican rally in Hood County (no pun intended), Texas, the elder Cruz gave us a new spin on two centuries plus of previously settled American history. Ignoring the fact that most of the movers and shakers who founded the nation were deists (and not Christians as currently subscribed), Cruz said “the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed on the knees of the framers” and were a “divine revelation from God, yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God.” Amen brother, pass the plate.
Cruz the elder added this little historical revelation to his earlier intelligence blockbuster that President Obama is really an “outright Marxist” who “seeks to destroy all concept of God.” “Back to Kenya” he goes was our man of God’s solution to the crisis of faith facing the nation.
Perhaps sensing that daddy might be more useful in the attic behind a locked door or maybe as a guest at an institution where falling down or colliding with walls is never a worry, Senator Cruz dismissed the rantings. “He is a pastor. He is a man of deep integrity. And he made a joke.” Sonny didn’t disagree or distance himself from the remarks, however. Hardy Har Har.
Yep, those fire and brimstone guys are a laugh a minute. Lewis Black look out! Raffy Cruz is stealing your material. Here is the jokester at his best before an audience that seems more than happy to pay the two drink minimum from that Comedy Central of the right birtherreport.com.
I’m guessing the beverage is Jonestown Kool-ade:
Those Cruz’ are a riot.
For those who think that the Ivy League schooled Sen Ted Cruz may have educated himself out of this lunacy, I suggest that you ask too much genetic engineering from mere college professors.
Source: Huff Post
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
* From the treaty ratified by the Senate and signed by President John Adams:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen ],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Nal:
no, he wouldnt because Rev Wright is not going to play well in Nebraska but Rev. Cruz will.
Nal, That may indeed be a valid point. We’ll see.
And Ted Crux’s campaign does not fear Rafael’s hatred and craziness. That is the scariest part.
Nal wrote: “And Ted Crux’s campaign does not fear Rafael’s hatred and craziness. That is the scariest part.”
Rafael does not have hatred, nor is he crazy. I like the fact that he and his son have a close relationship. I think you are suffering paranoia based upon bigotry. Your fear is not rational.
Are we talking about the same guy that claimed this is a Christian country?
That seems pretty exclusionary and hostile.
Are we talking about the same guy that told an accomplished US citizen to go back to a foreign country – Kenya?
That seems pretty hostile.
If you believe this country is about broad acceptance – and I do – then the ideas of this person seem very troubling.
bigfatmike wrote: “Are we talking about the same guy that claimed this is a Christian country? That seems pretty exclusionary and hostile.”
It is not exclusionary or hostile. That is the historical perspective of a lot of people. It’s just the facts.
bigfatmike wrote: “Are we talking about the same guy that told an accomplished US citizen to go back to a foreign country – Kenya?”
I don’t justify the comment. People, especially preachers, get caught up in talking to their constituents. He made a mistake. When they see a man destroy everything they love about this country, that is the natural reaction. But what he said is not nearly as bad as all the comments that I have read here about Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has a far more distinguished career than President Obama had before he was elected President.
Nal, The campaign FEARED Wright before his hatred and craziness became public. And, when it did, Wright was thrown under the bus quickly, and they backed up the bus just to make sure they got him. Obama sat in his church VOLUNTARILY for 18 years, until he started his run for prez. It gave he street cred in Chicago politics but he and his campaign knew it was poison nationwide. Nice spin, though.
From Elaine’s comment:
Moreover, Ted Cruz campaigns with his father; he had him in tow on a recent trip to Iowa (where the evangelical vote is crucial in GOP presidential primaries). Rafael Cruz regularly speaks to tea party and Republican groups in Texas as a surrogate for his son; during Ted Cruz’s 2012 Senate campaign, his father was dispatched to events and rallies across the state to whip up support.
These are choices that Ted Cruz has made. Obama never used Jeremiah Wright to campaign with/for him.
“Rmoney-care is what will win it for the Democrats
Republicans have feared not that health care reform would fail the American people, but that it would succeed. Along with Social Security and Medicare, successful health care reform would provide the third and final pillar of Americans’ social safety net, all brought you by the Democratic Party.
Put it another way, the GOP was never really concerned about a “government takeover of health care”, “rationing”, “the doctor-patient relationship” or mythical “death panels,” but that an American public grateful for access to health care could provide Democrats with an enduring majority for years to come
TcxDave wrote: ” the GOP was never really concerned about a “government takeover of health care”, “rationing”, “the doctor-patient relationship” or mythical “death panels,” but that an American public grateful for access to health care could provide Democrats with an enduring majority for years to come.”
Ridiculous. I would gladly vote Democrats into office in perpetuity if they would keep their nose out of my medical care decisions and a host of other issues where they engage in oppressive left-wing authoritarianism.
@Marco “Yeah, but the President’s exposure to Rec. Wright was for an hour or 2 on a weekly basis.”
Didn’t Obama break ties with Rev Wright and publicly distance himself from the reverend’s more radical teachings?
One might plausibly question the timing of Obama’s break with Wright. But Obama did give clear indication that his administration would not follow the guidance of the reverend.
And in fairness, it seems that Obama has adhered to that position.
Of course some think that just provides evidence that Obama is little more than a political opportunist – stepping over the bodies that boost him to the next level… neighborhood organizer, senator opposed to most Bush foreign policy, president embracing and extending Bush foreign policy with domestic policy imported from the deeply conservative University of Chicago department of economics and School of Law.
Can you imagine any neighborhood organizer who would pivot to a trumped up deficit crisis and ignore millions unemployed?
Can you imagine any reasonable observer during a time of economic crisis with the deepest recession since the 1930’s claiming the government, like families, must tighten its belt – as though Herbert Hoover was chairman of the presidents counsel of economic advisers?
@Arthur Randolph Erb
Thank you! This is something Jon Stewart brought up months ago. If Cruz runs it will be interesting to see how they will manage to twist the facts around to fit their needs.
And RACIST you picked the name so own it or change it. It is about as brilliant as say, People who hate anyone that disagrees with me is RACIST!
Just saying!
I would also be thrilled if Cruz won the Republican nomination. It has always struck me as a feature of rightists in general that they are so self unaware. All the talk last two Presidential election post mortems, claiming they lost because they weren’t far enough to the right. So, I say yes indeed! March yet further to the right, it will ensure a Democratic win for many years to come. Raphael Cruz is Democrat’s best “ally and advisor”. To compare father Cruz to Wright falls flat, in light of the fact that Obama removed himself from Wright’s influence and made a memorable speech rejecting Wrights comments. Will Cruz reject his father? Not likely.
“I suggest that you ask too much genetic engineering from mere college professors.”
lol … doesn’t matter if they are left, right, or center
Thanks for the call out to President John Adams. As the son of “Deacon Adams”, the Founder Adams was an active and permanent member of the First Parish Church (originally Puritan congregationalist morphed to Unitarianism.) In fact, the family crypt is in the basement of the church.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/2651917474_c6772df2a2.jpg
One of the reasons I so admire Founder Adams is based on his ability to draw the line between personal religious beliefs and governing. His view of Christianity kept him slave free … “Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude” and I suspect that in his tactless way he would have loudly scoffed at anyone suggesting that his fellow Founders, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin … slave holders all .. were Christian.
Yet the documents these men produced are summed up nicely by Adams:
“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”
Both Adams and Cruz attended Harvard which goes back to the opening quote from mespo: “I suggest that you ask too much genetic engineering from mere college professors.”
As the enemy is clearly identified;
it is our job – Duty – to alleviate the burdens upon our country.
Forthwith!
david,
you are right, sort of. Cruz was just one of the members of Congress that refused to end their hostage taking of the government. When you pass a bill and it passes constitutional muster, the only way you can terminate it is to pass another bill. Guess what, hostage taking is not the right way.
Mr. Cruz is a very sly, but crazy politician. Unlike Tommy Boy, this apple did not fall far from the tree.
@mespo “nick:…Here I’ll post it from the Food Channel:…”
Finally, something really interesting, thanks.
And … “Seems he learned the techniques of fact-free demagoguery at daddy’s knee and not amid the ivy in Cambridge. (or at Princeton as Elaine M reminds me).”
… presenting a severe challenge to the idea that education is the answer for prejudice.
Well, at least Cruz seems to conform to a long history of politicians espousing traditional American values… Huey Long and Joe McCarthy come to mind.
Barkin Dog wrote: “Ted Cruz shut down the government.”
No he did not. Your comment just illustrates how repeating a lie often enough causes people to believe a lie.
Ted Cruz was one vote in the Senate, and he voted for the House Bill to keep the federal government operating. The rest of the Senate voted against that bill and thereby caused the funding for the federal government to be stopped until the Senate created a new bill that would pass in the House. If the Senate had followed Ted Cruz’s leadership, there would have been no government shutdown. That is a fact.
The Rev. Wright comes to mind. Of course, Obama chose his angry, spewing, pastor. A son does not choose a father. A son should not pay for his father’s son. I’m not a “tea bagger” but I don’t hate them either.
Yeah, but the President’s exposure to Rec. Wright was for an hour or 2 on a weekly basis. Ted Cruz was brought up by his father. Btw did ALWAYS listen to and obey what you heard in church. Surely you jest.
In 1971 we marched on Washington as a tribe, with a vow to shut down the government until the government shut down the Vietnam War. We called ourselves the MayDay Tribe. Well, ultimately the government shut down the war but only from small momentum due to the Tribe. The Military Industrial Complex knew that there were other wars available out there in better climates. The Military Industrial Complex understood climate change.
Ted Cruz shut down the government. It taught us all some things. The first is that the workers went home and got a vacation all expenses paid. The shutdown affected some people more than others. Ted Cruz brought some focus upon the Washington mobsters themselves. Some would call them a tribe. Ted Cruz will be the standard bearer in 2016. None will dare call it treason. The war in Afghanistan will come to an end. The war in the Sudan will come to fruition. Blackwater by another name will surpass Google in share value. Boehner or Boner or however ya spull it will be Vice President and smoking will be allowed in the Halls of Congress and in all the federal office buildings again. Affirmative action will cease. Food stamps as we know them will become rare and some people will have to work to eat. That is the name of the new federal program they are devising as I write: Work To Eat. The Southern Strategy will be unleashed in full force. Non working moms and dads better get outta da way.
Such is the future.
At least Cruz hasn’t thrown his pastor under the bus like Obama did, YET!