Yikes, Ted Cruz for President!

By Dr. Henry Flores, NewsTaco

That’s the way one Democratic Party operative put it in a donation email that went out last week.  Sometimes party activists use fear tactics to raise money from their faithful.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  However, this time it may work given the images that a Ted Cruz candidacy conjures up.

What is so Scary About Ted Cruz?

Well, where do you want to begin?  We can start by his claiming that climate change is not occurring?  Or, we can begin with him thinking that there is no need for government?  Or, we can consider that he wants to abolish the IRS (he may have a point there, at least reform it) and send all their agents to the border to reinforce the military we have down there anyway? Or, we can check his birth certificate?  Oops, that was dirty politics!  But, hey, hasn’t politics deteriorated to that level anyway?  Why not?  If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander!

Here is a politician, and he is a politician whether he likes to admit it or not, who rants about the world being on fire, reads “Green Eggs and Ham” to make a point during a speech on the Senate floor, and has absolutely no respect for any traditional or legal processes that govern how our government functions.  Can you imagine the image that our allies and enemies around the world will have of us if we elect this bozo to the presidency?

But Let’s Get Serious, What is so Scary About Ted Cruz?

On a more serious note, we need to consider who this man is and why it’s important that he not gain control of the highest office in the land.  Fundamentally, (I use the word in its fullest sense) Ted Cruz is the sweetheart of the Texas Tea Party.  He won his party’s nomination in the state because the party faithful fell asleep at the switch.  He represents all that is wrong with the new GOP.  The Tea Party is the party that has brought us voter suppression tactics, anti-immigration hatred, heightened levels of racism, open carry laws, anti-same-sex marriage, anti-women’s reproductive rights, anti-scientific and anti-intellectual proscriptions of all sorts.  As an example of this all you need to do is watch Ted Cruz joust with the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) over why the venerable space agency was so concerned with climate change if it was not part of their core mission.  Even after the administrator connected the dots (duh, if you don’t plan for climate change you can’t launch a space ship!) the senator still insisted that studying climate change was not part of their core mission so they didn’t need to be studying it.  It’s not enough that he is a climate change denier but to not understand the basic relationship between climate and heavier than air flight is just plainly incomprehensible.

Senator Ted Cruz is making his announcement as I pen this column at Liberty University which is a fundamentalist Baptist university founded by that great, right-wing patriot Jerry Fallwell.  The choice of making his announcement at this august institution of lower learning is based on his notion that “liberty” is the most important issue in America today, particularly religious liberty and to make a special appeal to the evangelical Christian base.  Well, I got news for the good senator but religious liberty is not under attack, secularism is under attack by religious intolerance today in America!  Secondly, I feel for my Christian friends.  Many feel abused from the last time they were manipulated by the right-wing of the Republican Party when “Eye of the Newt” Gingrich and his unholy minions used them to gain control of the House of Representatives.  Now, Ted Cruz comes along and wants to use them to gain control of the White House.  Well, what the senator from Texas is trying to do to Christians is down-right unchristian and he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

Was Margaret Atwood a Visionary?

In her classical work “The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, describes a religious dystopia brought on by the coming to political power of religious fundamentalists.  If I were the voting public, I would pick up that wonderful piece of literature and read it before voting for Ted Cruz.  Besides, shouldn’t someone check his birth certificate?