And there you have CNN’s breathless recounting of Mother
Jones’s piece on Ted Cruz’s dad in a nutshell :
Comments from last year by the father of Republican Sen. Ted
Cruz of Texas, including a desire to send President Barack Obama “back to
Kenya,” are creating a new controversy Thursday.
A story by the left-leaning news organization Mother Jones
highlights a series of newly surfaced videos that also feature Rafael Cruz
calling the United States “a Christian nation,” urging men to reclaim
their place as the “spiritual” head of the household and lambasting
the so-called “death panels” that some conservatives claim are in the
President’s health care law.
The elder Cruz, a successful businessman turned evangelical pastor, and an
immigrant from Cuba, along with his son, has become a hero among many tea party
activists and social conservatives.
One of the most explosive statements comes from an April 2012
video, as his son was running for the Senate, and as the President was running
for re-election.
“We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago,”
Cruz urges. “Back to Kenya.”
The sheer volume of completely stupid shit Ted Cruz has
uttered could just about be squeezed into the Grand Canyon. If you did nothing
but write up the dumb, inane, absurd, ridiculous and wrong statements Teddy
Badgame has come up with over the past three years, you could pretty much fill
the Internet, but only if you eliminated half the porn out there.
You don’t like Ted? Totally acceptable position. You want
Ted to look bad? Feel free to have at it.
But really? His dad?
It’s this kind of stuff that makes politics a completely
worthless read for me: Don’t focus on the issue. Focus on the person. Even
more, it’s the kind of thing that keeps decent, normal people from deciding to
run for stuff. For reasons past my
understanding, it doesn’t seem to dissuade the whackjobs from giving it a shot,
but still…
How many of us love our parents, but cringe at some of the
stupid shit that comes out of their mouths? Or have a cousin who fucked up and
landed in jail? Or have a grandparent who is wonderful in 99 ways but for some
reason still uses the word “colored” to describe non-white people? Do you
really want those people’s problems to be the stick by which you are measured?
(Maybe in Ted’s case he does…)
Journalism is inordinately difficult when you have to dig in
and pick out things that matter, analyze them, report them and then write them
in a way that people will understand and act upon.
On the other hand, it’s really easy if all you’re doing is
acting like the kid who spent all of third grade finding out that one guy in
your class called another guy a “doodyhead” and then running over to that kid
and saying, “Billy called you a doodyhead!” This approach comes with it the
hope that Billy will then say, “Yeah, but Jimmy’s a SUPERdoody head” so that
the “doodyhead war of words” will escalate to a full-on playground fight.
This explains why 95 percent of the “journalism” practiced
around the week of the Super Bowl boils down to which idiot said something was
“retarded” and if someone was “disrespecting” someone on another team. I mean,
if everything goes right, you might get four or five stories out of this!
Rafael Cruz might think that Obama came from Kenya or it
might have been a passing lame joke meant to egg on a group of like-minded
anti-Obama idiots. It’s not like he was campaigning to this group in hopes of
swaying undecideds.
Even if he thinks Obama is a socialistic Kenyan nationalist
who put Foxy Brown, Jim Brown and Bundini Brown into key roles of
government, who gives a shit? Better yet, who SHOULD give a shit and WHY WOULD
they give a shit?
And WHY is this a top story on CNN? Shouldn’t we expect deeper,
better and stronger news out of a national news organization?
Respectfully disagree with you on this one, Doc. Ted, Sr. is actively campaigning on behalf of Junior, not just shouting at the TV, or embarrassing relatives at Thanksgiving Dinner.
And the message is more than a little scary — Dominionism sounds, well, as fascist as the Sinclair Lewis quote, “wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” I’ve lately wondered how early and often the younger Ted was told he’d be the chosen instrument, which might well explain things like denigrating “lesser” Ivy League schools during his time at Harvard Law.
Not my favorite politician, but you have to hand it to Bob Kerrey for “Santorum, isn’t that Latin for asshole?” Maybe Cruz is a synonym…
I, too, have to disagree. Ted Cruz has repeatedly said his father was his number one influence, granting him credit for getting Ted involved in a variety of extreme conservative organizations during his youth that has shaped who he is now. It is only fitting, then, to examine the roots of this influence and expose the underpinning philosophies behind it.
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ted grew up under his father. same crazee tree.
Folks-
I’m with you that this guy isn’t all that bright, is more than a tad scary and is a completely worthless bag of Santorum (the Dan Savage edition). That’s all fine and good.
I’m also not a big fan of the “family is off limits” bullshit thing politicians do when they have family and, you know, they decide the press shouldn’t pry. Family is fair game in a number of instances and I know where you stand on Rafael and how fair his game is. Still, I don’t like the idea the idea of “Well, your DAD is an ASSHOLE” is somehow a political turning point in our discourse these days.
My point was simply that this isn’t news. It’s not like a ton of fence-riding potential Cruz supporters were suddenly turned off by his dad being just as stupid as he is. When CNN refers to an “explosive statement” regarding a Cruz missile, I’m thinking this has to be him saying either a) “Barack Obama! I’m so in favor of him, I’ve named my cats Barack and Obama.” or b) “I used to anally manipulate Teddy while forcing him to watch Klan rallies in hopes that he would see the rapture. That’s why he’s this way.” I didn’t expect a talking party that’s so vapidly and patently Tea Party that it’s practically tattooed on members upon joining.
Ted Cruz is a knuckle-dragging, dick-bagging, bottom-feeding Tea Party gimp. I can’t imagine any reason that we need some sort of “reveal” that involves what his dad is saying or doing that would be useful in further bolstering that supposition.
I am, however, amused that Cruz is now going to “statement is on my website” lengths to disassociate himself from Daddy Dearest’s message.
That’s what I got.
Doc
What they said, Doc. Rafael isn’t a non-player, he’s an insider. And his brand of Christian dominionism is both common and very dangerous. I covered some of them, and they’re right up front about what they want to do: replace the Constitution with Old Testament Biblical law and make second-class citizens, or worse, of those who disagree.
I hate to gang up on you, Doc, but Cruz the elder is an integral part of Teddy Boy’s political operation. Love the nickname Teddy Badgame, great play on Teddy Ballgame.
RE: Statements of Cruz senior about Obama going back to Kenya and yesterday’s news of him saying that Obamacare should be taken back to Kenya.
Statements seem kind of weird, considering that Cruz senior is an immigrant.
But maybe not so strange when I remember many statements from Cuban refugees – basically the wave of Cubans fleeing Castro consisted of the educated professionals. They were akin to being a Cuban aristocray that thumbed their noses at the lower class Cubans (and for that matter, thumbed their noses at most other countries). Plus, understandably, they had a sore spot for loosing what they had to the grungy appearing Castro.
In short, they were children of privilege who resented the loss of that privilege. Kind of tied in well with Mitt-bots.
Appreciate the thoughts, Doc, and get what you’re saying. However, to reiterate my own .0000002 cents worth, Cruz the elder isn’t Jeremiah Wright, or Bill Ayers. He’s on Team Cruz.
Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama took quite a bit of flack, fairly or unfairly, for supposedly controversial statements made in the course of campaigns and presidencies. And if there HAD been a “Whitey” tape, you can bet the shitstorm/feeding frenzy would have been for the ages.
Which probably isn’t that good of a thing, but it is the modern reality of US political campaigns.