Ted Cruz’s policies might be regressive, but his analogies when attacking Obama are downright backwards
Since getting elected in 2012, Canadian born Senator of Texas, Ted Cruz, has fast become famous among fellow Republicans and Tea Baggers. His absolute opposition to Barack Obama and everything Democrats try to accomplish has made him a poster boy for white, God fearing, freedom loving conservatives everywhere.
His policies don’t stray too far from other Tea Party Republicans, aside from a lack of some libertarian values. His policies are predictably nothing new. When a politician has nothing new to say they tend to attack what the other side is saying. It’s here where Ted Cruz has truly made a name for himself.
When Cruz goes after Obama’s policies, whether they be immigration, net neutrality or Obamacare, Republicans along with Fox News rally around him with thunderous applause. However, to a progressive with any sense of history and intelligence, those same attacks garner nothing more than ridicule and laughs.
I have heard progressives call Ted Cruz everything from stupid, ignorant and irrational to smart, cunning and strategic. Some say he’s all the above. Wherever the answer lies, you can be sure I’ve never seen or heard a lawyer get so many things backwards.
Right before President Obama took executive action on immigration last week, Senator Ted Cruz made a speech with his own rendition of “In Catilinam (Against Catiline),” a famous speech by Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero. Naturally he got it a little backwards.
The speech Cruz adapted accuses the president of being a dictator and overstepping the constitution, challenges the validity of the Obama presidency and accuses the president of treason. Cruz apparently has no idea who Cicero really was and what the famous speech is about.
“Against Catiline” refers to Catiline, who conspired to murder Cicero following an election loss for Rome’s highest office. Catiline was an advocate for the poor, who called for the cancellation of debts and openly backed land redistribution.
Cicero on the other hand, describes the lower class as insane and openly blames the decline of Athenian power on its democracy. Cicero worked to maintain the power and prosperity of the elites while limiting upward mobility and the powers of popular assemblies.
If anything, Cruz was trying to portray himself as Catiline rebelling against the establishment. Instead, by channeling Cicero, Cruz presents himself as the tyrant, working to protect the prosperity, power, and legal privilege of the few. Maybe he unknowingly got it right after all.
If you’ve been following political news, you have no doubt seen the war of words between Ted Cruz and Al Franken over the issue of net neutrality. After Obama came out publicly in favor of net neutrality, Cruz once again attacked the President, calling net neutrality “Obamacare for the internet.” That statement is both backwards and stupid.
Cruz said “In short, net neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet. It would put the government in charge of determining Internet pricing, terms of service and what types of products and services can be delivered, leading to fewer choices, fewer opportunities and higher prices.”
Cruz is basically arguing that net neutrality is equal to government regulation of the internet. It is in fact the exact opposite. We’ve had net neutrality from the beginning. If there had been fast lanes for websites back in the day, there might not have been Facebook or YouTube, instead we might still be using MySpace and Google Video.
As Al Franken said in response to Cruz “Obamacare was a government program that fixed something, that changed things, this is about reclassifying something so it stays the same. This would keep things exactly the same as they’ve been.”
Speaking of Obamacare, what made Ted Cruz a Republican/Tea Party household name was his 21 hour anti-Obamacare talk-a-thon back in September of 2013. It was this filibuster that made him and it was this filibuster where progressives first laughed at him.
During his 21 hour rant against the Affordable Care Act, Cruz somehow weaved in Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” to help protest Obamacare. He read the whole thing front to back, and still, the actual meaning of the book was lost on him.
Green Eggs and Ham was my favorite book as a kid, but even as an infant, I knew what the moral of the story was about. The point to the story is that you can’t knock something until you’ve tried it. But there was Ted Cruz, ranting away for nearly a full day about something he’s never tried.
Cruz has only been in Congress for a couple years, but he is proving to be a suitable replacement for the stupid, historically inaccurate Michele Bachmann. While he’s fun to laugh at, the power and influence he is gaining within the Republican Party is altogether frightening.
Spot on assessment of a delusional yet dangerous politician who always seems to pop up in the forefront of media coverage…Seems to have parlayed his debate experience with the preacher style of his wacky Father into a combination popular with the Bible Belt Evangelical faithful that Progressives will Never understand.. Been down here for years and still don’t get what these folks are so enthralled by… I just hear preaching and Hate