Okay is Ted Cruz running for President or an open job as a televangelist?
Here is more about the Cruz strategy courtesy of Politico:
The Texas Republican senator’s strategic play for Christian conservatives comes into even sharper focus this weekend as he rolls out the first television ad of the 2016 race. Titled “Blessing,” the commercial is aimed directly at evangelical and social conservative voters in early voting states, timed for Easter weekend and slated to air during popular Christian-themed programming.
It’s an exercise in narrowcasting that telegraphs exactly how Cruz intends to win the GOP nomination against better-funded and better-known rivals. His advisers say the Liberty University backdrop, the TV ads and even his recent two-day tour of Iowa are all part of a detailed blueprint designed to tap into the power of two distinct GOP wings — evangelicals and the tea party movement.
With establishment voters breaking toward former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and libertarian-oriented conservatives likely to go for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — the Cruz team believes the Texas Republican must flat-out win the tea party set and finish either first or second among Christian conservatives, a bloc that dominates the GOP base in Iowa and South Carolina.
“I don’t think he could have had a better strategy, all the way from his launch to his swing through Iowa,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential social conservative leader in Iowa. “He’s had a strong announcement, and he’s going to be a strong candidate.”
I have a hard time believing that this strategy can actually be successful enough to garner Cruz the nomination, but I do know that it worked pretty well for a certain George W. Bush.
What I can say for sure is that I would welcome Ted Cruz as the GOP candidate, because that would energize the progressive base of the Democratic party like crazy.
But then again so would a Jeb Bush for that matter.
Actually we're ready to rock the vote no matter who they nominate.
However in the case of Cruz he may not even be that concerned about winning the nomination. His ultimate strategy might be something else entirely.
This from Salon:
It is an error to dismiss the Cruz candidacy as quixotic. Political observers make the mistake of thinking that he and his ilk are simply at the far right of the same political spectrum that the rest of the country reflects. They are not. Most Americans, Republicans as well as Democrats, accept some version of the New Deal. They believe the government must regulate modern capitalism so that hard-working individuals can rise. Republicans and Democrats often disagree on how to accomplish that goal, but members of the two parties share a basic view that the government has a role to play in society. Many Republicans believe they can work together with Democrats to hash out legislation. These are the people Cruz disdains as “the mushy middle.” In contrast, Movement Conservatives like Cruz believe that rich businessmen are society’s proper leaders and that any government activism to level the economic playing field destroys freedom. They believe their view is absolutely right; to compromise on anything would lose everything.
Cruz does not have to win the White House to win the war. So long as he can grab headlines and whip up voters, Movement Conservatives can continue to hold enough congressional seats to continue to block legislation and defund the government.
They keep telling us he is smart.
And a smart conservative with this agenda, is a very dangerous conservative indeed.
Cruz IS better labelled a fundie evangelist, rather than politician, because politics is the art of compromise. Cruz clearly cannot compromise -- it's his way or the highway. I honestly think that if he came even close to the nomination, he would be "taken out" by the GOP. What the manner of that might be, who knows.....
ReplyDeleteThere must be video somewhere of him and/our his father maligning another older more organized religion. Mark my words, it's already set aside for the day it's needed to take him out.
DeleteOh, and, "Fuck you, John McCain. I hold you personally responsible for our downfall into this dark abyss."
There is a video of a Texas bigot making jokes about shooting people who travel to Texas from California, and everyone is laughing about it.
DeleteCruz is in the front row, but there is no proof he's actually laughing, but it's a shame someone doesn't have some footage of that.
I might pay up to $1000 for clear proof that Ted was laughing directly at shooting Californians
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/ted-cruz-crowd-loves-bloggers-jokes-about-opening-fire-on-cars-with-california-plates/
I agree with both you and Salon. We ignore the powerful appeal of their authoritarian propaganda at our peril. Always remember that this virulent strain of hyper religiousity, the "We Are #1" supremacy nationalism, xenophobia and last, but by far not least, plain and brutal racism. Underlying all of these symptoms are the fears of progress because they are unwilling, or possibly unable to entertain innovative thoughts. This is the neverending struggle between Progressive and Regressive parties and we must never discount this simple fact.
ReplyDeleteWhen religion and politics is combined, the infallibility of God makes their non-compromising political positions righteous and ordained.
DeleteOr, "inerrant " meaning "free of error". So why would Cruz, et al. listen to any facts or logic? -- not relevant to them in the least. They are merely the Devil's whispers to test their faith.
Lethal for progress, equality or humanity. We dismiss these crackpots as stupid to our peril.
We can only hope this crazy extremism frightens the moderates into voting Liberal.
Agreed, Barbara!
DeleteAmen to this.
DeleteThat "authoritarian propaganda" sound a lot like the fascism of the 1930's. And Americans still say they wonder how the German people bought into Hitler and his lunacy??? We've got our own brands of it here in the US. We ignore these people at our peril.
DeleteBeaglemom
He uses all the RWC points. Blond aryann-looking kid at table with hands in prayer, happy families holding hands and walking into the sunset. It's lathered with phony fake self-promotion, with he, hugging his dad, and talking about how he could have ended up being raised by a single mother (without God's transformative love)........as his dad came back into his life. Really, though, the transformative love would have required Rafael Cruz to also go back to his first wife. Did Rafael Cruz re-marry?
ReplyDeleteOf course God forgives people when they fail and divorcees are forgiven, but, to put this image on his campaign ad and pretend that his dad is a complete transformed christian is outrageous. Did the man give his 'testimony' about God's grace? Did he talk about forgiveness? Does he prove it by forgiving others? Does he act with the beatitudes? Mercy love forgiveness meekness? Rafael Cruz acts like he's God's right-hand man, the way he speaks, and the nasty lies he speaks about President Obama, does Ted and Rafael think this pleases God?
They are wolves, snake-oil salesmen of the worst kind, using Christ's transformative love into a talking point so they can win an election. This is the 'sin' component that the bible talks about in the gospel to warn believers of. The church is in worse danger of wrath, as they should know better; If the RW think people's sins bring judgment upon America, they should look no further than their own heart.
Here's the thing - who is Ted or Rafael Cruz to forgive anyone? If I sin it is against God. (This is a wild abstract on my part, I don't buy into "sins", I buy into right and wrong and bettering myself when I can.) Only God can forgive the sin. Their grande scheme of the end of days assume that there will be sinners who will go to hell. Why not let it be? My sin of non-belief doesn't affect them one at our another, other than that I pay a prescribed role as a non-believer in their fantasy. Who are they to presume they can judge what happens between me and God?
Deletethese are the people like Cruz &palin and the others the Bible Warns about. slimey and sleazy. all in the name of the Serpent.
DeleteCruz is a
DeletePompous
Repugnant
Irresponsible
Kink
Oops! Forgot the "C"
DeleteCynical
Yes that spells PRICK ...
While a Cruz nomination may mobilize his base, the best he can hope for from non-evangelical Republicans is ghat they will stay home in November 2016. They may not be able to bring themselves to vote for the D, they won't vote for this madman. They'll stay home, vote for the Independent, or vote for the D, and view heavily in the House and Senate races. We can't take those races for granted.
ReplyDelete"Blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation"?????
ReplyDeleteWhose blessing, Ted? God blesses colonialists and rich merchants whose business is to sell human beings into slavery? In chains? Forever parting them from their families? Abusing them with whippings and inhumane punishments? Invading lands and killing the Native American occupants? Stealing and butchering and scheming to take what isn't theirs?
America is of the world just like every other nation. It started with a lot of bloodshed and is no different than any other nation whose great discoverers had to kill and mame to get their flag planted on it. There's no wrong in being patriotic about one's country, but when these RW citizens refuse to deny it's gross errors and sin, and cover it all with a fairy tale it's divinely superior in God's eyes, and it's founders saintly and sin-free, and entitled and do this in God's face, they've got some serious issues.
Very well said. The Christian Taliban, which includes Ted, just don't want to know anything about the criminal past of the USA government, and how it broke over 200 legally binding treaties with the native people of America.
DeleteThey are blind and insensitive to anything outside their bubble of God Guns Grits and Gravy, to quote Mike Huckabee.
There are many thousands of Christian Dominionists that are working tirelessly behind the scenes to enthrone a militant theocrat Ted Cruz or Rick Santorum as President.
Should they succeed in that goal, we libertarians, liberals, democrats, and independents are going to have one hell of a hard time keeping them from starting World War 3.
Besides war with Iran, bombing anyone else, and kicking off Armageddon, they are all about oppressing women, overturning roe v wade, eliminating capital gains tax, and making the rich even wealthier.
There is a truly horrific and dystopian future possible for the USA if we don't actively prevent such a monster as Ted Cruz from becoming President.
A.J. -- Agree with everything you've said, BUT, I suggest that the majority who vote Republican are totally unaware of the fundies' agenda, and merely vote Repub because they always have. I have several American relatives who do that. But one dear cousin who votes Democrat suggests that if the majority of Repubs actually understood what Cruz, Santorum, Palin etc. want to achieve, those Repubs would break away and move toward the middle, thus becoming more of a threat to Democrats winning the White House again.
DeleteThreat to Dems winning? I think that is the idea
DeleteWAKE UP PEOPLE!!!
Sadly, God did not make Rafael Jr. more attractive. He has a whiny face, sloppy mouth and a constant look of constipation about him. Not an attractive person in any way, shape or form. Then there is his unpalatable father, his Dick Cheney the puppet master.
ReplyDeleteHe is dark and hallow inside. Dick the FUCK Cheney is a master puppet wizard, who should be hung in the Hage..with his fallowers..
DeleteHere they are - the Corporate Fascist - wrapped in the flag and carrying the bible. How any sentient being can look at that and not be appalled is beyond me. But, people do worship at the alter of money and power.
ReplyDeletealtAr
DeleteWouldn't it be wonderful if the politicians, as elected members of Congress, stayed the hell in D.C. and did their goddamned jobs to take care of our countries needs? Instead of runnimg around polarizing group after group of people.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Ted Cruz have an attendance rate of something like 19%? The people of Texas should recall him for not doing his job.
DeleteBeaglemom
Rafael has a " ploy " not necessarily a strategy. He is certainly no
ReplyDeletePresidential material. Dumb as a fox ? Only in the sense that he has learned whom and how to appeal to,and telling them what they only want to hear , no matter the subject.
The hate and fear is deafening ,and that is what Rafael is banking on.Yes he is dangerous.
"What I can say for sure is that I would welcome Ted Cruz as the GOP candidate, because that would energize the progressive base of the Democratic party like crazy."
ReplyDelete--------------------
I think the progressive base was energized enough to win at least some of the races in 2014 but for some strange reason we lost those elections. What scares me about this next election is we could easily wind up with Koch Cruz as our president. How do progressives overcome the Kochs and the Diebold voting machines?
Ted Cruz Using Coloring Books To Brainwash Your Children!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.liberalamerica.org/2015/04/04/ted-cruz-using-coloring-books-to-brainwash-your-children/
Simple! The coloring books do not need to be purchased, picked up or brought into your homes where there are children. Easy squeezy!
Delete"how he could have ended up being raised by a single mother (without God's transformative love)"
ReplyDelete--------------------------------
Bite me, you disgusting, grandstanding, smarmy-faced pig. My kids were raised by a single mother, and guess what?
The one that spent the most of her formative years in that awful single mother home is by far the most successful and balanced of all my children. Her brothers are by now married and settled down, but they still have issues from spending more of their formative years in a household with abuse and addiction issues than their sister did.
I was raised in a believing household, and never was it suggested that God's "transformative love" was manifest by abuse, addiction, and all that goes with those plagues.
Thank You! Well put.
DeleteTed Cruz and his ilk, whether spouting off from a pulpit or from a political platform, are hypocrites of the first order.
DeleteBeaglemom
I hear you loud and clear. I was an independent turned Republican not to vote for Ted but for someone else....The commercial was tacky as hell and he is stupid to put down single mothers and children raised by them. The person I planned on voting for though supposidly is friends with him which is making me wonder. I hope I get a chance to ask the candidate I want to vote for a specific question....The one I support supposidly wants to expand the Party and reach out and include everyone so hopefully he is different from Ted in that sense. I also noticed he only said single moms not single dads.....seems not like a jab a single parent but single moms in particular. Single moms can and many do a great job =)
DeleteRise...and fall.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-03/after-poll-surge-ted-cruz-is-still-below-his-2013-gop-primary-numbers
Gratitude to all of you on this thread of persons united in our concern for the future.
DeleteAbuse takes many forms. Personally, I consider abuse to be when a parent browbeats a child into believing their own version of God. If Rafael Sr. was a religious freak during Jr.'s childhood, how is that not abuse? He certainly seems to have a hold over this grown man to this day. Is there fear involved? Dependency? Not ALL abuse is physical.
ReplyDeleteTed Cruz is trusting the media to be his megaphone rather than commit actual journalism.
ReplyDeleteThere is no distance between the elder and younger Rafaels and it's well past time for some journalist to investigate the stories they tell. For starters, there's the big whopper of a lie Rafael the Elder tells about how he fought with pro-Castro forces in Cuba and was forced to flee to the U.S.. And then there are the U.S. citizenship issues, the alliance with crazy New Apostolic Reformation prophets and faith healers, Paul Weyrich, and ...........
Elder Cruz curse has not even been a US citizen for very long. That happened when the curse Jr. decided that Politics R Cruz.
Deletedowl
All I can say when it comes to Ted Cruz and his 'religion' banter is BARF! He'll never be POTUS!
ReplyDeleteI think Republicans will vote for whomever is running for them in the election. If you would take time and look at what they have done legislative wise in the past couple of decades you will see a concerted effort has been made to take control of the country. They now control the media and are really trying to control the elections. I think they are succeeding.
ReplyDeleteI think that you're right, Anon at 9:16 am. I remember back in the early 1990's there was a big effort by super-conservatives to get a foothold on the local school board. It took them a few elections but they got where they wanted to be. We were told by friends who were active in the state's Republican Party (Michigan) that the same thing was happening there. Again, it took them a few years but look at our entire country now. Pretty scary. For decades the rest of us have shrugged our shoulders and said, "no one will go along with this stuff." Well, we were wrong and now we're going to have to fight tooth-and-nail to dig the country out.
DeleteBeaglemom
Ted Cruz and his father did the organizing with evangelicals for GWB and started his campaign from the moment he was elected senator. Headlines was part of his plan.
ReplyDelete"WAKE UP PEOPLE"! is right. The RR (Religious Right) have been planning this attack FOR. YEARS. They've done their market research and realized they could warm, cozy and terrify narrow-minded Fundies, as well as those who are still on the fence, to be snake-charmed into the RWNJ way of thinking. All you have to do is look at how the irrational, juvenile-minded hate and cult-like manipulation have been trumped up by the media over the past six years, all in the name of "morals" and "freedom". If Junior (and his televangelist wannabe Daddy-O) is/are actually nominated and--ahem-- "elected", we'll find ourselves plopped into a stifling theocracy, anxiously awaiting the Last Days--because Teddy is gonna bring back Jesus all by himself, doncha know! Papa Cruz sez so! When the dust clears and some of the brainwashed regain consciousness, it'll be too late (and they'll find a way to blame the Godless Libruls anyway). I sincerely hope that some hidden scandal or major gaffe heads Smirkenstien off at the pass, before the low-infos start to take him seriously.
ReplyDeleteMore like DECADES!
DeleteJohn Birch Society
Skull and Bones Society
Much much more...
It is very ugly puzzle that is now begining to reveal itself..
Can you say "groomed and sworn"? This is how it has been propagated and perpetrated. The sons of the sons
DeleteThis creepy crawler needs to go back under his rock.................
ReplyDeleteI would agree that Ted Cruz is a very dangerous fellow. However, I would like to add that it is still early days in the nominating process and the opposition research on Cruz (being done by his fellow Republicans who also want the nomination) is not yet known.
ReplyDeleteIn short, Mr. Cruz has not yet been vetted. I would predict that he has skeletons in his closet that will be coming out right before the primaries begin.
The only nice thing I can think to say about Cruz is that he never tried to get across the street when I was behind the wheel. Where is Sarah's outrage? Bristol's been and unwed mom for years (ok, she's not good at it, but just saying) and this idiot whores out his family in an ad called "blessings" while putting down single parents? Hey Cruz, who died and made you Jesus? Statistically, women outlive men, so your wife may be a single mom some day (I'm sure she'll find someone real quick, and she'll wear red to your viewing).
ReplyDeleteToday's GOP let itself get screwed from within, I see nothing worth voting for on their side, especially Ralphie boy.