The GOP and Another Year of Doing Nothing -- But Expertly!

by Sunnyjane

Official conclusion:  NO HEART DETECTED.   And the year went downhill from there.

Thirteen months ago, Barack Obama won and Mitt Romney lost.  It was a humiliating loss, one that many in the GOP have not yet gotten over.  But National Republican Committee chairman Reince Priebus declared that his party would undergo a political autopsy to see how it could expand its base to be more, ahem, inclusive for those demographics that voted for Barack Obama.

About all that came out of that autopsy was that the Republican Tea Party's policy were sound, but the messaging was lousy.  Of course, shortly after that, Priebus told the party that it should embrace uber-conservative Mike Huckabee as its model.   Great message, Reince; that outta do it!

O GOP, O GOP, Wherefore Art Thou, GOP?

All clowns, regardless of race, gender, or religion are welcome to enter.

The Grumpy Old Partisan party is terminally ill and, no, it's not one of those conditions covered under Obamacare.  This self-inflicted malady is known as Policy Messaging in the Crapper and occurs when you allow the body politic to be overrun by any faction  -- however looney -- who just might vote for you or vote against you.  The losers who fawn over Sarah Palin are a prime example: they're the ones who think fine art is a tattoo of Jesus brandishing an AR-15.  

Full disclosure: I'd be against -- and write about it with glowing disgust -- almost any policy the GOP came up with.  The problem is, I have no earthly idea WHAT their damn policies are!  And I believe that this is exactly the issue:  they cannot announce a policy because of the sizable -- and divisive -- forces making it impossible to develop any significant policies.  So, in the absence of an agenda based on their plans to govern, they just say NO to anything the President or the Democratic-held Senate proposes.

As the President said to Congressional leaders on December 4, You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against.

Immigration Reform, Amigo?  No problemo!

Senor, mi papa es loco!  No se lo digas a nadie!

Translation:  Sir, my father is crazy!  Don't tell anyone!  The House says it will pass immigration reform -- probably not the Senate's version -- later next year.   See, if they pass it this year, or too early next year, the Latino voters they'd like to get into the tent might forget about it by the election in November.  Couldn't have that, now could we?

Frankly, they don't realize that they have at their fingertips the best argument against immigration reform: Rafael Cruz, father of Canadian Senator Ted Cruz (H/T Martin Bashir).  One could easily make the case that no one who is this spiteful towards our country, given the lies and crazy things he's spewing forth to his ignorant followers, should be granted citizenship.   But the GOP can pretty well expect their efforts to be a bust; Latinos know well who is responsible for wasting precious time on an issue that is near and dear to them, just as African Americans will not likely forget that Sen. Cruz said earlier this year  We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.

And leave it to John Boehner to kick himself in the ass by refusing to meet with the Fasting 4 Families group who camped out in front of the Capitol; even when they went to his office,  Boehner refused to see them.  Said his spokesman, The Speaker remains committed to a step-by-step process to fix our broken immigration system.

However, the President and the First Lady -- that would be the Obamas -- went to the Fasters and met with them in their tent.  Do ya see, John, why Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America?

  

Of course, John Boehner is behind the 8-Ball on this one: if he passes immigration reform he loses the racists; if he doesn't pass immigration reform, he's certain to lose the Latino vote.  Added to that, he could lose his Speaker of the House position when the 114th Congress convenes in January 2015; no doubt Eric Cantor haunts Boehner's wine-fueled dreams nightly.

(It's not that John Boehner drinks too much; it's just that he hates to enter the cocktail hour totally sober.)

Iran Nuclear Treaty Causes GOP Heartburn

Peace through diplomacy over war through stupidity.

While the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief when Iran and six major powers around the globe agreed to a six-month treaty to keep that Middle East country from further developing nuclear weapons, with some sanctions restored, the GOP went -- in typical fashion -- absolutely batshit crazy.

The first to display his ignorance and loathing was John Cornyn of Texas, who decried the deal as an Obamacare distraction.

He is wrong, of course.  Now, you're hearing this for the first time, but I happen to be privy to the truth!  Yes, dear readers, this Politicalgates writer has had her ear to the ground and it so happens that it was not the Iran thingy that the President used to distract from the issue the healthcare website.  It was -- don't repeat this -- his clever manipulation of the calendar to ensure that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah occurred at the same time!


GOP: Healthcare Website is Obama's Katrina

It's very true that the healthcare website got off to a less than stellar beginning.  As of December 1, however, it seems to be working quite well, and many Americans are signing up.   That's good news for the entire country.  As of December 3, more than 1.5 million people have signed up.  According to a new report, the ACA is expected to cost billions of dollars less than originally projected.  Wait for GOP heads to explode.

And, President Obama has never uttered the phrases Mission Accomplished or Heckova a job, Brownie!

Something to think about before we leave this subject:  If the healthcare website works only 114 days next year, it will be longer than the House of Representatives will work.

End Note -- The 2013 GOP Sequester

In new suppressed video at FreedomWorks-event from February 2013, Rafael Cruz describes in detail how he fought for Fidel Castro for four years, was "tortured", miraculously escaped the Batista-prison and then enrolled at university in Texas - BONUS: Rafael Cruz in speech from June 2013 about President Obama: "We need to get rid of this monster"

 Remember: Where Texas-Senator Ted Cruz is, his father Rafael is not far behind

By Patrick

During recent weeks, US media and US citizens made a new discovery: They have started to realize that Texas-Senator Ted Cruz, the darling of the Tea Party and potential GOP presidential candidate for 2016, has a very outspoken father with some rather peculiar views - as well as a rather mysterious background.

A larger audience was first introduced to the extremist views of Rafael Cruz by David Corn at Mother Jones through an article he published on October 31, 2013, in which he quoted and displayed some of the fanatic speeches by Rafael Cruz - who for quite some time already has been traveling the country giving one outrageous speech after the other. Rafael Cruz very often speaks at events organized by groups like "FreedomWorks" and "Heritage Action", groups which are the new right-wing political armies, assigned with the task of brainwashing the general population, and which surely receive handsome funding from right-wing billionaires.

At Politicalgates we have also reported extensively about Rafael Cruz, first in a post from October 3, 2013 in which we reported for example that Rafael Cruz in a speech to a GOP-audience strongly suggested that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and that he in an interview explained how his son Ted is "destined for greatness" and how he politically educated his son. Note: If you click on the videos in our post from October 3, 2013, who will see that the clips with controversial remarks by Rafael Cruz are starting to disappear from the internet rather quickly!

In a follow-up post from November 3, 2013, we revealed how Rafael Cruz was caught blatantly lying about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christan beliefs - and we also reported some more rather inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz, for example about his mysterious past.

We wrote:

The conservative non-profit organization "FreedomWorks" conducted a radio-interview with Rafael Cruz in February 2013, in which he explains in more detail his "official" life story: How he fought for Fidel Castro for four years (!), at the age of 14 to 18, how he was imprisoned and tortured, how he then somehow escaped to the USA, how he didn't speak English, still got a place at an university in Texas, then went briefly back to Cuba (?), but apparently was so appalled by Castro's version of communism that he promptly returned to the USA, disappointed about the "hope and change" that Fidel Castro had promised.

He conducted the interview with an ultra-conservative female host, who obviously thinks that government healthcare is the embodiment of evil, and who marvels how great it was how in the past when US citizens, after they got sick, first turned to their "families", then their "churches", then their "communities", and only then to the "government." Rafael Cruz, whose son Ted enjoys the luxurious Goldman Sachs-healthcare plan, immediately agreed with her. Oh, the good old days! Cruz also says in the interview that people turn into "slaves of the government" when they accept Government handouts or use any other services.

Daddy Cruz also has more incredibly original thoughts. He further says in the interview that that Democratic Party today follows "socialist policies", which are "not the policies which made America great." He also claims that America turned to Socialism when Carter was elected, and that Ronald Reagan then magically fixed the economy already in his first year. I guess Reagan waved his magic wand!

Now comes the follow-up to the follow-up. By coincidence we discovered another speech which now is apparently being deliberately suppressed by "FreedomWorks" - and in which Rafael Cruz speaks about his past as a fighter for Fidel Castro and about his move to the USA in great detail. However, this speech prompts even more questions than it provides answers - and was afterwards grossly misrepresented in a ludicrous manner in a tweet by the "FreedomWorks" organization.

This is what happened: While I searched youtube for new clips, I found a clip which was uploaded by a man called Paul LeBon. This clip contained excerpts from a speech by Rafael Cruz at an event by FreedomWorks which is very different from the clips we have seen so far - a speech in which Rafael Cruz extensively talks about his past, much more extensively than on other occasions. However, as much as a I searched, I could not for the life of me find the complete clip of this speech! Through extensive googling I finally found the clip embedded in a post on a right-wing blog in a post from March 3, 2013, and that was the only place I could find it anywhere.

When I examined the clip, I finally realized why this clip, although it had been posted on the official youtube-channel of FreedomWorks, was virtually impossible to find: It is now unlisted! Which means that it doesn't appear in the search engines, and without a direct link to the clip, you will never find it.

Screenshot:

Yes, I did indeed think twice about sharing it, but quickly realized that it would be considerate to share it with the public! :-)

I strongly believe that it wasn't unlisted right from the beginning, because more than 10.000 people have already watched it.

Here is the full clip, posted on the channel of "FreedomWorks":

Due to the fact that the content of this particular talk by Rafael Cruz is really unique and of great interest, Kathleen volunteered to spend a few hours transcribing the most important part of the speech. Thank you so much, Kathleen! :-)

Here is the transcript of this address by Rafael Cruz, which was apparently given on February 25, 2013 to activists from FreedomWorks in Washington D.C. :

RAFAEL CRUZ:

Thank you very much. Before I say anything else, I need to say thank you to Freedom Works. Without the passion, without the hard work that Freedom Works took into the race for Ted Cruz it would not have been possible. The biggest. most exciting, most energetic rally in the whole campaign was the one that Freedom Works put together at the American Airlines Center  with over 16,000 people. (applause) Thank you Matt (Matt Kibbe, CEO and President of Freedom Works).

So, without you this would not be possible. Today I had the opportunity of meeting people from North Carolina, and other places that told me  “We spent a lot of time on the phone calling for Ted Cruz”, so thank you.

I was born in Cuba and ah Cuba when I was in my early teens, Cuba ah became engulfed in a very bloody, very oppressive military dictatorship that began in 1952. I was thirteen years old. The dictatorship of Batista began killing everyone that disagreed with them. It was a military oppression. There was a lot of corruption. The mafia operated freely in Cuba and ah the military would come to any kind of establishment pretty much in the same way that the Chicago mobsters operated in the thirties with protectionism.

They would come into an establishment and say “Well Matt, you know, I don’t think your restaurant will pass health inspection.” And then this little sergeant would say “Well, you know, I’ve been thinking about going to Miami with my family for a week but it’s going to cost me $10,000.” And either Matt came out with $10,000 or this sergeant would close his place. And of course those who dared to oppose were killed. Thousands were killed. And of course as is happened with every revolution where do you think it started? It started in the high schools and universities.

So I found myself at fourteen years old involved in a revolution. And, ah, so, I spent nearly four years involved in ah sabotage, propaganda, and trying to collect ah weapons and training and so on and so forth. During this time a young charismatic leader rose up talking about “Hope and Change” (audience sniggers). His name was Fidel Castro and we all thought that he was the saviour of the country. So we blindly followed him and I did so for four years.

1957 I, ah, made the mistake of trying to recruit somebody who was a government informant. And so I found myself not in prison, because Batista tried to operate as if he was doing everything above the law,  I was in an army garrison. Not technically in prison but in a cell in an army garrison. Severely tortured, beaten half to death, in a little cell about seven foot by seven foot with nothing but a concrete floor  and about a thousand watt reflector on top. And they would beat me to a pulp to where nothing hurt, you were totally numb. They would throw you in that prison cell for about four hours. Now let me tell you, four hours later even your hair hurt and then they would take you out and do it again. And this went on around the clock for several days.

But, you know, God had other plans for my life. I thought that I was going to die because I had had friends who had been in the same position and a few days later had appeared dead in some street after being picked up by the army before. I truly thought I was going to die and that’s actually what gave me the strength to go through this torture.

I remember the last day, I got taken out of my cell at 2 o’clock in the morning, put in a jeep with four of these other soldiers, there was one with a pistol in his hand, there was another with a hand grenade, he had his finger on the ring, and they drove out of the army garrison and they said to me “Look, they’re going to kill you in the morning. We just wanted you to see the city for the last time.” And they drove around the army garrison. I guess they were figuring, what I figure is that they just want me to make a break for it so that they can shoot me. So I just sat very quietly in the jeep. They turned around, came back to the army garrison, and now actually, must have been God directing me because that was the right decision. That morning the colonel decided to turn me loose. They brought me to his office and he said “We’re gonna release you, but, if a bomb explodes anywhere in the city we’re going to pick you up.”

And I said to that colonel “How can I be responsible for what other people do?” He looked me in the eye and he said “I don’t care. If a bomb explodes in this city we’re coming to get you.”

Well I got home. My father took me home. I was eighteen years old and erm I had been home about an hour and a lady from the underground whom I didn’t know came and said “Look, you’re being followed. There are two people assigned to follow you around the clock in shifts of eight hours. She brought me to the window of the living room and she said “You see that guy in that corner, and that guy in the other corner, those are the two assigned to follow you now.” So I said “I want to go to the mountains” and she said “I’m sorry, it’s impossible.” Batista had at that time a very substantial raid. Had the mountains surrounded and she said that “The revolution says that the best thing you can do is to leave the country.” So that I would not jeopardize all the people who were involved.

So I figure, what’s the best way to get out of the country. I know, I’ll apply to a university in the United States and leave with a student visa. I wrote three letters, a letter to the University of Florida, a letter to LSU and a letter to University of Texas. UT was the first one to accept me and that’s how I became a Texan. (laughs and applause) So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

So one morning, ah, with the car in the garage of my father’s house, I laid on the floor of the back seat, my father drove to Havana and I border, bordered a ferry boat to Key West. Landed in Key west with nothing but a few dollars sewn into my underwear. My mother was so afraid that they were going to steal my money, what several dollars my father could scrounge, that she sewed a pocket in my underwear. And I only had enough money for my bus fare to Austin and maybe to eat a couple of hamburgers along the way.

Got to Austin, went straight to the University office of student affairs and I said “Well here I am” Was a month before school started and I said “Well I need a job. I don’t have any money”  Well within twenty four hours they send me to the IRS and within twenty fours I had a social security number. A valid, legal social security number. And, because I needed to work to pay for my university. I couldn’t speak a word of English so the obvious job was being a dishwasher, you don’t have to talk to anybody to wash dishes.

So I got a job as a dishwasher, worked full-time, went to school full-time. And at the beginning of 1958, I learned English very quickly, I’d started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro. I still thought that he was the saviour of the country.

January 1st  1959 Castro takes over and I went back to Cuba that summer and I got the shock of my life. That same man that had been talking about hope and change now was talking about how the rich were evil, how they oppressed the poor, and about the need to redistribute the wealth. And, ah, along with that there were several things that were instituted by the Castro regime.

My mother was an elementary school teacher, she taught sixth grade and, ah, the Castro regime told all teachers that they had to teach Marxism in school. And my mother did something for which I am extremely proud. She walked one day into her sixth grade class and faked an attack of insanity. She began foaming at the mouth, screaming, running up and down the halls, pulling her hair in the middle of her classroom and so she was dismissed for reason of mental illness. And in her own words she said “I would rather suffer public humiliation than poison the minds of children with communist indoctrination.” And I’m extremely proud of that stand.

There are a number of very interesting points to note about this speech by Rafael Cruz - just a few examples, there are certainly much more:

- From age 14 to 18, Rafael Cruz was engaged in "sabotage, propaganda, weapons, training and so forth" for Fidel Castro - while he according to his own account never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist.

- His claims about him being tortured by the Batista regime and his miraculous, virtually unbelievable lucky escape leave a lot of open questions and are not supported by any hard evidence.

- To escape the regime of president Batista, as a fighter for Fidel Castro, he chose to leave the country, and the "best way" he could think of was to apply to a university in the USA. In this context it should be noted that the USA only stopped supplying the Batista regime with arms in March 1958. However, Rafael Cruz left Cuba long before that point. According to a very detailed article in the "Dallas News", Rafael Cruz already arrived in the USA in 1957. Therefore it doesn't seem logical that the USA, who were the allies of Batista at this point, were the obvious country for Rafael Cruz to seek refuge. Again, more questions than answers.

- I found particularly noteworthy that Rafael Cruz then claims that he "started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro." Therefore, by his own account, he continued with the "propaganda" for Fidel Castro in the USA. His claim that he never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist seems even more unbelievable in this context.

In any case, Fidel Castro's socialist/marxist sympathies were not exactly a secret. Fidel Castro said for example already in a speech in 1953 which I is available in full on the internet:

The five revolutionary laws that would have been proclaimed immediately after the capture of the Moncada Barracks and would have been broadcast to the nation by radio must be included in the indictment. It is possible that Colonel Chaviano may deliberately have destroyed these documents, but even if he has I remember them.

The first revolutionary law would have returned power to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution the Supreme Law of the State until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it. And in order to effect its implementation and punish those who violated it - there being no electoral organization to carry this out - the revolutionary movement, as the circumstantial incarnation of this sovereignty, the only source of legitimate power, would have assumed all the faculties inherent therein, except that of modifying the Constitution itself: in other words, it would have assumed the legislative, executive and judicial powers.

This attitude could not be clearer nor more free of vacillation and sterile charlatanry. A government acclaimed by the mass of rebel people would be vested with every power, everything necessary in order to proceed with the effective implementation of popular will and real justice. From that moment, the Judicial Power - which since March 10th had placed itself against and outside the Constitution - would cease to exist and we would proceed to its immediate and total reform before it would once again assume the power granted it by the Supreme Law of the Republic. Without these previous measures, a return to legality by putting its custody back into the hands that have crippled the system so dishonorably would constitute a fraud, a deceit, one more betrayal.

The second revolutionary law would give non-mortgageable and non-transferable ownership of the land to all tenant and subtenant farmers, lessees, share croppers and squatters who hold parcels of five caballerías of land or less, and the State would indemnify the former owners on the basis of the rental which they would have received for these parcels over a period of ten years.

The third revolutionary law would have granted workers and employees the right to share 30% of the profits of all the large industrial, mercantile and mining enterprises, including the sugar mills. The strictly agricultural enterprises would be exempt in consideration of other agrarian laws which would be put into effect.

The fourth revolutionary law would have granted all sugar planters the right to share 55% of sugar production and a minimum quota of forty thousand arrobas for all small tenant farmers who have been established for three years or more.

The fifth revolutionary law would have ordered the confiscation of all holdings and ill-gotten gains of those who had committed frauds during previous regimes, as well as the holdings and ill-gotten gains of all their legates and heirs. To implement this, special courts with full powers would gain access to all records of all corporations registered or operating in this country, in order to investigate concealed funds of illegal origin, and to request that foreign governments extradite persons and attach holdings rightfully belonging to the Cuban people. Half of the property recovered would be used to subsidize retirement funds for workers and the other half would be used for hospitals, asylums and charitable organizations.

Furthermore, it was declared that the Cuban policy in the Americas would be one of close solidarity with the democratic peoples of this continent, and that all those politically persecuted by bloody tyrannies oppressing our sister nations would find generous asylum, brotherhood and bread in the land of Martí; not the persecution, hunger and treason they find today. Cuba should be the bulwark of liberty and not a shameful link in the chain of despotism.

These laws would have been proclaimed immediately. As soon as the upheaval ended and prior to a detailed and far reaching study, they would have been followed by another series of laws and fundamental measures, such as the Agrarian Reform, the Integral Educational Reform, nationalization of the electric power trust and the telephone trust, refund to the people of the illegal and repressive rates these companies have charged, and payment to the treasury of all taxes brazenly evaded in the past.

I get the impression that Rafael Cruz liked socialism so much than he now wants his Tea Party audiences to believe, and my suspicion is also aroused by another rather surprising fact Rafael Cruz mentions at his speech at FreedomWorks: Rafael Cruz rather proudly explains in the speech how he got his "social security number" in the USA already two days after arrival. Well, Mr. Cruz, for somebody who now believes that US citizens are in danger of becoming "slaves of the government", you were surely very keen to benefit from the advantages of US social security!

I actually wonder whether these remarks by Rafael Cruz, which are not very much in line with contemporary Tea Party politics, and the fact that Rafael Cruz rather openly admits in the speech that he basically tricked his way into university in the USA were the reasons why FreedomWorks decided to suppress the speech.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a hard time to believe that any US university would have accepted a student from abroad who doesn't speak a word of English.

But one of the most important contradictions in the account by Rafael Cruz in this speech from February 2013 to other accounts of his life becomes obvious when we compare a quote by his son Ted Cruz with the claims by Rafael Cruz, as reported by the "Dallas News" in October 2011:

He (Ted Cruz) said his father began fighting against Batista’s regime when he was 14, in 1953. When the elder Cruz was 17, he was imprisoned and tortured by Batista’s government, his son said. The next year, 1957, Rafael Cruz legally went to Texas on a student visa issued by the Batista regime, Ted Cruz said.

He went to Texas "on a student visa issued by the Batista regime"...?

Wait a moment! This sounded slighty different from when Rafael Cruz told the story in February 2013. According to his own account, Rafael Cruz fled Cuba because he was a persecuted pro-Castro figher against the Batista regime, somebody who was thrown in jail and tortured - and then escaped because a bribed official "stamped his passport":

So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

I get the impression that Ted and Rafael Cruz haven't really "synchronized" their stories.

Another detail from the speech by Rafael Cruz caught my eye: Cruz said that he "needed to work to pay for my university." This remark strikes me as grossly misleading as well, considering the fact that the Houston Chronicle reported in a major piece about Ted Cruz and his father Rafael that Rafael Cruz actually had his tuition paid while he studied the in the USA.

It is important to have this particular speech by Rafael Cruz, which FreedomWorks obviously was not keen to promote any further, become part of the public record. He probably said more about his past in this speech than in hindsight it was advisable from his point of view.

It's absolutely unclear how much we can believe what Rafael and Ted Cruz are telling us. But one thing is certain: It has probably dawned on them that Rafael has said some unwise things in the past. The fact that clips of Rafael's speeches and interviews are disappearing from the internet at an alarming rate is an obvious sign that some very inconvenient facts and speeches are about to be purged.

To conclude the report about the speech by Rafael Cruz from February 2013, I present the "icing of the cake": When FreedomWorks tweeted this speech on February 25, 2013, they distorted the facts in a way which is virtually beyond imagination - they claimed that the militant pro-Castro fighter Rafael Cruz, who fled Cuba about two years before Fidel Castro came to power, was "being tortured and abused for his political beliefs during Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba":

 Well - say it ain't so, Rafael!

This certainly won't be the last which we will hear from Rafael Cruz here at Politicalgates.

The man who only became an American citizen in 2005, which is 48 years after he left Cuba, and who now tries to lecture Americans about how they should govern their country, and who uses lies and sinister distortions while doing so, remains the subject of great interest.

+++

BONUS:

Above, I mentioned that I found the clip from February 2013 originally through the youtube-account of Paul LeBron, who had posted excerpts from this speech. This man recently posted another very interesting clip featuring Rafael Cruz, which definitely receives a wider audience. This clip is an excerpt from a speech by Rafael Cruz from June 6, 2013, at Parker County Tea Party. There, in a very obvious way, he calls President Obama a "monster"

Watch:

There, Rafael Cruz says:

"Get rid of this monster that is trying to destroy the free enterprise system and trying to create a society where everybody is a serf to the government." Straight out of Karl Marx. All we got left is our honor. If we prostitute our honor, we deserve whatever we get. (...) We are going to retake the Senate, and and when we do that, we are going to be able to clip the wings of this out of control Obama monstrosity that is destroying us."

One thing I believe without any doubt: That Rafael Cruz is an expert on propaganda.I have seen him full of vicious propaganda, and many of his speeches have a frightening totalitarian tone.

Who, I wonder, is the monster?

NEW VIDEO: Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, caught lying on tape about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christian beliefs - Watch the video evidence! - UPDATES: Some inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz

Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, is a shameless liar

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Proverbs 12:22

By Patrick

Junior Senator Ted Cruz recently got into a lot of trouble, as the mastermind behind the infamous "shutdown" which could have caused a global economic catastrophe, if the USA had defaulted (read: Debt Deadline Approaches: Here’s What Would Happen If U.S. Defaults).  

But there is also a second fact that political observers recently became aware of: Ted Cruz is not alone. If you want Ted Cruz, you also get his father Rafael Cruz, who currently tours the country, giving outrageous speeches in which he spews hate and lies. His primary target is President Obama, and just a few days ago, some particularly shocking quotes by Rafael Cruz were highlighted by David Corn at Mother Jones, in an article which thankfully received a lot of attention.

Quote from Mother Jones:

In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "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." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."

David Corn quoted from a speech which Rafael Cruz gave to the North Texas Tea Party on September 12, 2012. The original clip with this half-hour speech by Rafael Cruz has subsequently been deleted from youtube. However, not only were some key excerpts for example shown at MSNBC, but a substantial portion of the speech is also still available on youtube.

Watch the report by Chris Matthews at MSNBC:

Interestingly, there is more: Although the whole speech from September 12, 2012 has now been deleted from the internet, I already downloaded the full clip even before David Corn published his article at Mother Jones. I did this in preparation for our own post about Rafael Cruz, which we published on October 3. Today I looked at this speech again in order to check whether there are more "nuggets" to discover. It should come as no big surprise that this effort was successful!

Rafael Cruz exposes himself as a shameless liar: While many of his "facts" are just "extremist opinions", which are difficult to "fact-check" in the traditional way, he also makes some factual statements about President Obama in this speech which are open for scrutiny. Rafael Cruz claims that Barack Obama never uses the word "Creator" when Obama recites the Declaration of Independence, and that he never uses the words "under God" when he recites the Pledge of Allegiance. These claims by Rafael Cruz are shameless lies, and the truth can easily be discovered. Apparently Rafael Cruz thought that his Tea Party audience is gullible enough to believe this nonsense (and they probably are).

Actually, Rafael Cruz gets it wrong in two different ways. He, the self-described great American patriot is apparently not aware that the Declaration of Independence uses the words "by their Creator", and not "by our Creator", as Rafael Cruz wrongly quotes in his speech. Apparently Rafael Cruz himself, who inexplicably became an American citizen only in 2005, which is no less than 48 years after he left Cuba, is not fully familiar with this important American document.

But most importantly, his main claims about President Obama are outrageous lies. Rafael Cruz just regurgitates with great conviction some long-debunked nonsense which seems to be pretty popular among radical right-wingers, as "RightWingWatch" already exposed in 2012 ("How Many Times Does Obama Have to Say 'Endowed by Their Creator' Before the Right Will Stop Lying?").

The truth is easy to prove. I created the following video clip, which contrasts the claims by Rafael Cruz in his speech on September 12, 2012 with the real quotes by Barack Obama (special acknowledgement again to RightWingWatch).

Watch:

Rafael, the bible does not like liars. Do you, an evangelical pastor, really act according to the bible? Or is it all just a political game for you? You should make up your mind, and fast.

+++

Further reading at Politicalgates:

Ted Cruz's father Rafael Cruz in taped speech: Suggests that Barack Obama is a "Muslim", says that Obamacare provides "suicide counseling" and that the "RINO's" should be replaced by "Constitutional Conservatives" - In earlier interview Rafael Cruz says that his son is "destined for greatness", and explains how he politically educated him

+++

The radical religious friends of Senator Ted Cruz: Anointed by Dominionists who want to "wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage" - The overlooked religious extremism of the new rising star of the GOP

+++

UPDATE:

The conservative non-profit organization "FreedomWorks" conducted a radio-interview with Rafael Cruz in February 2013, in which he explains in more detail his "official" life story: How he fought for Fidel Castro for four years (!), at the age of 14 to 18, how he was imprisoned and tortured, how he then somehow escaped to the USA, how he didn't speak English, still got a place at an university in Texas, then went briefly back to Cuba (?), but apparently was so appalled by Castro's version of communism that he promptly returned to the USA, disappointed about the "hope and change" that Fidel Castro had promised.

He conducted the interview with an ultra-conservative female host, who obviously thinks that government healthcare is the embodiment of evil, and who marvels how great it was how in the past when US citizens, after they got sick, first turned to their "families", then their "churches", then their "communities", and only then to the "government." Rafael Cruz, whose son Ted enjoys the luxurious Goldman Sachs-healthcare plan, immediately agreed with her. Oh, the good old days! Cruz also says in the interview that people turn into "slaves of the government" when they accept Government handouts or use any other services.

Daddy Cruz also has more incredibly original thoughts. He further says in the interview that that Democratic Party today follows "socialist policies", which are "not the policies which made America great." He also claims that America turned to Socialism when Carter was elected, and that Ronald Reagan then magically fixed the economy already in his first year. I guess Reagan waved his magic wand!

Listen to the interview:

When you search for speeches by Rafael and Ted Cruz, you find that they very often spoke at events by "FreedomWorks." These fake conservative grassroot organizations are really the cancer of America. They are the secret armies of the billionaires, and today you don't need "real" armies on the streets any more, what you need is an "online army".

Wikipedia duly notes: "Volunteers - 600,000 online activists"

These are the kind of brainwashed people who leave these crazy right-wing comments on the internet everywhere.

+++

The "official" life story of Rafael Cruz is full of huge holes. We will continue to investigate.

Media outlets published in the past a number of very informative articles about Ted and Rafael Cruz. One of the most detailed is an article called "Cruz's life defies simplification" by the Houston Chronicle from October 2012. Some interesting details can be found there.

Quote:

He (Ted Cruz) was born in Alberta while his parents were working abroad as pioneering computer programmers in the energy exploration business. He obtained citizenship as a newborn through his American mother. Yet he favors building a border wall, boots on the ground and greater militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.

He's opposed to the Dream Act to help immigrant children who arrived here illegally. Yet his father, grandparents and aunt emigrated to Texas and benefited from U.S. policy and programs that grant legal permanent residence to virtually any Cuban admitted to the U.S. after January 1959.

(...)

(Ted) Cruz insists he's looking no further ahead than November. If elected, that accomplishment would be a tribute to his father, who as a teenager arrived in Austin to attend UT with only $100 sewn in his underwear and washed dishes at 50 cents an hour to cover expenses.

"To have suggested to that 18-year-old boy washing dishes that his son might serve as a U.S. senator would have been unimaginable," Cruz said. "That's the opportunity America offers. That's freedom."

Both of Cruz's parents got scholarships that covered tuition but paid their own expenses in college. As a married couple, they co-founded two different seismic data processing businesses. They were working in Alberta oil fields when Ted was born in 1970, returning to Houston in 1974 when a slump hit and they sold their first company.

Interesting! So Father Cruz wasn't opposed to the government when he benefited from its policies.

Also, Daddy Cruz in reality got a much softer start in the USA than he wants his Tea Party audiences to believe. He boasts about the apparent hardships he faced after entering the USA at any given opportunity with his "I started off as a dishwasher" tale.

However, that students in the USA get their tuition paid and then have to work to cover living expenses strikes me as pretty normal. I heard a lot of these stories in the past. Our readers, many of whom have studied decades ago, can certainly provide more insights.

There is definitely much more to discover about Rafael Cruz. There are many, many open questions. We will keep digging!

+++

UPDATE 2:

For a long time, Ted and Rafael Cruz were silent when others published false stories about how Rafael Cruz "escaped Fidel Castro" - which completely distorted the truth.

In 2011, the "Dallas Morning News" didn't let them get away with this apparent "lying by staying silent" (h/t BanditBasheert):

But what the stumping GOP Senate candidate hadn’t clarified, until asked by The Dallas Morning News this week, was that his father departed for the U.S. in 1957, more than a year before Fidel Castro came to power.

“Y’all know my heart,” Ted Cruz told the Austin Republican Women last month. “My dad fled Cuba. He was imprisoned and tortured as a teenager, and came to Austin penniless, seeking freedom. The reason I’m running is simple. He fled oppression once. And you have my word that I’ll fight every day to protect freedom here, so that none of us have to flee oppression a second time.”

Cruz hasn’t incorrectly described when his father fled from Cuba, as has U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. According to the Washington Post, Rubio said on three occasions since 2006 and on his official Senate website that his parents came to the U.S. after Castro’s forces overthrew Batista in January 1959. They actually arrived here in May 1956, the Post said.

Cruz, though, has remained silent as journalists and political activists incorrectly placed his father among the many Cubans who left the island nation after Castro took power, rather than as someone who fought on the same side as Castro to topple a rightist dictator, though he departed for Texas before the revolution succeeded.

“He was a guerilla, throwing Molotov cocktails and blowing up buildings,” Ted Cruz told the Austin American-Statesman for a profile published in January 2006.

Earlier this month, Liberty Institute president Kelly Shackelford introduced Cruz to 3,000 Christian conservatives at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., as “the next great conservative hope.”

“He’s the combination of the intellectual skill and principle of [Utah GOP Sen.] Mike Lee and the story, the personal story of a Marco Rubio — his dad having escaped Fidel Castro, came into the United States, working as a dishwasher,” Shackelford said.

Last month, a Houston Chronicle political blog described Cruz as “a Cuban American whose family escaped from Castro tyranny.”

In an interview Monday, Cruz professed not to be aware of confusion about when his father, Rafael Cruz, left Cuba.

+++++

Please Note: If you like our post and our ongoing efforts, please don't forget that we also have a tip jar. Many thanks! :-) We haven't made a donation request for a year and a half. So it's about time, isn't it? ;-)

The radical religious friends of Senator Ted Cruz: Anointed by Dominionists who want to "wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage" - The overlooked religious extremism of the new rising star of the GOP

"We understand that our rights come not from a king or queen, 

not from government, but from the Lord God almighty. 

But if America is going to continue to stand strong, we must first be on our knees." 

-- Senator Ted Cruz, National Day of Prayer statement, May 1, 2013

By Patrick

Ted Cruz is in the spotlight like no other politician these days. Just today, the first excerpts of a new major interview with him, conducted by CNN's Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, were published. In the interview, Ted Cruz cockily declared that he doesn't "work for the party bosses in Washington", and then claimed that he only works "for the people in Texas."

But who does Ted Cruz really work for? In classic fashion, the mainstream media does not even mention that Ted Cruz aligned himself with religious radicals who have no interest in "politics as usual." Maybe the media believes that this has to be regarded as a private matter, as far as Ted Cruz is concerned. But is this true?

There is enough evidence out there already that suggests that Ted Cruz is very closely connected to Dominionist pastors for who there is no separation between religion and politics, and who want to transform the USA into a radical religious society. If you listen closely, it is also not difficult to spot the influence of these people in the words and actions of Ted Cruz himself.

In a previous post, we reported about the extremist religious views of Rafael Cruz, the father of Ted Cruz, who constantly seems to travel around the country right now, giving speeches. In these speeches, he claimed for example that President Obama is a Muslim, that millions of babies have been mass-murdered through abortion and demanded that pastors should become politically active. In addition, he claimed that he politically educated his son Ted, who in his opinion is "destined for greatness."

But what about Ted Cruz himself? The blogger Bruce Wilson, who did excellent work back in 2008 when he exposed the extremist religious connections of Sarah Palin, including the famous revelation that Sarah Palin was connected to African witchhunter Thomas Muthee (informative video about Thomas Muthee and his activities as a witchhunter also here), now published several pieces about Ted Cruz - and a very ugly picture begins to develop.

For example, in May 2013, Ted Cruz was blessed and anointed by Dominionist pastors at the Iowa Renewal Project Pastors' Conference, together with Rand Paul.

Watch the video:

Bruce Wilson writes in Huffington Post:

In the video, Tea Party potentate Ted Cruz is blessed by pastors who claim the Constitution is based on the Old Testament, appear to endorse biblical slavery, depict gay marriage as a socialist plot against the traditional family, and call for a Christian war on secular society.

The first two attributes in that list belong to an evangelical leader David Barton -- who Ted Cruz has warmly endorsed, in a September 2013 statement to Politico in which the Texas senator called Barton "a good man, a courageous leader and a friend" whose "historical research has helped millions rediscover the founding principles of our nation."

In the lead-up to the Iowa pastors' event, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, Ted Cruz suggested that gay marriage would lead to Christian pastors being charged with hate speech. During his address to the hundreds of pastors assembled at the two-day Iowa Renewal Project event, Senator Cruz cited militant Biblical scripture such as Ezekiel 33, depicted opponents of a Texas ban on late-term abortions as Satan worshipers, and claimed Christians in the military can be court-martialed for sharing their faith.

One of the pastors blessing and laying his hands on Cruz's shoulders was head of the sponsoring organization the Iowa Renewal Project -- David Lane, who only a few weeks earlier had written an op-ed that called upon the faithful to "wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage."

Only a few days after blessing Senator Cruz, Lane stated that "car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa" would be merciful punishment from God for legalized abortion and "homosexuals praying at the Inauguration." Without such divine "mercy," suggested Lane, America might "get judgment like Nazi Germany."

The Iowa Renewal Project is part of Lane's American Renewal Project, an effort targeting 12 US states that seeks to register voters, and politically mobilize Christian pastors, in advance of the 2014 election.

Lane's national project is in turn sponsored by the American Family Association, an organization designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group. AFA spokesperson Bryan Fischer has stated that "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews."

Another pastor laying hands on Senator Cruz was David Barton, former vice chairman of the Texas GOP who has played leading role in creating an entire genre of Christian nationalist revisionist history used to promote the myth that the United States was created as an expressly Christian nation. The genre is used to stoke anger among the faithful - because America's Christian heritage has allegedly been subverted and stolen - and thus fuel Christian right political activism.

Barton maintains that Jesus opposes the minimum wage, and claims the United States Constitution was based in concepts drawn directly from the Old Testament including the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He also claims there's no such thing as the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

Ted Cruz himself is not shy when it comes to "preaching" - see for example the published excerpts of his speech to the pastors from the same event, the "Religious Right Summit" in Iowa in July 2013, which was organized by David Lane.

RightWingWatch reports:

Cruz, who told CBN in an interview that gay rights advocates intend to dispose of the First Amendment and pass hate speech laws, won plaudits from the audience of conservative activists for his attacks on gay rights advocates and “judicial activism.”

“On marriage there is no issue in which we need to be more on our knees because the momentum is with the opponents of traditional marriage,” Cruz said. “We’re facing an assault on marriage.”

He scolded “unelected judges” who think “we know better” on marriage, and urged pastors to “to speak to your congregations and to mobilize the people, and mobilize them more than anything to pray.”

Watch the video:

More details about David Lane, the self-described "political operative", can be found in another article on RightWingWatch.

Ted Cruz makes no secret about his view that God stands above all - even above the Government. Such a remark might not seem "dangerous" per se, however, in context with the extremist religious beliefs of his friends, who want to turn the US society into a religious state. Ted Cruz said in his statement for the "National Day of Prayer" on May 1, 2013:

"We understand that our rights come not from a king or queen, not from government, but from the Lord God almighty. But if America is going to continue to stand strong, we must first be on our knees."

Watch the video:

Bruce Wilson posted more clips regarding Rafael and Ted Cruz, for example this appearance by Rafael Cruz (including additional footage) from August 2012 - watch:

Bruce Wilson comments about this speech:

In a sermon last year at an Irving, Texas, megachurch that helped elect Ted Cruz to the United States Senate, Cruz' father Rafael Cruz indicated that his son was among the evangelical Christians who are anointed as "kings" to take control of all sectors of society, an agenda commonly referred to as the "Seven Mountains" mandate, and "bring the spoils of war to the priests", thus helping to bring about a prophesied "great transfer of wealth", from the "wicked" to righteous gentile believers.

Rafael Cruz' dominionist sermon given August 26, 2012, at the New Beginnings Church of pastor Larry Huch, in Irving, Texas has already received considerable scrutiny due to an excellent Huffington Post commentary by Methodist Associate Pastor Morgan Guyton, who noted the explicitly dominionist nature of pastor Cruz' sermon, which concerned the divine mandate for believers, with anointing of "kings" in their respective spheres, to take control over all sectors of society.

Cruz spoke of "Kings who are anointed to go to war, win the war, and bring the spoils of war to the priests."

Discussion of the now-notorious speech by Rafael Cruz has missed the fact that Ted Cruz was subsequently blessed and anointed by prominent dominionist pastors, in effect as a "king" in the political/governmental sphere, at a special blessing ceremony at the Marriott Hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, at a July 19th-20th 2013 rally designed to draw pastors into politics.

But in a very real, mundane sense Ted Cruz has already helped deliver hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, to the evangelical right. Cruz' past service - as a "king" who brought "spoils to the priests" - is a matter of established record; as I revealed in a prior story, no less than a top adviser to President George W. Bush has stated that in 1999 Ted Cruz played a major role in helping the Bush for President campaign lock down the conservative evangelical vote in the 2000 election.

One can interpret the "great transfer of wealth" -- predicted by Ted Cruz' father Rafael Cruz, and by Pastor Larry Huch, who threw his Texas megachurch's considerable heft behind the 2012 Cruz for Senate campaign -- in magical terms, sure.

But Ted Cruz' apparently notable role in getting George W. Bush into the presidency led in turn to Bush's "Faith Based Initiative" - that continues to this day under two successive Obama administrations and which, during the Bush years, funneled billions of dollars to churches and institutions associated with the religious right.

In other words, the "great transfer of wealth" is about more than wishful thinking. It's about an ongoing effort, by leaders and institutions of the evangelical right, to gradually gobble up the secular sphere of government.

Let's remind voters that Ted Cruz's religious beliefs are very different from the beliefs of "ordinary" people. Also, his religious beliefs should not be "off-limits", as he is very closely connected to groups who believe that there should be no separation between church and state - and there are indications that Ted Cruz actually believes this as well. His outspoken, radical father certainly does believe it, who politically educated Ted Cruz. Voters should know what they are getting, once Ted Cruz will run for President - and there can be little doubt that he will run at some point, possibly already in 2016.

Finally: It was definitely no "coincidence" when Ted Cruz publicly prayed in front of the White House in September 2013 - it was symbolic, and his followers certainly understood this:

+++

FURTHER READING:


Daily Kos: Inside the Christian Right Dominionist Movement That's Undermining Democracy

Daily Kos: Deep Background on Dominionism

Alternet: Ted Cruz's Father Suggested His Son Is 'Anointed' to Bring About 'End Time Transfer of Wealth'

+++

BONUS:

Investigating Ted Cruz should also be fun, so I believe we earned ourselves a little reward: The great classic video by "Genesis" - "Jesus He Knows Me" (h/t Enigma).

Ted Cruz's father Rafael Cruz in taped speech: Suggests that Barack Obama is a "Muslim", says that Obamacare provides "suicide counseling" and that the "RINO's" should be replaced by "Constitutional Conservatives" - In earlier interview Rafael Cruz says that his son is "destined for greatness", and explains how he politically educated him

Ted Cruz appearing together with his father Rafael Cruz

By Patrick

The rise of Ted Cruz also put a spotlight on his father Rafael Cruz, who is a radical right-wing pastor in North Texas. At closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Rafael Cruz had a significant influence on Ted Cruz's political beliefs, and they both appeared together numerous times.

Just a few days ago, a tape was published with excerpts from a speech by Rafael Cruz at the Adams County GOP Lincoln Dinner in Thornton, Colorado, which took place on September 27, 2013. At this event, Rafael Cruz was not shy to show his true colors: He made it absolutely clear that he agrees with the notion that President Obama is a "Muslim", he used outrageous lies to rant against Obamacare and he wants the "RINO's" to be thrown out of the Republican Party.

(via "Political Carnival" and "Talking Points Memo")

Watch:

Kathleen transcribed these remarks by Rafael Cruz:

Rafael Cruz: Obama's fault (inaudible)….shift on the side of the Muslims.

Woman: He is a Muslim.

Rafael Cruz: Pah! McCain couldn’t say that because it wasn’t politically correct. It is time we stop being politically correct!

Rafael Cruz: Our lives! Well look at what is happening to our lives. From the cradle, 55 million babies have been murdered by abortions since 1973. At the other end, Obamacare with denying care to the elderly with care being rationed, with care being postponed for twelve to eighteen months. With care being controlled by a group of bureaucrats that on the basis of cost benefit will decide whether you get a medical procedure or not they’re destroying our end of life. As a matter of fact one of the things in Obamacare is that for the elderly every five years you must have end of life counselling. Translation: Suicide counselling.

Rafael Cruz: I know that I am in an Republican Party meeting. If you want to throw tomatoes at me, throw tomatoes at me! But unfortunately, you cannot say that the Republican Party is without blame. We have too many RINO’s in the Republican Party! (Applause and whoops). They have their minds made up and basically their ideas is this “You are too stupid! I know what I am doing.” Well, I’ll tell you what, we the people are not stupid. We the people are smart enough to vote them right out of office or primary them and put constitutional conservatives in their place! (More whoops etc.)

But there are more facts about Rafael Cruz which are noteworthy. He himself is very proud that he apparently had a great influence on the political and religious beliefs of his son Ted, which Rafael Cruz explained in great detail in an interview from July 2013. There, he also claimed that his son Ted is "destined for greatness."

Watch:

Transcript via RightWingWatch.org:

David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Network: Talk me about your son and his rise. This must be a thing of God. It's meteoric.

Cruz: Yes, but you know something, it is not something that started a couple of years ago. Let me just go back to when he was maybe four. When he was four I used to read Bible stories to him all the time. And I would declare and proclaim the word of God over him. And I would just say, ‘You know Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness’. And I started making declarations about the Word of God to him every day. When he was eight years old I was very active in an organization called the Religious Roundtable.

...

This was a coalition of Christians and Jews who was very instrumental in helping Reagan get elected. I was on the state board of the Religious Roundtable, so when my son Ted was eight years old, all we talked about around the dinner table was politics because I was so involved with the Reagan campaign. So during that time is when I asked him so many times, ‘You know Ted, when I lost my freedom in Cuba I had a place to come to. If we lose our freedoms here where are we going to go? There is no place to go.’

...

Ted enters high school, the Free Enterprise Institute organizes a group of five kids, called them the Constitutional Corroborators, now Ted is reading the The Federalist Papers, The Anti-Federalist Papers, and each of the five kids memorized the entire US Constitution.

...

So before my son left high school he was passionate about the constitution. He was passionate about freedom and free markets and limited governments. Before he left high school he knew without a shadow of a doubt what his purpose in life was and it was to defend and protect freedom and the Constitution, to fight for free markets and limited government, and it became a passion in his life. So this is not a trajectory of three years, this is a trajectory of 30 years.

This is interesting. Knowing how Ted Cruz was indoctrinated by his radical father from a very early age onwards, it is much easier to understand the "crusader" Ted Cruz these days - where he comes from, and why it is virtually impossible for him to agree on a compromise. For true "crusaders", there can be no compromise. It is all or nothing.

When it comes to crusading, Ted's father Rafael Cruz certainly aspires to be on the forefront: In another  "rousing" speech, this time from July 2013 at a Tea Party event in Dallas reported by RightWingWatch.org, Rafael Cruz demanded more political participation by evangelical Christians and said that "we have what we deserve, we have allowed the wicked to rule us", and claimed: "We could take every position in office, from dogcatcher all the way to the highest position in life."

In this speech, Rafael Cruz also says that the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are "divine revelations from God." 

Watch the excerpts:

The full speech by Rafael Cruz from this event can be viewed here.

Rafael Cruz surely is on a "big tour" right now, appearing at many events, trying to rally the evangelicals. In yet another speech from August 2013 at the "Family Leadership Summit" in Iowa, he crusaded against gay marriage and declared that a godless "socialist" government is behind "homosexual marriage", trying to destroy "traditional marriage" as well as "loyalty to the family."

Quote (via "Burnt Orange Report"):

RAFAEL CRUZ: When you hear this attack on religion, it's not really an attack on religion. The fundamental basis is this: socialism requires that government becomes your God. That's why they have to destroy the concept of God. They have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to government. That's what's behind homosexual marriage. It's really more about the destruction of the traditional family than about exalting homosexuality, because you need to destroy also loyalty to the family.

Watch:

Therefore Rafael Cruz is living the American dream like he sees it, preaching bigotry, hate and division as a pastor, tax-free and surely with substantial financial backing.

The "origins" of Rafael Cruz himself are murky, and just how he established himself in the USA as an immigrant from Cuba is clouded in a lot of secrecy. Ted Cruz himself claims that his father never was an illegal immigrant, and at this moment, we have to take his word for it, because evidence to the contrary is hard to come by  - although serious doubts about this bold claim certainly remain. The most extensive account of the "official" Cruz-family story can be found in an article by the Dallas Morning News from October 2011:

Cruz, though, has remained silent as others incorrectly placed his father among the many Cubans who left the island nation after Castro took power, rather than as someone who fought on the same side as Castro to topple a rightist dictator, though he departed for Texas before the revolution succeeded.

"He was a guerilla, throwing Molotov cocktails and blowing up buildings," Ted Cruz told the Austin American-Statesman for a profile published in January 2006.

Earlier this month, Liberty Institute president Kelly Shackelford introduced Cruz to 3,000 Christian conservatives at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., as "the next great conservative hope."

"He's the combination of the intellectual skill and principle of [Utah GOP Sen.] Mike Lee and the story, the personal story of a Marco Rubio -- his dad having escaped Fidel Castro, came into the United States, working as a dishwasher," Shackelford said.

Last month, a Houston Chronicle political blog described Cruz as "a Cuban American whose family escaped from Castro tyranny."

In an interview Monday, Cruz professed not to be aware of confusion about when his father, Rafael Cruz, left Cuba.

"If Kelly [Shackelford] said that, I did not notice that statement," he said. "That's certainly not something I say because it's not the case."

Cruz said he hasn't misled.

"I have many, many times described the full context of his fighting with [Fidel] Castro -- in the broader sense, ... not side by side, but on the same side as Castro," he said.

Shackelford, reached on Monday, said his point was the elder Cruz "came here for freedom" after being a "political prisoner."

"As to whether it was Batista or Castro [in power,] I'm like, it doesn't really matter," Shackelford said. "There was one dictator replaced by a future dictator."

Cruz, a former state solicitor general enjoying tea party and social conservative support, is one of four major Republican candidates in the March primary to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

He said his father began fighting against Batista's regime when he was 14, in 1953. When the elder Cruz was 17, he was imprisoned and tortured by Batista's government, his son said. The next year, 1957, Rafael Cruz legally went to Texas on a student visa issued by the Batista regime, Ted Cruz said.

Ted Cruz, who opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, said at no time was his father an illegal immigrant. He said his father, who graduated from the University of Texas in 1961, eventually became a permanent legal resident. The elder Cruz is now a U.S. citizen, living in Carrollton, his son said.

Ted Cruz said his father described himself as among young teenage boys who fought Batista and allied with Castro's forces because "they didn't know Castro was a Communist, what they knew was that Batista was a cruel and oppressive dictator."

Cruz said his father became a staunch critic of Castro, along with several family members who remained in Cuba, when the rebel leader took control and began seizing private property and suppressing dissent. Rafael Cruz' younger sister and their parents eventually made it to the U.S. during the 1960s, Ted Cruz said.

It is much easier to understand the current actions of Ted Cruz if one is aware of the details of the extremist political views of his very outspoken father, and of the role his father played in the political and religious education of Ted Cruz. 

The last thing the USA need right now are hard-right political and religious crusaders for who there can only be "victory or death", because anything else would be a betrayal of the just and righteous cause.

Ted Cruz surely is a dangerous extremist, but I am confident that the American people won't be fooled in the end and will reject him and his ilk.

+++

Read the follow-up at Politicalgates:

NEW VIDEO: Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, caught lying on tape about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christian beliefs - Watch the video evidence!

+++

"The radical religious friends of Senator Ted Cruz: Anointed by Dominionists who want to "wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage" - The overlooked religious extremism of the new rising star of the GOP"