Once Again Cancun Ted Does Not Disappoint He Is Still ‘Ted Cruz’

“If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” Lindsey Graham, February 2016. Cruz has a reputation as the worst senator in history.

In his first year in office, 2013, Cruz tried to shut down the government. In his third year, he attempted to win the Republican presidential nomination. He failed miserably and was constantly under attack from the eventual GOP nominee, Donald Trump. But that is not the end of the story.

Courtesy of Gage Skidmore (Wikimedia CC0)

Before his withdrawal from the primaries, Trump called Cruz’s wife Heidi “ugly” and claimed that his father conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Then Cruz campaigned for the orange buffoon and became his most ardent toady.

Cruz has proven time and time again that he is without character, dignity, or self-respect. We can confirm that he is a racist, a misogynist, and a homophobe who continues to support Trump’s fascist agenda.

Today it was “Cancun Ted’s” chance to question Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Old Ted did not let us down. He remains a racist and bigot without any respect for himself or anyone else.

First, one must define a non-issue that has been morphed into an issue by racist right-wing politicians. It is called “Critical Race Theory.” After reading the definition, which clearly defines racism in its purest form, unless you are a white supremacist, you will understand its purpose: a blueprint to end pervasive racism in America once and for all.

Critical race theory (CRT), intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans. Critical race theorists are generally dedicated to applying their understanding of the institutional or structural nature of racism to the concrete (if distant) goal of eliminating all race-based and other unjust hierarchies.

This idea is Constitutionally and morally sound. Equality is a promise which must encompass everything for every American. There can be no “buts,” “ands,” or limiting adjectives or adverbs applied to the relationship between all Americans. Our race, religious beliefs, or skin color cannot define any American. We are a diverse nation, the most diverse in the world, and this is our strength. We learn from each other, and America can only move forward when we accept our differences as an asset, not a deterrent to the future of the United States of America.

I tell you all this because “Cancun Ted” attempted to belittle Judge Jackson by bringing up this “issue” because she is a Black woman.

He referred to a speech made by Judge Jackson at the University of Michigan on Martin Luther King Day in 2020. During her speech, Judge Jackson mentioned Nikole Hannah-Jones, who wrote “The 1619 Project,” for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.

Judge Jackson replied: “It is not something that I’ve studied. It doesn’t come up in my work,” Jackson said about The 1619 Project. “I was mentioning it because it was, at least at that time, something that was talked about and well-known to the students that I was speaking to at the law school.”

Cruz being Cruz continued on the same line of questioning.

In 2021, Cruz defended Texas’ voter suppression law which requires voter IDs to cast a ballot in any election. This has been condemned by civil and voter rights advocates across the nation. In modern history, the percentage of voter fraud has been recorded as .012%. The most recent charges filed against an American citizen occurred in Florida after the 2020 election. Three men attempted to vote for Trump more than once.

Trump said many times, “I am the least racist person in the room.” Cruz has made the same statement with the words rearranged. I wonder if that “room” was filled with white men in white robes with hoods shouting “Heil Trump?”

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources:

Newsweek: Ted Cruz Trashed For Grilling Ketanji Brown Jackson On CRT, 1619 Project; by Alexandra Hutzler
CNN: Law professor tells Cruz Texas’ voter ID law is racist in fiery hearing exchange; by Paul LeBlanc
Britannica: Critical Race Theory

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image by Gage Skidmore Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License