Ted Cruz To Volunteers: Attacks On Me Are Coming So Strap On The Full Armor Of God - https://t.co/jzu2dgmODY pic.twitter.com/OXwSXY7Dvh
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) January 1, 2016Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) told volunteers Thursday he believes the Republican presidential contest will be decided in the next 90 days, but warned them to get ready for a nasty ride…. “I want to tell everyone to get ready, strap on the full armor of God, get ready for the attacks that are coming,” a hoarse-sounding Cruz told volunteers on a conference call. “Come the month of January we ain’t seen nothing yet.”…. The call, part thank you and update to volunteers and part fundraising pitch where listeners could press a button to give a donation, comes after Cruz’s campaign announced it raised nearly $20 million last quarter as the Texas Republican ascended in the polls in both Iowa, the nation’s first voting state, and nationally.
There’s little doubt of the surpassing arrogance and self-importance of a politician serious in the belief they’re being called by God to run for President. That appears to be exactly what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is claiming with no sense of irony. Cruz’ penchant for hubris and self-promotion has helped him alienate virtually every sentient being on Capitol Hill, which hasn’t helped him win any popularity contests and certainly hasn’t lessened his devotion to his massive ego. When you believe God to be on your side, though, who can be against you?
In Cruz’ defense, he was raised by a father even crazier, more monomaniacal, and more delusionally hyper-Christian than he. Rafael Cruz raised his son to believe that he’s been called by God to lead Mankind into the light of Almighty God’s Earthly kingdom. Cruz the younger came to see himself as the Chosen One…because that’s what his father trained him to believe. Now running for President, the first-term Senator believes that God has called him to serve and that his time has come. The problem with that claim is that it sounds an awful lot like a prescription for demagoguery…which, in Cruz’ case, it absolutely is.
“[S]trap on the full armor of God?” Really? What’s next? Handling snakes? Speaking in tongues? Tent revivals? Is this sort of self-absorbed hyper-religiosity the stuff that American Presidents should be made of? Do we really want a President who believes that the 2016 election is a choice between “Jesus and pagan secularism?”
It’s not a stretch to argue that Ted Cruz is the perfect argument for the importance of the separation of Church and State. His campaign represents nothing if not the promise of hyper-Christian religious tyranny.
or demagog
[dem-uh-gog, -gawg]
noun
a person, especially an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.
(in ancient times) a leader of the people.
verb (used with object), demagogued, demagoguing.
- to treat or manipulate (a political issue) in the manner of a demagogue; obscure or distort with emotionalism, prejudice, etc.
verb (used without object), demagogued, demagoguing.
- to speak or act like a demagogue.
The problem with Sen. Cruz isn’t that he’s made no effort to articulate a positive vision of where he wants to lead this country and how he plans to do it- he isn’t- but that he’s all about exclusion, hatred, and religious intolerance. His candidacy is about who he would deny full membership in the American experience to- gays, Muslims, Liberals, and those who don’t recognize or acknowledge his being called by God to lead America out of the darkness of the moral swamp this country currently inhabits.
Cruz has made a show of courting leaders of the American Taliban, people whose purpose is to dissolve the separation of Church and State and replace it with the tyranny of an intensely Conservative and intolerant theology.
The only real difference between Cruz’ political/religious philosophy and that of Conservative political/religious groups such as the Taliban is that while the tyranny of radical Islam is anathema to them, that of Conservative Christianity is welcomed as the will of God. No, Cruz isn’t openly advocating for the imposition of Old Testament law, which in many respect isn’t altogether different from Islamic Sharia law. There’s little doubt but that many of his supporters on the lunatic fringe Rabid Religious Right would be quite comfortable with that idea.
The beautiful thing about our secular constitutional democracy is that the Founding Fathers expressly designed it to prevent the tyranny that inevitably results from the introduction of religion into governance. That Ted Cruz would actively participate in the dismantling of the separation of Church and State that’s served this country well for 240 years is a truly distressing prospect. It’s also proof he has no business believing himself even remotely qualified to be President.
