WILTON, IOWA — At a packed town hall meeting Friday night in rural eastern Iowa, an audience member asked Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz a simple question: If elected, who would be his first nomination to the Supreme Court? Cruz’s answer, however, was a bit more complicated. Instead of saying who he would choose (“Not Obama” was the closest he came), the Texas Senator said changing the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court would be a huge priority for him as president — and that he would “spend whatever political capital is necessary” to appoint the most reliably conservative justices he could find…. “I have spent my entire adult life fighting judicial activism, fighting to defend the Constitution, fighting to defend the Bill of Rights,” Cruz said. “Unlike the very fine individuals on that debate stage, I will be willing to spend whatever political capital is necessary, and sir I give you my word, every justice I put on that court will be a principled constitutionalist jurist with a proven record who will be faithful to the law and will not legislate from the bench.”
That Sen. Ted Cruz (R-MordorTX) is promising to drag America into a theocracy is no surprise. This is a Republican who proudly proclaims “I’m a Christian first, American second.” That sort of religious arrogance is very much de riguer for a Senator despised by most everyone on Capitol Hill for his selfishness, smarmy hyper-religiosity, self-interest, and commitment to nothing more than advancing his own career prospects.
That Cruz is roundly despised is hardly breaking news; he’s been alienating people since he first set foot in the Senate. While that toxicity may be odious and unpleasant, it’s not what makes him such a serious threat to America and the freedoms we take for granted. No, the gravest threat posed by Cruz is his frequently and fervently expressed desire to force all Americans to live by his narrow “Christian” moral and theological code. Cruz is a theocrat, through and through…and he poses a grave danger to American democracy. His desire to become the first American Christian ayatollah poses and clear and present danger to our system of secular governance.
On Friday night, Cruz issued a grave warning: If anyone but him is elected president, the Supreme Court will shift liberal — and the consequences would be include things like “unlimited abortion on demand.”
“We are one justice away from the Supreme Court concluding that nobody in this room and no American has an individual right to keep and bear arms,” Cruz said. “We are one justice away from the Supreme Court striking down every restriction on abortion, and mandating unlimited abortion on demand, up until the time of birth, partial birth, with taxpayer funding, and no parental notification whatsoever. We are one justice away from the Supreme Court ordering veterans memorials torn down all over this country if they contain any acknowledgement of God Almighty.”
Let’s put aside for a moment the arrogance and inappropriateness of declaring oneself a Christian first and American second. That’s distressing in its own right…but consider the hue and cry that would be raised if…say, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) declared himself a Muslim first and American second. The outrage and righteousness in the wake of such a statement would ring like a bell from sea to shining sea. The weeping and gnashing of teeth would create a virtual shitstorm that would inundate Ellison. HOW DARE HE PLACE HIS RELIGION OVER HIS COUNTRY?!? HOW DARE HE THROW HIS WORSHIP OF A FALSE GOD IN OUR FACES?!? Yet, a member of the American Taliban whose idea of freedom is forcing all Americans to live by his narrow morality and self-interested theology is treated as some sort of conquering hero?
(Move along, people; no double standard here….)
While the Supreme Court has long been viewed by both the Left and Right as a vehicle for establishing the primacy of their social and moral agendas, few have been so nakedly crass about his intent to stack the Court in pursuit of his ultra-Conservative theocratic goals. Ted Cruz will take America to a place that more closely resembles The Handmaid’s Tale than a beacon of freedom and liberty…and that prospect should terrify any American who values their freedom. When religious zealots like Cruz are wielding the levers of power, tyranny will be the inevitable result…and the things that make America great will fade away, never to be seen again.
Then again, it’s not tyranny when you’re the one doing the oppressing, amiright??
