Posted on 04/17/2016 7:33:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Whenever Ted Cruz appears on television, I cringe as unpleasant memories of distant relatives cross my mind, reminding me of things best forgotten. And what is best forgotten is simply the Hispanic political tradition of severity.
Think Francisco Franco. Think Fidel Castro. Think Ted Cruz? Yes, Ted Cruz is a would-be autocrat.
My paternal grandmother, a Galician matron who despised sexism in all its forms, called it “la maldición gallega,” or “the Galician curse.” By that she meant the dreadful and familiar anti-democratic tendency in the political lives of the Hispanic world where dictators, strongmen, caudillos, and caciques have ruled as autocrats.
She was in a position to know. Her maiden name was Bahamonde; she was related to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain during his dictatorship with an iron fist. Fidel Castro, with no tolerance for dissent, brought ruin to his country, banishing millions of his fellow countrymen into exile.
And Ted Cruz, today, represents the same menace as someone who wishes to impose a theocracy in the United States.
Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, fled Cuba in 1957, becoming a zealous born again preacher. “It’s time we stop being politically correct and start being biblically correct,” the elder Cruz told the Associated Press in 2014.
Ted Cruz follows in his father’s footsteps. His idea—that the separation of Church and State has to be done away with—is consistent with the ideological worldview that characterizes dictatorships in the Hispanic world. Francisco Franco embodied the Catholic Church during his reign of intolerance; Fidel Castro replaced faith in God with faith in himself when Cuba became officially atheist.
That’s the cloth from which Ted Cruz’s political philosophy is cut.
This twisted predisposition resonates in his declarations: “I am blessed to receive a word from God every day in receiving the scriptures and reading the scriptures. And God speaks through the Bible.”
Does America want a leader who claims to have a hotline to heaven? Does America want to impose a Christian version of Sharia law? Does America want “divine right” rule to be restored?
Cruz says, “Sí!”
To his way of thinking, the Bible alone offers the framework for the entirety of civil society.
“I think the Hispanic community, the values that resonate in our community, are fundamentally conservative. They are faith, family, patriotism,” Ted Cruz has said, in English, to non-Hispanic Americans.
My grandmother rolled her eyes in both bewilderment and anger at the manifold manifestations of “the Galician curse” in the Hispanic world. She told stories of an uncle who would caution his daughter on the importance of remaining a virgin by saying, “Remember, no man buys a used shoe.” She told stories of one of Franco’s relatives who, determining that garbanzo beans were meant to be peeled, demanded that his wife peel each garbanzo bean one by one—in dishes that required hundreds of garbanzo beans.
Ted Cruz’s singular world view would lead him to appoint judges to the Supreme Court who would undo social progress that is consistent with what his reading of the Bible tells him has gone “wrong,” including a woman’s right to choose and the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Ted Cruz in the White House would bring the worst of intolerance and religious bigotry of the Hispanic world to the United States. His vision is for our country to turn back the clock and be governed with an iron fist imposing law, order—and God.
Dictators in the Hispanic world have longed to fashion societies where political dissent is crushed, young women are left to wonder what their honor has to do with a new shoe, women are badgered into peeling hundreds of garbanzo beans, and what is not biblically sanctioned is outlawed. These are the vestiges of dictatorship all Hispanic democracies struggle to overcome.
My grandmother loathed what her distant nephew, Franco, had done to Spain. She applauded the reforms introduced after his death and she never looked back at his dictatorship with nostalgia.
Though she is not alive today to recoil in horror at the sight of this would-be strongman, I know the one word she would tell the American people concerning Ted Cruz: “Corran!” “Run!”
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Louis Nevaer is the author of the first guides to Cuba compiled since the re-establishment of relations, Cuba As Never Before, and The Best of Havana: 2016.
I’ve gotten it from both sides in private for not being more militant in defense of either/or. If I see a cheap shot or ugly falsehood made against Trump, that pisses me off just as much as the bullshit “Cruz is a RINO/not a citizen, et al” attacks. A man alone won’t win this election, and this needless division doesn’t serve us. The one person left on the “R” side deserving of nuclear fury is that Pig Vomit creep from Ohio.
Why don’t the others see it?
Fastest way to spot a liberal on FR:
“Faux”. - The pseudo intellectual hipster word in heavy use since 2000 AD.
Or “Jeebus” which is how DU, Daily Kos and the rest exclaim “Jesus” without coming out and saying it.
I was a Palin militant back in 2008, when the campaign came alive with her advent.
I'd vote for Cruz with no reservations, but he doesn't bring in the extra swing voters to innoculate against the Media DeathStar.
Trump brings the voters alive. I think that's the only thing protecting him from the Media. It wasn't enough for Palin, but I think Trump has the Bill Murray factor going for him. Bill Murray is America's cool eccentric uncle - everybody knows him.
Donald Trump is America's rich uncle, and he hasn't really p*ssed too many people off. I think we always just kind of knew he was around, doing Big Trump stuff. LOL! He's a hoot!
I just absolutely abhor the cheap shots back and forth on both sides. We need to be united against the Butcheress of Benghazi, not engaging in bitter backbiting.
That stuff is instigated by professionals. Both sides.
I’m a Zen Buddhist who likes Christians, so you can stick it up your snotbox, you insufferable wanker. LOL! :)
“President Obama said the day after the budget deal is made he’s going to concentrate on immigration. He says he’ll start by deporting Ted Cruz.” –Conan O’Brien
old one, but still timely.
My first supervisor (Master Sergeant) at my first duty station was a Buddhist and we were in a Buddhist country.
I trashed the author and the source of the article, so I'm an "objective" observer. It's what any self-respecting FR Media archivist from the old days would have done.
And so I did.
Buddhism and Zen Buddhism are NOT the same animals.
I’m sure there’s professional agitators here. I just wish management was more aggressive in showing them the door. If you want to support one candidate over the other, great, but when the lies start to fly and the ugliness, that’s when ZOTs need to be used.
One argument the Cruz side makes is that their guy will be less damaged and less polarizing for November, but let’s face it, if Jesus Christ were the GOP nominee, the media elites, the party establishment and the decadent cultural leaders would paint him as the next Hitler (case in point, the article that is the subject of this thread). There’s no Republican heading into the fall that won’t have 40-45% of the electorate against them, so they will all be “damaged” and “polarizing.”
Sadly, such is the nature of the game these days. It should be the other party that ought to have 90%+ of the electorate permanently aligned against them.
Like saying Lutherans and Catholics aren’t in the same religion.
The professionals are savvy in the ways of hiding what they are. There have been a few prominent busts, but there are a few USUAL SUSPECTS still out there.
And that's all it takes to disrupt the board. Actually, people think that the Cruz/Trump furor is what it's all about - when in actuality it's about reducing the effectiveness of the board against Her Thighness & The Bern.
Wheels within wheels. I've been here a VERY long time. :)
Your nonsense is like water off a duck’s back. Which shift are you?
I know you’re not a fan of 2DV at present, but he’s still good people. I would not accuse him of being a paid disruptor.
I don't like batters crowding the plate. :)
I still gotta get around to looking up that toxic tart Tara Taghizadeh.
Well below par for one of your posts.
This article is as full of it as a Porta-Can
at a burrito festival.
I’ve always said there are good arguments on both sides of the issue, and it won’t be decided short of a SCOTUS ruling. And if anything, Obama has the better claim, unless someone could prove he was born outside the US. So I’ve argued with both sides who claim there is precedent and it’s settled. I also think if Cruz were nominated the Dems would use it to leave Cruz off the ballot in some states forcing Cruz to sue to be put on. So I would like 2DV to explain his 180 on the subject, especially since he questions Trump’s change of positions in recent years.
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