Most Americans have heard the adage “you’re known by the company you keep” regarding an individual’s friends and associates, or the parent-child reference that “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree” alluding to a child as a mirror of their parent. If Americans wondered what drove the man who, with Heritage Foundation president and teabag leader Jim DeMint, masterminded the $24 billion government shutdown and credit default crisis, all they need to know is that Ted Cruz did not fall far from his father’s evangelical tree.
Cruz’s Cuban-born immigrant and rabid Dominionist father illuminates the ideology that drives his son’s lunacy and steadfast will to transform America. Teddy-boy regularly deploys his dad as surrogate to speak on his behalf and dutifully espouse Ted’s political stance to teabaggers, evangelical activists, and extremist conservatives. The elder Cruz tells his son’s devotees that “the wicked are ruling the United States, “death panels are in ObamaCare,” government will “take all your money and confiscate our fortunes,” “Social justice is a cancer,” and that “Democrats promote everything contrary to the word of God.” Preacher Cruz also claimed America is a Christian nation and the Declaration of Independence and Constitution “were divine revelations from God,” and that “America was formed to honor the word of God.” A few months earlier, Rafael Cruz told teabaggers that President Obama is an “outright Marxist seeking to destroy all concept of God” and urged them to send him “back to Kenya.”
Although the main-stream media kept it from the public, it turns out that Ted Cruz, like his father, is driven by religion and likely believes Christian true believers like him were “anointed by God to take dominion of every area of society, education, government, and economics.” An ally of elder Cruz predicted that because god got Canadian-Ted elected, “God will begin to rule and reign. Not Washington, God’s people and his kingdom will begin to rule and reign. I know that’s why God got Rafael’s son elected.” It should not be a surprise, then, that when Cruz directed the Republican Party to shut down the government and threaten an economic catastrophe; he said it was because it was god’s will.
Claiming to know god’s will is an affliction most evangelical fanatics suffer, and claiming to know god’s will is all well and good in private, but when it drives the leader of the Republican Party and the movement intent on Christian domination it presents a clear danger to all Americans. Cruz’s remarks that his supplication to god were answered with a government shutdown order were not meant to pander to the religious right for electoral support, and when he said he sees “a particular susceptibility for candidates to be like Pharisees who wear their faith on their sleeve as convenient political garb,” he is not referring to himself. In fact he said “It is far better to let actions speak louder than words” and by all indications Cruz’s actions are likely founded in evangelical fundamentalism and Dominionism as much as they are “conservative purity.”
Dominionists are more likely than not to work behind the scenes and infiltrate every aspect of American society including government so they can transform America into a nation ruled over by conservative Christians and their understanding of biblical law. It is theocracy and theonomy that advocates the bible’s Mosaic Law as the basis of America’s government. In fact, last Friday a group of conservative Christian activists compared Ted Cruz to Jesus Christ that elicited a chorus of “amens” from the Iowa Republicans gathered to cheer on their new messiah. One conservative Christian activist, Steve Scheffler, thanked god for Cruz because he engineered the 16-day government shutdown and prayed for more conservatives like Cruz who were willing to “be crucified for their belief system.” It is likely the fundamentalists also thanked god for directing Ted to shut down the government and answering his prayers; even if it was a short-lived shut down.
Ted Cruz is not his father, but understanding Rafael (dad) is to understand Ted, his ideology, desires, and long-term goals for America as the de facto leader of the Republican Party. It is no coincidence that like Ted, Rafael Cruz goes around the country telling supporters that “We’ve had enough compromise…enough of Establishment Republicans that don’t stand for anything,” and that it is crucial to their American transformation to “elect constitutional conservatives to retake the Senate.” It is important to remember that constitutional conservative is code for fundamentalists who believe that god gave the Founding Fathers the Constitution to “form this nation to honor the word of God.”
Skeptics may conclude that Ted Cruz has not deemed himself the “anointed messiah” to lead Dominionist to take control of America, but he has not denied or made any effort to tone down his father’s assertions. In fact, he has no problem sending his father to speak in his stead and claim the United States is a Christian nation, Obamacare is death panels, social justice is a cancer, President Obama hates god, or that the “wicked” are in charge in Washington that all perfectly inform Ted’s extreme conservatism and Christian fundamentalism that make him the archetype of evangelical teabaggers.
Americans are already suffering from the inordinate influence evangelical extremists wield over the government at the state and federal level. There is, unfortunately, a large movement afoot injecting Christianity into every aspect of society and the last thing this country needs is the leader of one of the major political parties gaining any more power than he already has. It was bad enough that Cruz successfully shut down the government, cost the people $24 billion and over half-a-point growth in GDP, but the fact that he prayed for, and believes he won, god’s will to achieve his goal is something that should make American people recoil in outrage. Unfortunately, with a media beholden to protect conservative Christians at all cost, the people will only learn of Cruz and his appeal to god’s will after Dominionists control the government, replace the Constitution with the bible, and declare with certainty that America is indeed a Christian nation; something the Founding Fathers denied at the nation’s founding.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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