People are weird - Day 2

Yesterday, I started out my post by documenting but not really discussing the latest idiocy to come from the mouth of Wayne LaPierre. And, no, I'm not giving him more time today, because that would only encourage him.

However, it occurs to me that he isn't the only fount of drivel to grace the news reports recently. This is certainly so with the overnight non-filibuster from Senator Ted Cruz, who spent something over 20 hours holding - or maybe hogging is a better word - the Senate floor is his continuing effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. I call it a non-filibuster, because there was no way that what he was doing would delay today's planned votes in the Senate. It would more appropriately be called grandstanding, I think, and attention-getting behavior by the senator from Texas. He was doing redneck jokes. He read "Green Eggs and Ham" (supposedly a bedtime story for his kids, but wouldn't that have been better done at home?). He talked about going out and buying new tennis shoes before he began his flood of words. Oh, and he even talked about the Affordable Care Act some, too, but apparently didn't say anything new or useful. Instead it was his same old song and dance about how horrible it would be for people to have access to affordable health coverage or, in the case of people with pre-existing conditions, to have access to any health coverage at all. Of course, he didn't put it that way, because it wouldn't have served his purpose.

The question is, what was his purpose, really? Because, you know, the Senate still isn't going to pass the bill in front of it, which would shut down the government unless the Affordable Care Act is defunded. And even if the Senate did pass it, President Obama still isn't going to sign it. Additionally, Cruz wasn't making any friends outside of his Tea Party base. Some in his own Republican Party, including top party leaders, have been criticizing Cruz's take-no-prisoners, make-no-compromises approach to the issue. This true especially since Cruz said the other day that he is willing to shut down even the military in service to his goals. It has even been said that Cruz, by pulling this stunt, is sabotaging his own political career.

So, why did he do this? Two reasons, I think. The first, and the more minor of the two, is the propaganda motive. He is determined to proselytize against affordable health care coverage for all no matter what the personal cost. But his bigger motivation is to get attention. He is one of those people who believes that the spotlight should be on him at all times. It doesn't seem to matter to him that this quest for attention could hurt the country that he has promised to defend, or that it could even hurt his own career. He just seems to believe that he is somehow special and that he should be revered by all the people, all the time. And, of course, that means paying attention to him all the time.

If you follow along here, you might remember that not too long ago I can to Cruz's defense regarding an effort by Birthers to claim that he isn't eligible to run for president because he was born in Canada and his father was Cuban, even though is mother was a US citizen. It's the same thing the Birthers did, and continue to do, to President Obama. It's a despicable tactic and they need to cut it out. I still believe that.

But, I also said that I wouldn't want to see Cruz ever elected to anything. Besides his particular positions on issues, the sort of self-aggrandizing behavior Cruz exhibited on the floor of the Senate is exactly why. I don't want people in public office who think more of themselves than they do of the people they took an oath to serve. And, at the end of the day, this sort of thing is not about the people. It is all about Ted Cruz and his pathetic attempts to advance his agenda and his career. Which, when you think about it, are pretty much the same thing.

You know, I heard on one of the talking head shows yesterday that when Ted Cruz was at Harvard Law School, he refused to study with anyone who had not attended college at one of the top-tier Ivy League schools. I don't know how true that story is, but it wouldn't surprise me much if it were true, because this is the kind of guy Cruz appears to be. He is a snob.

I think the Tea Party rank and file, those is trying so hard to appeal to, should keep this in mind as they consider who they want to follow. Most of them, I'm fairly sure, are not graduates of the top Ivy League schools, simply because that is a small cohort of people. He doesn't want to have anything to do with them beyond getting their adulation and their votes. As soon as he has those, he's likely to be done with them.

"Show us your papers"...

If you follow along here, you probably remember my post the other day about how the Birthers are at it again, as I wrote about how some people are questioning Texas Senator Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for president, and about how even though I wouldn't personally vote for Senator Cruz for anything I think the Birthers are going somewhere they really shouldn't.

Just as when some of the same people have asked to see President Obama's birth certificate, Cruz felt it necessary to produce his birth certificate to prove his citizenship status. And, I had not thought of it this way, but after Chris Matthews mentioned it in these terms today on his MSNBC show "Hardball", by making these claims, the Birthers are asking to see President Obama's and Senator Cruz's papers.

Is it a coincidence that one of them is African-American and the other is Hispanic?

Did I hear you answer that, yes, it is a coincidence? Wrong answer. There is no way that this is a coincidence. Despite a little bit of conversation when he was running for president because he was born in Panama, I don't recall anyone ever standing up and demanding to see John McCain's papers. If they did, it certainly didn't pick up any traction. I'm pretty sure that, back in the day when George Romney (yes, Mitt's dad) was running for president, while there was comment about the fact that he was born in Mexico of parents who were US citizens, no one made any serious claims that he should have to show his papers. On the other hand, President Obama is into his second term in the White House, and there are people still demanding to see his papers.

The difference? McCain and Romney: both white. Obama? Black. Cruz? Brown.

Especially on this day, the 50th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington, the Birthers should be ashamed of themselves. And the Republican leadership, which is where most of the Birthers come from, politically speaking, should be ashamed of themselves for not being willing to call out the Birthers on their racism. But, apparently, the leaders of the Republican Party are afraid of offending their base.

Which seems kind of weird to me, since most of the Republicans I know out here in the real world are absolutely not racist. Which would indicate to me that the Republican leadership needs to be catering to a different base. You'd have thought that was their take-away from the results of the 2012 presidential election.

Instead, they seem to be sticking to the infamous and deplorable Southern Strategy and tactics like voter suppression to attempt to regain power.

And...the Birthers are at it again

It looks like the birthers are not going to go away anytime soon.

Only this time their target is not Barack Obama. They aren't even railing against a Democrat or a liberal this time.

Instead, there are those insisting that Texas Senator Ted Cruz, part of the rightest right of the Republican Party and a darling of the Tea Party, is not eligible to run for president, as he is showing every indication of wanting to do. These people are contending that he is not a "natural born citizen", as the US Constitution requires to be eligible to hold the highest office in the land.

Here's the deal: Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and a mother who was a US citizen. He holds both Canadian and US citizenship. This, some people say, means that he is not eligible to be President of the United States, based on criteria outlined in the US Constitution.

Now, I have to admit that it's tempting to sit back and watch the Tea Party be hoist on its own petard. There is something satisfying in the idea of having them have to see how it feels to have one of their own accused of not being qualified. on this technicality, to lead the country.

I also have to confess that there are many reasons why I do not want to see Ted Cruz in the White House, not the least of which is the fact that he seems to think the comparisons that have been made between him and late Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the way in causing so much misery in the 1950s as he saw a Red under every bed, are complimentary. He's been quoted as saying that the comparisons mean that he must be "doing something right." He won't go so far as to say publicly that he admires McCarthy's attitudes and tactics, but it seems clear that the assumption that he does admire Red-baiter McCarthy is not far from the mark. Also, the Libertarians like him, and I'm not a big fan of that particular political and social outlook on life.

But, as much as I'd hate to see Cruz elected to, well, almost anything, claiming on this technicality that he is not eligible to run is not a smart way to keep him from running. Unless there is a clear ruling from a court saying that to be considered a "natural born citizen", a person has to have been born on US soil, having a parent who is a citizen should be the standard for citizenship. Period.

Just as trying to make sure that only people you think will vote for your candidates can participate in the electoral process (voter suppression) is not a legitimate tactic, neither does trying to prove that candidates whose positions you don't like aren't eligible to run at all constitute an acceptable way to stack the electoral deck in your favor.

Not in the America I grew up in. In the America I grew up in, we were taught to play fair.

Taking a birther position in a case like this is not anywhere near playing fair.