by Nomad
Few can top Ted Cruz when it comes to bombast and misleading statements. And that's putting it mildly. However, his recent declaration on JFK was one of the biggest lies yet.
I am a little too jaded to roll my eyes every time I hear a politician say something ridiculous. We have all practically come to expect it. Gore Vidal pointed out that only by twisting words, warping the historical record and turning day into night is it possible to get some people to vote against their own interests.
However, the other day I heard Ted Cruz declare that if John Kennedy were around today, he would be a Republican. In Massachusetts (of all places) he told a few hundred supporters"
JFK would be a Republican today. There is no room for John F. Kennedy in the modern Democratic Party.”
Cruz can get away with making statements like that because too many liberals and moderates are ignorant of history and too many on the Right are living in denial of facts.
It's business as usual for Ted Cruz who is clearly an expert at disinformation. He has already demonstrated that when it comes to promoting Big Lies, the bigger, the better, However, attempting to convert John Kennedy into some kind of Reagan Republican is really asking the even most naive and ignorant voters to swallow a lot in one gulp.
Here's only one example- but an important one- in which Kennedy in no way resembles candidates like Cruz, or Huckabee or Santorum.
Here's only one example- but an important one- in which Kennedy in no way resembles candidates like Cruz, or Huckabee or Santorum.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute...
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.
Does that sound Republican to you?
Earlier this year, A Public Policy Polling (PPP) national survey asked Republican voters their views on making Christianity the official national religion. A shocking 57% of those polled thought it was a good idea and would sacrifice the Constitution to achieve this goal. Only 30% opposed the idea.
Earlier this year, A Public Policy Polling (PPP) national survey asked Republican voters their views on making Christianity the official national religion. A shocking 57% of those polled thought it was a good idea and would sacrifice the Constitution to achieve this goal. Only 30% opposed the idea.
For Kennedy, religion was a personal matter but keeping religion out of politics was a core American value. The office of presidency, said Kennedy, must not be "humbled by making it the instrument of any religious group.."
That vision of America was, he implied, something worth fighting for.
This is the kind of America I believe in -- and this is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe.
Those who died defending America on the battlefield were not categorized by their faith. They died not as Christian, or Jews or Muslims but as defenders of American values. One of those values is that one religion is not better than another and faith is a matter of one's own conscience.
"..this is the kind of America for which our forefathers did die when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches -- when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.."
Cruz announced his bid for the presidency at Jerry Falwell's old stomping ground, Liberty University. In that speech he asked the audience to imagine a world in which the federal government does not wage "an assault on our religious liberty" and to "imagine a federal government that stands for the First Amendment rights of every American."
But, as Cruz knows, the First Amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion. Including Christianity. It can't be much clearer than that.
And yet, Cruz told his Liberty University audience:
"Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren't voting. They're staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values."
Republican presidential candidate Santorum who said that the concept of church-state separation wasn’t merely misguided but Communistic.
For Kennedy who stood up to the Soviets during the Cold War, that's deeply ironic.
And for Cruz, the son of a man who fought alongside Communist Fidel Castro, such remarks go beyond even irony.
Here's Kennedy's 1960 speech. Don't take Ted Cruz's word for it. Judge for yourself how Republican he sounds.
