The real Ted Cruz 2: "The Price of Assholery"

"The Price of Assholery" is the title of a post from Josh Marshall, editor of TalkingPointsMemo.com, on Feb. 4, 2016.  Here's the gist of what he wrote: 

"It took a day or two for it to really crystallize for me. But has there ever been a candidate who not just won Iowa but won it unexpectedly and fairly decisively and yet got so little positive bump, momentum, attention or even simple human empathy because of it? The rather strong, though unstated assumption from the commentariat seems to be: Yeah, you won Iowa. Great. Good luck ever winning anywhere else."

The post-Iowa focus has been on Rubio's outperforming and Trump's under performing of expectations.   Rubio's star is rising, Trump's is maybe setting.   Even more, the post-Iowa focus on Cruz has been largely negative.

First there is the dirty tricks memo the Cruz campaign circulated just prior to the start of the caucuses, saying that Ben Carson is dropping out and asking his supporters to vote for Cruz.   This had been preceded by a letter that had gone out to a wide number of Iowans on what was intended to look like an official government letter, which was rather intimidating by citing how often each of them -- and their neighbors -- had voted in recent years.   It actually implied some vague sort of threat if they didn't go to the caucuses.   It was another blatant, dirty trick kind of fradulent effort to increase the numbers of votes for Cruz.

So there was that.   Then Rick Santorum pointedly endorsed Rubio, not Cruz, even though he is more ideologically aligned to Cruz's positions.   Tracking polls in New Hampshire show Trump holding on to his lead and Rubio and Cruz neck and neck for second place.   Ironically, it's Rubio, who finished third in Iowa, not the winner Cruz, who seems to be getting the bounce of our Iowa.

On top of that, at least one group of Christians is challenging Cruz's appropriating them as his base and attributing his win in Iowa to Christians.  The online goup "Faithful America," which is "the largest and fastest-growing online community of Christians putting faith into action for social justice," has put out a statement saying: 

"Our members are sick of sitting by quietly while Jesus' message of good news is hijacked by the religious right to serve a hateful political agenda. We're organizing the faithful to challenge such extremism and renew the church's prophetic role in building a more free and just society."

They did not name Ted Cruz specifically, but the shoe fits, as it does for most of the Republican agenda these days.    This sounds like a group that might lead the way toward reasserting the true values of the message of Jesus, thereby challenging the high-jacking of the mantle of "Christian" by the religious right -- when they do not deserve it.
 
It's not just Christian groups challenging them.   Jimmy Kimmel did a sketch with a man dressed to represent the usual image of Jesus of Nazareth speaking line after line of quotes from Republican politicians.    The irony of hearing these lines come from the teacher who emphasized feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, helping your neighbor, and taking in the stranger made for a very pointed message.

But lest we put this all on Ted Cruz, what are we to make of Rubio's headline grabbing statement about President Obama's visit to a mosque Wednesday, during which he denounced anti-Muslim rhetoric?    Rubio accused Obama of "pitting people against each other."   I don't quite get his point:   We should all be united in our bias and rejection of all Muslims?   Is that his point?

Let's not forget that, with the exception of Jeb Bush and John Kasich and Rand Paul, all of the others would probably agree with Rubio's statement.    So bring it on.   Let's show them in November that it is the Democrats who represent the values and the positions of the Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and the atheists and agnostics as well.

The Republican agenda is, in the words of a blogger on Daily Kos, "the coalition of cruelty."  And I don't know any recognized religion that is based on cruelty as its central tenet.

Ralph