General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Mathews last night on Hardball said what I have been thinking aloud for some time now
Who is 'barely-half-generation', canadian-born, son-of-a-cuban-born-on-cuban-soil Raphael Ted Cruz to declare who is a real American and who ain't. To think that he and his cuban born immigrant-via-Canada father have the audacity to open their mouths, and speak to who is American and who isn't, and question President Obama's status as an American, is the height of hypocrisy and really takes a lot of Chutzpa, simply because he is trying to provide health care insurance to those Americans who need it.
If I were President Obama, I would tell Raphael Cruz Sr. and Raphael Cruz Jr. (borrowing a quote from Col Jessep of "A Few Good Men" "...I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way. ..."
And by the way, Raphael Cruz, Jr., the less-than-a-quarter term Senator from Texas hails from the State with the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation, a fact that he seems to want to overlook when Sen Raphael Cruz Jr. spoke at the Health Care Forum in Austin, last week.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/107812854
http://www.coderedtexas.org/#findings
FINDINGS OF THE TASK FORCE
Overall health condition of Texans is poor
Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured in the U.S.
Texas cannot sustain the continued rise in Medicaid and state/county health care expenditures
Current trends in delivery of health care in Texas will inevitably exacerbate current problems
overdependence on emergency rooms for accessing primary care for the uninsured is the most
expensive means of delivering care
Expansion of ambulatory (outpatient) services is an essential, more cost-effective means of
health care delivery
Strategies that both control the cost of health insurance and ensure the most cost-effective
delivery of health care access for all Texans are needed
Texas has not taken full advantage of available federal matching funds to reduce the burden of
providing health care for the uninsured
The current county-based approach to delivery of health care in Texas is inadequate, and
inequitable
There is a significant shortage of health care professionals in Texas professionals that
could reduce the cost of delivery of care to all Texans
Care for people with mental illnesses remains a major problem for Texas
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)I love the quote.
spanone
(135,859 posts)young_at_heart
(3,772 posts)Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to McCarthy, he has that same nasty persona. I can't watch Bush or Cheney on TV and now I have to add Cruz to the list... (I don't really like to look at Eric Cantor either)!
TNNurse
(6,929 posts)Boehner, Ryan and McConnell.....they all make mine stomach queasy and my heart sad.
Baitball Blogger
(46,755 posts)Immediate acceptance into certain circles makes people act like bigots and racists. That's how they blend in.
marias23
(379 posts)I am in no way defending this despicable person and I am confident he will fall. But I don't think a persons length of citizenship controls one's free speech rights. (The public does that, by listening or not.)
Excellent point. Calling Ted Cruz "Raphael" is as dog-whistle racist as calling Barack Obama "Hussein".
unc70
(6,117 posts)Cruz does not meet the Constitutional requirements to serve as President.
Bucky
(54,041 posts)Texas has an abyssmal health record. Ted Cruz is a national embarrassement. Thanks for pointing that out. I don't understand why you had to torpedo your own arguments before you posted them, however.
Here's two ways to tell someone has a bogus argument. They can wrap their arguments in the stench of xenophobia or they can quote the villain from a morality play and act like that's the moral high ground. Or, in the case of your post, they can do both and be Chris Matthews.
Chris Matthews has a pretty rotten track record for precise analysis of public issues. He's a sloppy thinker, or as he puts it, "a big picture guy." He thinks with his balls and goes "rah rah" whenever Republicans want to start a war. I recommend you find someone else to quote.
TrollBuster9090
(5,955 posts)stupid demagogues by saying something like this:
"They claim to speak for 'real' Americans. But in reality, they don't really love AMERICA. They don't love America AS IT IS. They only love America the way they'd LIKE it to be. They only love the America that's the people who look like them, and think like them. Well, I've got news for you. WE love America THE WAY IT IS! We are not all the same color, we do not all have the same opinion, we do not all have the same sexual preference...but we're all Americans, and our political system was built for INCLUSIVITY, not EXCLUSION. For DIVERSITY not HOMOGENEITY....etc."
He could easily run a straw man like that, which would knock down their stupid 'real america' straw man in a NEW YORK MINUTE. (Metaphore deliberately chosen, as wingnuts hate New York.)
However...I think he's still too nice a guy to use DEMAGOGUERY as a weapon AGAINST a bunch of demagogues. How's that for irony?
TNNurse
(6,929 posts)is that we have dignity and decency and we do not stoop to such ignorant low class tactics.....
calimary
(81,437 posts)When I see this, what it makes me think is - "well-well-well, matthews, you finally came around? Finally saw the light? Finally woke up and smelled the coffee? Finally realized just what it is we've been swimming upstream against, and trying to fight against and hold back and hold off, and you're just now noticing? Better late than never, I suppose. Where've you been all this time, besides asleep? Or in a post-reagan drunken-binge hangover, or a "we're all neo-CONS now" stupor?