Ted Cruz’s Father Thinks Public Schools Are an Atheistic Communist Conspiracy!
Once again, Right Wing Watch exposes wingnut stupidity. This time it’s Ted Cruz’s dad, Rafael Cruz.
This is of course, nonsense, as they pointed out if you read the blog post accompanying the audio file.
While he did correctly identify Dewey as a secular humanist, Cruz alleged that “John Dewey was a member of the American Communist Party,” when, in fact, Dewey was “an avowed anti-Communist” who even believed that “known Communists should not be permitted to teach children.” He co-founded the anti-Communist Committee for Cultural Freedom and was widely denounced by supporters of the Communist Party.
Cruz said that Dewey’s influence in the school system instilled anti-American values in children and, as a result, created “chaos in society.” This prompted Cruz to discuss Common Core, which he claimed “is about redefining education, redefining history and attempting to brainwash kids with a secularist view of history which denies the fundamental principles that have made America great.”
Sounds like no one would be more shocked by the idea John Dewey was a communist than John Dewey himself. Contrary to Rafael Cruz, public education actually has a long history in our country, and its origins had nothing to do with communism or promoting atheism. Now just imagine if we took this to heart and we got rid of our public education system? Imagine the poorest people, having to pay extra money to educate their children, and in many cases not be able to do so at all, because the only schools in the country were expensive private schools.
Obviously this is far from the first stupid thing the Elder Cruz has ever said when he decided to mouth off. Beyond Rafael’s baseless claims about the purpose and history of the American education system, he believes evolution is a communist plot as well. Obviously, he’s a creationist, and a fanatical one at that.
Watching the video, I heard him say that he was a “scientist.” I’m wondering if he’s the same type of “scientist” as Kent Hovind? Should I even bother debunking him on evolution here? I mean, debunking creationists is easy and I’ve done it before, multiple times, but it usually takes so much time to do it right, and I just don’t feel like doing that right now.
Moving on, in addition, JP Updates pointed out:
According to TPM, Rafael Cruz, a pastor and a Tea Party speaker, told a gathering of the Palm Beach County Tea Party that “unfortunately, in the northeast, the Jews are Democrats first and Jews second. This is what has happened to a great many in the Catholic Church. They are Democrats first and Catholics second.”
Cruz also evoked the Holocaust, saying that Hitler told German pastors to preach what they like about religion, but to leave governing the state to him. “As a result, six million Jews were massacred,” he said.
“We have a responsibility,” the elder Cruz said. “Whether you are a pastor or a priest or a rabbi, as a leader you have a greater responsibility than the people in your congregation and we need to assume that responsibility.”
“Americans need to put principle above tradition,” he continued. “There are people voting Democrat because, ‘My grandfather or my father voted Democrat.’ Let me tell you something. The Democratic Party today is not the Democratic party of John Kennedy. John Kennedy would be a Republican today.”
Most Jews do not vote Democrat, because they’re Democrats first and Jews second. The same goes for Catholics who vote for Democrats. Rafael is wrong about Hitler too. He would probably be stunned to learn that he was not an atheist, and he clearly wanted what he thought his Christian faith taught to be part of the government.
Also if Kennedy was alive today, he would be a Republican? John Kennedy was a supporter of secularism, and when he was alive he said:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.
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.
I wonder if Rafael would tell us that that quote is a lie and part of an atheistic communist conspiracy like evolution and our public schools. I wouldn’t be surprised. Then again, maybe not; Rafael seems to not understand what the “Separation of Church and State” means. But that statement is incredibly clear. Maybe he would try to come up with some way of explaining why JFK didn’t say what he actually said.
Regardless, the real JFK would never be a supporter of the religious right. Perhaps he would be more in line with today’s Republicans on a few issues, I don’t know, but he would be no fan of Rafael, or his son’s politics. He would be utterly dismayed by what happened with the GOP.
Ironically if JFK had come out in favor of the church influencing the government, most likely it would have just backed up the claims of anti Catholic bigots, that he was more loyal to the Pope than his country, and drastically decreased the chances that he would have even gotten elected, let alone the nomination, and few people alive today, would even know who he was.
Rafael is unwittingly showing us why we not only need public schools, we need to drastically improve them to keep people from believing the falsehoods people like him are constantly spouting.
I wonder if his beliefs about education being a conspiracy by communists to promote communism and atheism rubbed off on his son? I wouldn’t be surprised.