TEA Party darlings Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were once friends, but ambition has made them adversaries. Neither has the experience and qualifications to lead our nation, but that’s not stopping them from seeking residence in the White House.
Cruz has promised that he would deny nearly 12 million people legal status in the United States in direct opposition to the will of most Americans. He is a religious and economic extremist who would violate the Constitution to support the Christian religious right and support the one-percent, denying equality to the majority. Cruz has been the leading figure in the destruction of our government; he is the man who always says ‘no.’
What about Marco Rubio? To some GOP voters, primarily older and more wealthy supporters, he appears more centrist and more intelligent. These appraisals are erroneous. He is a member of the extremist TEA Party and owes his allegiance to the Koch Brothers. He has a poor work ethic. Concentrating on his personal ambitions, he has failed to perform the job for which the people of Florida elected him 40 percent of the time. He has not addressed his failed personal finances; how can we hope he’ll continue the improvement of our economy? Finally, this statement in New Hampshire proves that he would not take our domestic problems seriously; his focus would be on a possible war.
“People like to talk about, ‘I made this promise, that promise, the other promise,’ ” he said later. “Let me tell you the most important promise someone running for president must always make. And that is: I will wake up every day, and spend every second, minute, hour, day, month, and year in the presidency doing everything I can to keep you safe.”
Rubio has openly stated that he would increase an already bloated defense bill, which will mostly go to waste, from 650 billion to one-trillion, while rejecting all and any social programs which would positively affect the majority of Americans.
Rubio and Cruz are attacking each other on several fronts. They disagree on the powers of the NSA; they disagree on defense spending; Cruz has attacked Rubio for his efforts in the ‘gang of eight’ who drafted a plausible reform of immigration.
Cruz invoked Reagan when attacking Rubio over the latter. He was completely mistaken when he indicated that Ronald Reagan would oppose amnesty for undocumented residents. The truth is that Reagan and George H.W. Bush both took action to pardon tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.
One thing that neither of the two men perform is ‘fact checking.’ Their campaigns are filled with lies and half-truths. They prey on the emotions of poorly informed voters and pander to their audience.
The truth is that neither man has accomplishments to be proud of; Cruz led the fight to shut down the government in 2013; although Rubio did work on a bipartisan plan to reform immigration, he later advised the House to reject it.
Because all of the GOP candidates oppose the issues important to the American people, they have no choice but to play the attack game and keep fear alive.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of Gage Skidmore
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