As many of you know, much of the focus of my blog is about the hypocrisy of politicians and their enablers. I really don’t have a problem with anyone that espouses a different point of view from mine. Although I am opinionated, I am not arrogant enough to believe that my point of view is the only right one. I also realize that my worldview is biased from my own personal experiences. This is especially true when it comes to immigration issues.
Therefore, I have no problem with either the Tea Party or Ted Cruz advocating for keeping immigrants, like myself, out of the United States. That is their prerogative and they are welcome to try to keep us out. What bothers me is the hypocrisy.
The Tea Party has notoriously advocated sealing the borders and expelling as many immigrants as possible. Ted Cruz, for all intents and purposes, has become a darling of the Tea Party and they are his largest support base. Ted Cruz has been a vocal obstructionist to meaningful immigration reform. Obviously, this is a major platform of the Tea Party movement and thus it makes Cruz a viable candidate for them.
Except that, it is hypocritical.
As almost everyone knows, Ted Cruz was born in Canada to a United States citizen mother. Because of this, Ted Cruz holds automatic US citizenship and thus is able to run for president of the United States. To be clear, Ted Cruz holds US citizenship because his mother was a US citizen at the time of his birth in a foreign country. US citizen was bestowed on him by his mother, not by being born in the United States.
The Tea Party has been pushing forth legislation that would end “anchor baby” citizenship. Birthright citizenship is citizenship acquired by someone being born in the United States, regardless of the status of the parents at the time of birth. It is part of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. I won’t bore you with the reasons for the Amendment but suffice it to say it was enacted to provide citizenship to former slaves after the US Civil War.
According to the rhetoric of the Tea Party, citizenship bestowed upon a child born in the United States should only be bestowed to those who have at least one parent that is legally in the country at the time of the birth. How they define, “legality” is open to interpretation and beyond the scope of my commentary.
What is important to understand is that the Tea Party advocates US citizenship restrictions based upon the child’s parents. In essence, the Tea Party wants to limit US citizenship to a narrow group of individuals. Yet, they have no problem using a foreign-born person, Ted Cruz, to push forth their agenda. Ted Cruz was not born in the United States.
That is hypocrisy at its worst.
Ted Cruz, on the other hand not only carries the Tea Party’s agenda, hence why they support him, but he has also been advocating strong anti-immigrant political agendas. Yet, and herein lies the hypocrisy, Ted Cruz is an immigrant himself.
Yes, I know that Ted Cruz argues that immigrants should do it the “right way” but he himself didn’t even understand his dual citizenship status until it was pointed out to him. His own father followed a circuitous route to US citizenship that many who have gone through the process understand that there remain many questions about how many “rules” his father circumvented or ignored to gain citizenship. Taking 48 years, after first arriving to the US, to become a US citizen and acquiring another citizenship, while legally in the United States would be seen by many as not “following” the rules.
Yet, to Ted Cruz and the Tea Party it is just the normal process of “following” the rules, except of course when it comes to hard working immigrants trying to mount a bureaucratic mountain that not even those who imposed it understand the full magnitude of the often colliding “rules” and misconceived processes.
Ted Cruz is on a quest for political power and being hypocritical is apparently not an issue for him. As for the Tea Party, their embracement of Ted Cruz shows that their agenda isn’t about conservative values but rather about imposing their xenophobic myopic worldview upon the United States with whatever tools they can use to get there, even if it is an immigrant that doesn’t even realize he is an immigrant.
As for the Tea Party, here is my message to all of you; feel free to keep us out but at least have the decency to not be hypocritical about it.
No fan of Cruz.
There is no hyprocisy only compliance with the law. Now which is it in your book, you recognize Cruz as a citizen and then call him an immigrant ? Cruz is a citizen period.
Keep others out, well if a country can longer maintain a economically healthy place because of massive numbers of uninvited guests, close the doors. If you took in homeless people to help them, at some point you would out of space, food, money, medicine, etc. You would no doubt close the door. The border should be no different. Doesn’t Mexico and others have immigration laws and borders?
Perhaps for some it is a racial deal, but I would say most people say no because of the conditions. And the world is not safe.
Obviously the ideal solution would be to stop all immigration and seal the borders. Then process the uninvited guests for legal status. But, no prior announcements, to do that would create a tidal wave of people trying to get in. After sorting out the current mess, then start the assimilation process. None of this nonsense bringing in your own laws, language and customs and demanding others learn them. Keep the language and customs among your friends and family. But when interacting with others, speak the language of your new country, assimilate. English us the world’s business language.
Please no arguments of who was here first. Current history research indicates everybody came here. The Vikings, Japanese, Polynesians and anyone else that was lost. No nonsense of having rights to travel anywhere. Then why do people have fences, walls and doors? No bs about the land was stolen, I can’t claim what Villa stole from my family. He just took it ! Planning to travel to another country, first thing other countries require is a visa.
Come on in, just take time to do the necessary paperwork. Don’t think that’s fair, tell that to those that jump the line. Tell that to your native country officials when someone wants to become a resident.
I will vote for the party that will deport illegals, en mass if needed.
Your blog is getting stale. Same old drum beat of what you write about. David K, Abeytia, Forma, and stuff no one cares about. Not sure I’ll be reading anymore. It’s getting boring hearing about the same couple of topics and people.
The Tea Party does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy.
Many on the left:
Yes to marijuana, no to cigarettes
Freedom of choice for abortion but not for individuals who don’t want to participate in gay weddings
Freedom of speech, unless it’s religious
Discrimination is bad, unless it’s towards Jews, wealthy whites, Catholics…
You get the point.
‘As many of you know, much of the focus of my blog is about the hypocrisy of politicians and their enablers’ that’s the first sentence of these article. Today’s topic just happens to be on the hypocrisy of Ted Cruz and the Tea Party. No claim that the Tea Party has a monopoly on hypocrisy.
Anyway, comparing the Tea Party with the left, isn’t that comparing apples to oranges? Your itemized list of the left’s hypocrisy is a bit puzzling. ‘Freedom of speech, unless it’s religious‘ really? Abortion to gay weddings?