Link from The Hill:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Sunday that the concept of birthright citizenship is illogical given America’s struggles with rising illegal immigration.
“I think birthright citizenship as a policy matter doesn’t make sense,” the GOP presidential candidate told host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We have right now upwards of 12 million people living here illegally,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense that our law automatically grants citizenship to their children, because what it does is it incentivizes additional illegal immigration.”…
Brave words for a candidate born on foreign soil whose own father’s immigration to America was legally a little iffy. Except that Ted Cruz doesn’t seem to be running for President any more — he’s running for God-King in the Republic of Gilead.
Conventional wisdom is that Cruz is now deploring “illegals” in an attempt to lure the angry racists populists once Trump gets bored. I’m sure those voters would, as Austen might phrase it, make a tidy supplement to the marks already cheering for Cruz’s long con. Which wouldn’t worry me, if there weren’t a lot of desperate women going to get hurt by his ongoing maneuvers to draw Talibangelical attention…
Ted Cruz is teaming up with 100,000 pastors to defund Planned Parenthood http://t.co/VwobKbbrui
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) August 23, 2015
The Washington Post, on the Iowa event last weekend:
… Here in Iowa, 57 percent of Republican caucus-goers identified as evangelical Christians, according to entrance polls. Cruz has been courting faith leaders here, dispatching his father Rafael, a pastor, to speak at events around the state and announcing Friday that he wants to recruit a pastor in each of Iowa’s 99 counties to do faith outreach.
Cruz’s Iowa campaign chairman, Matt Schultz, suggested Cruz was chosen by God.
“We’re at a crossroads in our country,” Schultz said, stating that God prepares men and women to stand up and fight at certain times. “Ted Cruz is the man who God has prepared for this moment in time to be our champion, to fight for our husbands, our wives, our children, and our grandchildren, for our country.”…
“The persecution of religious liberty ends today,” Cruz said to cheering crowds from the altar of a church in Chattanooga, Tenn., an outdoor stage in Little Rock and the flatbed of a pickup truck in Tupelo, Miss…
You never know what will happen at the Iowa Pork Tent. @SenTedCruz debates @EllenPage over 'religious liberty' https://t.co/NavZIjQgIq
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) August 21, 2015
Remember when he was touted as the best debater that ever lives? pic.twitter.com/GwNTQh4dYg
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 22, 2015
From NPR:
Evangelical voters are courted every presidential election by Republicans, especially in Iowa. But this year, they could have an even larger impact.
That’s because a slew of Southern states are holding primaries on the same day in March of next year, just a month after Iowa votes. And one candidate is making a bold early effort to win them over — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
His latest pitch to religious voters came in a conference call Tuesday with church pastors from around the country.
“This is an incredible gathering of faith leaders across the country, of pastors who are standing up and answering the call,” Cruz said on the call…
@SteveKingIA speaking at @tedcruz religious liberty rally. His son Jeff is employed by a Cruz super pac. He's here too.
— Craig Robinson (@IowaGOPer) August 22, 2015
More on Cruz’s anti-Planned-Parenthood electioneering, from the Texas Tribune:
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood — a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters…
“The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices . . . has brought about a pressing need to end taxpayer support of this institution,” Cruz said in the e-mail call to action distributed by the American Renewal Project, an organization of conservative pastors.
The push comes as Cruz seeks to grab a decisive edge in a crowded primary-within-a-primary, with half a dozen GOP contenders battling for what he has referred to as “the evangelical bracket.”
Roughly 1 in 4 voters have identified themselves as evangelical in exit polls from the 2004 campaign on. In key Republican primaries such as Iowa, and in some of the Southern states that Cruz has said are critical to his run, that figure was higher during the last presidential campaign — nearly 50 percent.
Cruz has consistently pointed to his ability to motivate and mobilize those voters as a key element of his 2016 strategy. Earlier this summer, he said repeatedly that his main bases of support were tea party voters — and religious conservatives.
“I think my natural second bracket is the evangelical bracket,’’ he told the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer. He ticked off the rivals he viewed as his competition for that demographic: There was former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who he described as “likable . . . affable . . . a Southern Baptist minister,” along with former senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and neurologist Ben Carson. “I think at the end of the day, Huckabee and I come out of that bracket neck and neck,” he predicted…
.@tedcruz notes 54 million out of 90 million evangelical Christians didn't vote in 2012. "We will stay home no longer," he says.
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) August 22, 2015
Politico, yesterday:
ANDERSON, South Carolina — Three presidential candidates came to Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Faith and Freedom BBQ here in South Carolina’s northwest corner on Monday, but only Sen. Ted Cruz brought a crowd with him.
Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were the three featured speakers at the conservative congressman’s annual cattle call, and there were supporters here backing each of the candidates. But most of the estimated 2,000 people seated around tables at the Anderson Civic Center came for Cruz, easily identifiable by the red “courageous conservative” shirts they wore…
Cruz offered plenty of red meat, promising to crack down on Planned Parenthood and alleged discrimination against people of faith. His voice rising, he vowed that on his first day in office, he would “instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS and every other federal agency that the persecution of religious liberty ends today!” That sparked loud and long applause…
@daveweigel I look forward to the Cruz/Scudder regime pic.twitter.com/mPSYRC31gj
— Downpuppy X?? (@Downpuppy) August 23, 2015
One hopeful indicator…
Everyone's focused on Trump here of course, but wasn't this supposed to be one of Ted Cruz's selling points? pic.twitter.com/QF68sWgqON
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 25, 2015
David Koch
PPP: New Hampshire August 21-24
Trump……..35◄
Kasich……..11
Fiorina…….10
¡Jeb!…………7◄
Walker………7
Carson………6
Christie…….4
Cruz…………4
Rubio……….4
Baby Doc…..3
Perry………..1
Graham…….1
Pataki……….1
Santorum….1
Gilmore…….0
Huckabee….0
Piyush………0
Trump has 5 to 1 margin on the smart bush.
MattF
@efgoldman: As my sister says, “Duct tape can’t fix stupid, but it can muffle the sound.”
jl
Not sure any of them are substantially better than any other
Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know Dick About Women’s Healthcare
Wonkette
“I don’t think Planned Parenthood ought to get a penny because they’re not doing women’s health issues. ”
wonkette.com/593283/jeb-bush-doesnt-know-dick-about-womens-healthcare
Edit: you can watch the clip in the tape to enjoy the very charming way Jeb!? delivers this howler. He is just nasty and unpleasant. Both Trump and Zombie Godhead Reagan can spin hate BS in a more palatable way.
I don’t understand why Jeb!? misstates facts that even a lot of low information voters will know, like for example, what is Social Security retirement age. Does he think he is going to win a general election with just the Fox demographic (weak minded 70 year olds)?
jl
@David Koch:
” Trump has 5 to 1 margin on the smart bush. ”
Huh? Dub is ineligible and HW is a little too old. Who you talking about?
RSA
Good thing we have a well-tested procedure for fixing such situations: pass a Constitutional amendment.
Speaking of which, you know what also doesn’t make sense? The ease with which pretty much anyone can buy very powerful weapons. What it does is it incentivizes additional senseless murders…
Keith P.
Wait, you mean Hispanics aren’t diving over one another to vote for a Cuban who lectures them on how citizenship shouldn’t be automatically granted (to them).
Another Holocene Human
I’ll sign on to an effort to defund 100,000 pastors.
MattF
@RSA: Everyone needs to have their own personal flamethrower.
Another Holocene Human
Remind me to never again click on a news story about Black Jews at TheRoot.com. I need heavy duty brain bleach after reading the comments. The horrible, horrible comments. Oh, they were telling that utterly debunked mendacious tale that Ashkenazim aren’t really Jews, offering apologies for historical anti-Semitism, and more. *puuuuuuke*
Peale
I know what he means. The civilized countries of the EU, if they ever had “birthright” citizenship, got rid of it long ago. The immigrants stopped coming and we never hear about them being used as political football over there like they are here.
Mike in NC
Calling bullshit on Cruz’s claim that 54 million Evangelicals sat out the 2012 election. Well, consider that everything that drops out of his mouth is bullshit.
Lord Baldrick
I prefer to refer to him as ‘The Man From Calgary’.
Come to think of it, he does kinda look like something THRUSH would have come up with if they were designing Evil Napoleon Solo.
Another Holocene Human
Failorina is up in the polls? Republicans really are from another planet.
beltane
@Peale: I know. Isn’t it amazing how immigration is not-at-all an issue in Europe these days?
David Koch
Latinos are burning up twitter right now for the way he demeaned Jorge Ramos.
Meanwhile, people on twitter who identify themselves “Proud Christian” in their bio are enthralled that Trump told him “Go back to
Univisionyour country”. For self identified “Christians” they really post hateful tweets,kc
Wonder what Orly Tait says about Cruz.
jl
A Wall Street Journal blog has some numbers on birthright citizenship, which at least references to groups that produced them.
Anyway, Jeb!? and Cruz are full of BS on birth tourism, it is a tiny problem. But if you are a white bigot or a cynical manipulator of them, who cares?
Birthright Citizenship, by the Numbers
blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/08/20/birthright-citizenship-by-the-numbers-the-numbers/
Best guestimate of number of birthright citizens per year due to birth tourism: 7,955.
This stuff might fly in the GOP primary, but in the general, both HRC and Sanders will have a strong response.
NotMax
@kc
“Take me, big boy. Take me now.”
/Eeeeeew
jl
@Peale: Birthright citizenship is an Anglo-Saxon common law thing. I don’t think most of Continental Europe ever had the tradition.
Peale
@jl: the other side will point to the hundreds of thousands of births to immigrants of any type as the problem. I think there’s some foolishness going on about equating “anchor babies” with birth tourism. what the right doesn’t like about citizen children is that it makes the parents supposedly harder to deport.
SectionH
@Another Holocene Human: How about just stop their tax exemptions since they’re politicking?
They’re going to stuck-pig-squeal whatever, might as well get a return.
Also too, why can’t we just run Barry Soetaro in 2016?
(Actually SinnedBackwards posting on SectionH’s iPad.)
jl
@Peale: Deporting someone who has lived their whole life here, cannot really speak the language of their native country, has built a future here. is already a hard sell for most people. That is what the Dreamers controversy is all about. I don’t see citizenship as a critical issue for public opinion and politically for the general population, though it is legally.
So, I see Cruz and Jeb!? saying stuff that will make them look ignorant, stupid and mean in the view of most voters in the general election. I think the very idea of pushing birthright citizenship to the front of the immigration debate is worse than just opposing immigration for the GOP, except for white bigots.
The average person is going to wonder what some baby just born to some refugees from Honduras (and I think most undocumented immigration is now coming from Central America, feeling violence, rather than from Mexico, though not sure where I saw that) has to do with his or her chances in job market, or why there are no good jobs or decent pay increases. (Edit: unless they are mainly and mostly white bigots and not much else)
So, the whole issue is stupid and poisonous and bogus and if the GOP primary has to obsess over something, it might as well be this. Shows their true colors: bigoted, ignorant, mean, totally ineffective at either identifying or solving actual problems.
SinnedBackwards
I knew several anchor baby dudes in early seventies Washington in my International Relations Graduate Student crowd.
They were sons of Argentine military brass whose mothers had been brought here for birthing in the late fifties. It’s not a new thing.
Also, the son of a French judge sent here to establish the family’s emigrationability in the 70’s. He was given a couple hundred grand to buy property. It went pretty far in 1974.
There are very few countries in this world whose rich do not believe that the US is the “last, best chance”.
jl
@efgoldman:
“Even if Obama had been born in the US, I think birthright citizenship as a policy matter doesn’t make sense for foreign cultures like Hawaii,”
Roger Moore
Because it would be so much better to have a permanent underclass of people born here who have no way of ever becoming citizens.
22over7
Saw a white supremacist tweet who was dreaming that, along with the 11 million brown people, they would also forcibly deport all Jews.
rikyrah
@jl:
indeed, who cares.
it’s not that big a problem, but it’s low hanging fruit.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
There may be a small grain of truth in that. He’s just dishonestly implying that all 90 million Evangelical Christians are eligible to vote. But that 90 million represents all of the Evangelicals, including ones who aren’t allowed to vote. Since that 90 million includes a lot of minors and non-citizens, so a good fraction of the 54 million who “sat out” the election were ones who couldn’t have voted legally.
El Caganer
The Cruz Brother: He’s on a mission from God.
PurpleGirl
A friend mentioned to me an article written by a Cato Institute analyst from a few years ago:
cato.org/publications/commentary/praise-birthright-citizenship
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I’ll do your defense pro bono.
Note: I discourage illegal violence.
RaflW
@jl:
I watched the rich people in the fancy senior community where my dad went to live out his golden years (of alzheimer’s, so not so golden, but the setting was age appropriate and met his needs). Anyway … the seminice people I met in the dining room for the not-yet-too-infirm people contained quite a few who could say the sort of stupid but country-clubby things Jeb. says.
I think he has failed to grasp that the mics are on and he isn’t among his nihilist-in-golfpants set. Or maybe what is being rumored a lot is true: he really doesn’t want the job and is flubbing the interview (though in my opinion he’s overplaying it if that’s the goal).
danielx
@efgoldman:
Once more that most excellent word backpfeifengesicht comes to mind. He does have a face that cries out for a fist.
Peale
@rikyrah: yep. And it’s the type of thing that looks small, but can be made big. Like all those welfare cheats who buy steaks and seafood when I can’t even afford eggs.
NotMax
@Peale
Hey, it takes energy and stamina to perpetrate all that rampant voter fraud.
:)
Peale
@NotMax: unfortunately, cutting benefits for everyone is easy when all those steak buying cheats are believed to be everywhere.
srv
Networks are all playing up that outrage at the Univision ‘reporter’ ejection – they just got Trump a few more million votes playing that video.
Disrespect to our leaders comes with consequences. Bad consequences for the leader who didn’t know how to handle it, and good for the one who did.
Latinos, liberals and others are handing Trump the nomination – one outrage at a time.
RaflW
@SinnedBackwards: The genuinely rich can purchase citizenship in a number of countries, or at the very least permanent legal status with a timeline for citizenship. I’m not so sure the U.S. is the global rich’s first choice any more, though I by no means inhabit their orbits nor would I care to.
But I’ll admit, I’ve looked at Canada’s price of entry. Possibly Sweden too since I have relatives there, though the Scando tax rates make Minnesota look dirt cheap (and for the record I am happy to pay what MN asks…).
PurpleGirl
I have twice tried to post a link to the Cato Institute and it hasn’t shown up… what gives?
Peale
@David Koch: the amazing thing to me is how much trumpmentum has destroyed Rand, winner of all those meaningless cpac and other straw polls. His father got more than 20% of the vote in New Hampshire. His father came in second in the democratic primary, too.
RaflW
@Peale: Just read that Trump is beating Lindsey in S.C. by 26 points (30% v 4%) in a recent poll. Poor missy is being steamrolled on home turf by a yankee who is clearly not a gentleman.
Mike in NC
@srv: Your lame trolling makes us look forward to the horseshit from Right to Rise.
PurpleGirl
One more time… There’s an article praising birthright citizenship at C*** I*******. I’ve tried to post it twice and tried to complain about it also. C*** seems to be a no-no.
Steeplejack
Notes for whoever is fiddling with the site upgrade:
In addition to still being slow—although not nearly as slow for me as other people have reported—the site is not showing any of the “From Our Pals at Wonkette” stuff and will not display whatever video is contained in the post at the top.
I can see the video in Cole’s previous post (but not the Wonkette stuff on that page either).
I have been off the Intertubes all day, and it is with mingled anticipation and dread that I start to get caught up on the threads.
That is all.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack: Most of the day I haven’t had problems on the site but for the past hour or so, refreshing takes a long time. A long time.
ETA: Going to close down and see if restarting helps.
Fred
I like the apron with “Pork, Be Inspired” on the bib. Cruz really luvz him some pig meat, for sure. There he went and blew the vegan vote.
srv
If you just read Balloon-Juice for the last few months, you’d think nothing could stop her becrowning:
The desparation for a Plan B is getting palpable.
In other news, the Stop Chris Christie PAC responds the the FEC:
This is how you treat a cuck.
srv
@PurpleGirl: Always worked for iCarly.
cokane
ill say this about Cruz, he’s doing a smart campaign job of living in Trump’s shadow. Should Trump falter or drop out, which is still highly likely, he’s there to snatch up the troll vote.
Also too, at this point Anne, you should just get Schooley to write your posts for you.
? Martin
I’m disappointed in us. There must be some way in this climate to troll the GOP into support for tearing down the Statue of Liberty – symbol of socialist yankee oppression. Emma Lazarus? What the fuck kind of American name is that?
? Martin
@srv:
Thank goodness! You couldn’t pick a better candidate for the Dem to run against than Trump.
Anoniminous
@srv:
Good. If Trump does get the nod, which I doubt, Dems will take back the Senate and have a shot at the House.
srv
@? Martin: Sometimes when I read Balloon-Juice comments, I can only think of the kids who think Germany bombed Pearl Harbor:
blogs4brownback.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/the-statue-of-liberty-must-be-destroyed/
There should be a test before people are allowed to comment here. At least before John makes it bilingual.
cokane
@Anoniminous: this. honestly the dems have a solid advantage at the presidency, ppl here need to not obsess over it so much. it’s the congress that’s key people!
Fred
@Peale: Immigrants in EU are definitely being used as political footballs. I saw a poll last night on Swedish news showing the Swedish Democratic Party (commonly known as “The Racist Party”) in third position out of about ten parties. I think they were around 18% with the Social Democrats and Moderates not far ahead. This is a party that a few years ago couldn’t get a seat on a local town council.
The Swedish Democrats are running on a platform of sending all “Those People” back where they came from. It should be noted that little Sweden (pop. around 11 million) has taken in more Iraqi refugees than any other nation. That is more numerically not per capita. And more are coming as America’s middle east disaster metastasizes.
Xenophobia is growing through out Europe as refugees from both outside EU and within EU from poorer to richer countries seek better lives. Every super market and liquor store has a Romanian beggar parked at the door in Sweden. War, social and economic turmoil are driving people to pull up stakes and look for greener and safer pastures. The world just keeps getting smaller and over there isn’t so far away anymore.
Steeplejack
@RaflW:
My brother is high on New Zealand after taking a hiking vacation there a year or two ago.
srv
@Fred: Well, clearly, as the Muslim Peace Conference Scandinavia shows, the EU has nothing to worry about.
BillinGlendaleCA
@? Martin: It’s worse than you think, the statue came from… Wait for it… FRANCE.
David Koch
Natasha Richardson sure was beautiful
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
I think it’s the site. Many problems reported by many people over the last few days.
ETA: Did you get your new TV and get it set up?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: My guess that the absence of “Our Pals at Wonkette” is an attempt to speed up the site; it’s not worked.
srv
And people think Trump isn’t serious about policy:
NotMax
@srv
And a week ago, he was all in (as he himself had earlier put it, “I’m a fighter pilot and I would fly his wing through the gates of hell”) for Rick Perry.
Money talks, bulls*t walks.
craigie
@srv:
You’re right, people do think that. Can’t imagine why.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RaflW: I predict more commercials about Benghazi! if he can get John to get Cindy to lend him the money
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Call me crazy, but I think Cole should at least explore Tommy’s offer to look at the FYWP back end and see what can be done. My own software development background leads me to believe that it’s unlikely that it’s really a situation where “nothing can be done” and we just have to throw up our hands and accept the weirdness as inevitable.
Anoniminous
@efgoldman:
People die. People move. People stop doing one thing and do another. New people become voters. Also known as: live moves on. The statistical analysis of 2010 the GOP used to gerrymander is becoming suspect. An increase of, say, 18 to 26 year old women 10 points above previous statistical norms throws a bunch of GOP seats into doubt. And Democrats actually bother to turn out in presidential elections. Also the percentage of white voters should fall another two or three points from 2012 with a concurrent rise of non-white voters.
Of course if the state parties nominate the usual gaggle of idiots — see Kentucky, 2014 — all bets are off.
trnc
@SectionH: Yup. If they want to be involved in discussions about taxpayer priorities, they should have to put some skin in the game.