One of the most disturbing developments of the 2016 Republican race for president has been Donald Trump's popularity among the most racist elements in American society.
The New Yorker, for example, had lengthy piece over the summer detailing the excitement he has generated in the neo-Nazi movement.
But here's the thing, Trump isn't the only guy with crazy, and frankly, dangerous supporters.
The media doesn’t talk about it as much, but Ted Cruz, Trump’s closest competitor for Republican frontrunner status, has also won the backing of some downright terrifying people.
Take, for example, forced-pregnancy activist Troy Newman, who the Cruz campaign just tapped to head up its “pro-lifers for Cruz”
As the head of the radical male supremacist group Operation Rescue, Newman and his group straddle a very thin line between “activism” and what many consider domestic terrorism.
His organization harasses abortion providers and their patients, and some its members have been involved in plots to blow up women’s health clinics.
Newman himself has called for the murder of abortion doctors, says AIDS was a warning from God, and believes that drought is God’s revenge for abortion.
Yes, he really believes that.
Seems like a great guy, huh?
Well, he’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Ted Cruz’s American Taliban-style supporters.
There’s also Dick Black, who the Cruz campaign has appointed the co-chair of its Virginia campaign.
In addition to calling for the total outlaw of homosexuality, Black is also rape truther.
Yes, a rape truther.
Back when he was a Virginia state delegate, Black openly questioned the existence of marital rape, something one of his opponents hammered him on in a campaign ad.
So in other words, as far as Dick Black is concerned, your wife is your sex slave and neither she nor the authorities can do anything about it.
So much for family values, huh?
Anyways, Cynthia Dunbar, Black’s fellow co-chair of the Ted Cruz campaign in Virginia, isn’t much better.
She’s compared women having abortion and birth-control rights to the Holocaust, fought to make far-right Christianity part of the public school curriculum, and believes that elected officials should have to pass a “biblical litmus test.”
She also thinks that politicians “don’t have the freedom to make any laws if they are contrary to what God has said in his Holy Scripture.”
Swap out the words “Holy Scripture” for “Qu’ran” and that speech could have been made by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS.
Another Ted Cruz supporter, Iowa conservative and Family Leader head Bob Vander Plaats, also believes America should be a Saudi Arabia-style Christian theocracy.
Here he is just a couple of years ago about talking about why our government should be based on “Godly principles” -- AKA far-right evangelical Christianity.
As unsettling as that kind of talk is, it’s nothing compared to what Colorado Kevin Swanson, another big-time Ted Cruz, said about homosexuality this summer, specifically that the state should put gays and lesbians to death:
Amazingly, it gets even worse than that.
Ted Cruz supporter and Texas preacher Mike Bickle believes that Jews should be forcibly converted to Christianity and says that if they refuse to do so, God will send a “hunter” like “Adolf Hitler” to get them to change their minds.
Seriously, I’m not kidding.
Now, it’d be one thing if Mike Bickle was just some random guy with crazy views who just happens to support Ted Cruz.
But’s he’s not, at least according to the Cruz campaign.
When Bickle announced last week that he was endorsing Ted Cruz for president, the Cruz campaign published a statement on its official website saying in big bold letters, “CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES ENDORSEMENT OF MIKE BICKLE.”
There’s an old saying that "you are the company you keep," and if the company Ted Cruz keeps is any indication, he’s downright terrifying.
He’s just not winning the support of people like Mike Bickle and Dick Black; he’s celebrating their support, and in some cases hiring them to work for his campaign.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that this is just one big cynical ploy to win the American Taliban-style Evangelical vote, but even if it is, it says a lot about Ted Cruz as a person and a leader that he’d willingly associate himself with people who are pretty much the American version ISIS just to get elected.
This is one of the biggest stories of the 2016 race for president, but the really disturbing thing is that the media is almost completely ignoring it.
Turn on CNN or any of the other major networks and you’re more likely to hear about poll numbers than the fact that the potential Republican nominee for president has embraced the endorsement of a guy who thinks Hitler was sent by God.
It’s almost like the media think it’s acceptable that someone running for president likes to pal around with Christian extremists and wannabee-theocrats.
Well, it’s not acceptable; it’s a direct threat to our democracy, which is why the corporate media should start taking Cruz and his radical endorsements seriously.
Based on everything we’ve seen up to this point, there's every reason to believe that a Ted Cruz presidency could mean the start of a Saudi Arabia-style theocracy right here in America.
The media should do its job and wake the American people up to this before it’s too late.
