Saturday, March 12, 2016

Sleazy Lying Ted Cruz Attacks Trump for Being Grandson of Successful Immigrants



Every day Ted Cruz reaches new lows in outright lies, misinformation, disinformation and twisting the facts. His latest rant has been interpreted as an attack on Donald Trump because his immigrant grandparents were successful immigrants.

Cruz Mocks Trump’s Wealthy Upbringing

It's true that Donald Trump was raised in upper middle class comfort in a house in Jamaica Estates in Queens NY.   Trump's childhood house.




The real issue however is how it happened that Donald Trump was lucky enough to grow up in comfort.  The answer is that his grandfather was hardworking and successful immigrant who instilled those values into his son.

Trump's grandfather immigrated from German to the US in 1885. He worked as a barber in NYC for 6 years according to Wikipedia, here.  He moved to Seattle where he leased a storefront and opened a restaurant.  He eventually opened hotels and restaurants in mining towns in Washington, British Colunbia and the Yukon Territories and yes his hotels-restaurants-bars were also viewed as brothels, a vital service in mining towns.

In 1901 Frederick Trump returned to Germany and married but he ran into troubles with the German government who accused him of leaving Germany to avoid taxes and conscripted military service, something any freedom loving, anti-statist Libertarian would cheer.  In 1904 he returned to the US with his wife, baby and worked as a barber and restaurant manager.  He lived in the Bronx and died of the flu in 1918 at the age of 49.

His son Fred (father of Donald Trump) started a business with Trump's grandmother and widow of Frederick.  They built modest homes in the Queens that sold for $3,900. They were very successful and  expanded into commercial construction which was also successful.  It's that success that bought Fred the house in the Queens that seems to enrage folks like Cruz who object to the success of immigrants.  Donald Trump's grandfather was a hardworking entrepreneurial man who strove to achieve the American dream for his family.  That dream and success was further magnified by Fred Trump.

The so-called silver spoon in Donald Trump's mouth is a classic American immigrant success story that would generate praise had the successful immigrant been anybody but Trump's grandfather and father.

For Ted Cruz to insinuate such a disparaging attack on Trump and his successful immigrant heritage is appalling to the point of being evil.  The father of Ted Cruz, Rafael Cruz, is some brand of a firebrand Pentacostal Dominionist preacher whose views on Christian theology would terrify anybody. The Daily Beast has an excellent summary of the religious beliefs of Raphael Cruz and ilk.

Does Ted Cruz Think He’s the Messiah?
Rafael Cruz, father of Ted Cruz, is a preacher of the far-right doctrine of dominionism, which holds that Christians should take over the government and save it from the wicked. 
When Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for president, many assumed he would quietly distance himself from his father, Rafael Cruz, since the elder Cruz has long been extreme in his religious views, and outspoken in proclaiming them.

But the opposite has been the case. Rafael Cruz has been the senator’s primary surrogate on the campaign trail, particularly with the evangelical voters who are now Ted Cruz’s base....

Historically, dominionism began as an offshoot of Christian Reconstructionism, the sect founded in the 1960s by defender-of-slavery R.J. Rushdoony that seeks to replace secular law with Biblical law, stonings and all. More moderate versions of Reconstructionism began to take hold in the New Christian Right, which began in the 1970s as an effort to re-engage evangelicals in politics and fight back against the sexual revolution and the civil rights movement. Dominionism was one such version.
Many Evangelicals in America are indeed concerned enough about the religious beliefs of Ted Cruz that they voted for Trump.  The Evangelical south was supposed to be the impenetrable firewall of the Cruz campaign but Trump smashed it and won the south and its Evangelicals.

Cruz is unelectable in a general election because he's a firebrand religious zealot.  In addition to being very scary and a direct threat to the tolerance that we value, Cruz seeks to impose some version of a Biblical theocracy on America.  

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