“Cruz took issue with the ‘vicious rhetoric on the left blaming those who are pro-life.’”
Huffpo reports, “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) downplayed the role anti-abortion rhetoric may have played in the fatal shooting of three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and suggested the suspect was a ‘transgendered leftist activist’ at a campaign stop in Iowa on Sunday. Speaking with reporters following the event, Cruz rejected suggestions that the shooter was part of the anti-abortion movement, taking issue with the ‘vicious rhetoric on the left blaming those who are pro-life.'” (Read story here.)
This, of course, is nonsense. The picture that has emerged of the accused shooter, Robert Lewis Dear Jr., is of an angry man with anti-government views who distributed anti-Obama tracts and nailed crucifixes to his living quarters. He probably wasn’t part of an anti-abortion or any other organized movement, because he was far too antisocial for that; he lived as a hermit. There’s no evidence he’s “transgendered” as Cruz asserts, but police records indicate he peeped into female neighbors’ windows, and investigators have learned he solicited sex online.
So where did he get this from? It came straight from a headline in Gateway Pundit, a rightwing blog. Their writer, in turn, reached that conclusion through sloppy research, a lack of fact-checking, and an absence of critical thinking.
“When a reporter reminded the Texas senator that the suspect allegedly made a comment about ‘baby parts’ while being arrested, Cruz countered, ‘It’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that’s what he is. We know that he was a man who was registered to vote as a woman,’ Cruz said.”
No, he didn’t. Here’s what actually happened. When Dear moved from North Carolina to Colorado last year, he bought property near the town of Hartsel from a woman, and when the property changed hands, his name was simply pasted over hers in the record that Gateway Pundit and Cruz are relying on as “proof” that Dear is a transgendered independent voter. (Note: They don’t explain how independent or “unaffiliated” equals “leftist activist.”) The information appearing below — a “female” born in 1958 who registered to vote as “unaffiliated” — is that of the previous owner.
Of course, it never occurred to either the wingnut blogger or Candidate Cruz (or his campaign staff) to check out this fantastic story. It seems to say what they want it to, so that’s good enough to run with, yes? Or maybe they just didn’t read the disclaimers clearly visible below.
Back in the real world, it’s unlikely Dear is transgendered, although there’s evidence he’s a pervert and into kinky sex. It’s a cinch he’s not a “leftist activist;” people who know him describe him as conservative, religious, anti-government, anti-Obama, and anti-abortion. He isn’t an ignorant, apolitical backwoods hick, even though he looks and lives like one; he has a college degree in public administration. And while we’re probably going to learn that he wasn’t known in the anti-abortion movement, there are strong indications this attack was motivated by his personal anti-abortion views.
When all of this becomes clear in the days ahead, will Cruz retract his remarks? No, of course not; in this day and age truth has absolutely nothing to do with campaigning for the GOP nomination for President of the United States. Cruz is on a mission for God, and that’s the only thing his supporters want from him, reality be damned.
Politics is a strange beast. I’ve lived through 15 presidential elections, and all of them were unpredictable. There’s a certain logic to voter behavior which you can understand if you take the trouble to unravel all its threads. Much of it has to do with fear, and voting behavior is most readily understand in emotional, not logical, terms. Millions of Americans have been voting against their own self-interest for decades. Perhaps there never was a time when they didn’t. So anything could happen.
Does Trump have a chance to become President of the United States? Yes, he does. Might Cruz win on the strength of such lies as this? Yes, certainly, because millions of voters go with their gut and listen to neither facts nor reason. On the larger canvas, you can’t take democracy or your constitutional rights for granted; both are fragile, and neither are self-perpetuating. Your willingness to vote is what keeps them alive.