It’s no secret that I don’t really give a damn about this election’s crop of candidates for President of the United States. The only reason I’ve given half a rodent’s posterior about Trump is because he’s caused so much heartburn for the Republican establishment, who I feel deserve every bit of excess stomach acid anyone can cause them.
However, while trolling liberals Facebook (No Mark, you piddling little shit, still no link for you) on the subject of Supreme Court nominations, I ran into this from Paul Valone, the head of Grass Roots North Carolina. I won’t go so far to say I know Paul, but I met him several times and talked with him a length a couple of those times. He is a man of absolute passion when it comes to the subject of the Second Amendment. He’s one of the few Yankees who have moved to the Old North State who I would not send packing if given the chance, because he has done nothing but make this a better place to live, mostly by making our politicians feel the heat when they refuse to see the light.
What follows is Paul Valone’s essay on why those of us who support the Second should be supporting Ted Cruz. I think I may need to start researching Mr. Cruz.
Why gun rights advocates should support Ted Cruz
Perhaps jaded by twenty-two years as a gun rights leader, I’ve never thought much of presidential politics. We’re usually instructed to endure the “lesser of two evils” by centrists who don’t want you to consider that the lesser of two evils is still evil.
So I didn’t hold high hopes, last year, when a fellow conservative activist told me the Ted Cruz people wanted to meet me. I expected to meet a candidate who would “speechify” for thirty minutes, wave to his adoring fans, and leave.
Instead, Senator Cruz sat down at a table of perhaps two dozen activists and said, “Okay, what should I be doing?” What followed was nearly two hours of give-and-take which convinced me that Ted Cruz had the potential to be the next Ronald Reagan – convinced me so effectively, in fact, that I agreed to be a state campaign co-chair.
What most impressed me was his point that we should never listen to what politicians say, but rather pay attention to what they have done. For example, Donald Trump makes all the right noises about supporting the right to keep and bear arms. His website contains the following verbiage: “The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon [sic]. Period.”
That sounds great until you consider what Trump said a few years ago: “…I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.”
In truth, Donald Trump’s beliefs are most accurately summarized in one of his more recent statements: “I’m very capable of changing to anything I want to change to.” Therein lies the real Donald Trump – a snake oil salesman with enough smarts to know what you want to hear.
When I studied the voting histories of Sen. Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, at first blush they appeared quite similar. But where was Rubio in 2013, after Sandy Hook, when Barack Obama attacked the Second Amendment with a massive gun control scheme parading under the misnomer “universal background checks”?
It was Sen. Cruz, along with Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul, who solicited a letter from Senate Republicans vowing to filibuster S.649. It was these three statesmen who forced Democrats to get sixty votes for cloture on S. 649 – and the long list of horrific amendments proposed to the bill, including semi-auto and magazine bans – instead of simple majorities.
But for the efforts of Sen. Cruz, today we would be living under a massive gun registration scheme disguising itself as “universal background checks.” Just today, after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Cruz promised to filibuster whichever nightmare Supreme Court nomination Obama sends to the Senate.
Beyond Cruz’s perfect 100% pro-gun voting record, he is, to date, the only presidential candidate to return Grass Roots North Carolina’s presidential survey – scoring a perfect 100% and securing Grass Roots North Carolina’s highest four-star (****) evaluation.
Some US senators, such as Richard Burr and Lindsey Graham, reportedly hate Ted Cruz. But they hate him because he has held their feet to the fire over issues as diverse as Obamacare, the budget, and gun-control. In fact, Cruz practices exactly the same type of confrontational politics to which Grass Roots North Carolina attributes its twenty-two years of success.
Grass Roots North Carolina does not endorse political candidates. But for these reasons, among others, I personally endorse Sen. Ted Cruz for President of the United States. Anyone who supports not only the Second Amendment, but the American ideal of individual liberty should join me in electing a president who has not only memorized the Constitution, but who lives it each day.
Armatissimi e liberissimi,
F. Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Thomas Sowell endorses Cruz.
It's regrettable that we don't have a better choice, but I'm in full agreement. I've done the "hold my nose" thing a bunch of times, when pulling the lever, and I hate that. But I think that sitting out the election is the wrong answer. And that's coming from me, a minarchist, who accepts some portion of legitimacy in the arguments from the anti-voting crowd. I despise participating in the system, as it now exists.
But I do feel there are good reasons to continue to do so, as the current debate now illustrates.