The Lawlessness of Ted Cruz and the GOP

The Kim Davis spectacle is revealing another aspect of the far right: the unfitness of a number of elected officials to hold their office due to their violation of the oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution.”  Like Davis, they need to either obey the law of the land or resign.  Leading the pack of those unfit for office is Texas Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz who is advocating defiance of federal court orders.  Even id Cruz's motivation is to whore himself to the Christofascist base of the Republican Party, his behavior is inexcusable and someone needs to hold him accountable.  A column in the Washington Post looks at Cruz's lawlessness and violation of his oath of office.  Here are excerpts:

What Kim Davis did was troubling. What Ted Cruz did was downright alarming. . . . . Davis, at least, is facing the consequences of her actions. Not so Cruz, senator from Texas and Republican presidential candidate. 

“Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny,” he said. “Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. . . . I stand with Kim Davis. Unequivocally.” 

Tyranny? Our system of government gives the Supreme Court final say over constitutional matters, and, though Cruz doesn’t like it, the court ordered states to recognize same-sex marriages. In fact, the high court specifically declined to give relief to Davis, and the federal judge who ordered her jailed for contempt of court is a George W. Bush appointee and son of a former Republican senator. 

Now Cruz, who took an oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution,” wants people to defy the Supreme Court’s authority? Who is the lawless one?

Cruz isn’t the only Republican candidate seeking the nation’s highest office while encouraging people to ignore its laws. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, declared: “I thank God for Kim Davis, and I hope more Americans will stand with her.” 

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, too, supported Davis, and Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) called her jailing “absurd” and said stands such as Davis’s are “an important part of the American way.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said that “you have the freedom to practice religious beliefs out there. It’s a fundamental right.”

[N]obody is denying Davis freedom to believe what she wishes; she’s merely being ordered to do what she swore to do: “faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor.” Refusing to do so doesn’t make her Martin Luther King Jr. It makes her George Wallace. 

 “When they put their personal beliefs above their responsibilities as public servants, that’s not civil disobedience, it’s abuse of power,”

Huckabee and Rick Santorum, another GOP presidential candidate, signed a pledge not to “respect an unjust law that directly conflicts with higher law.” Huckabee is on record saying that “the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being, and they cannot overturn the laws of nature or of nature’s God.” Huckabee floated the notion of using federal troops to block people from getting abortions. He also said: “I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our Founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch.”

It’s fitting that, as Kim Davis undermines the rule of law, Joe Davis threatens violence. When you lose the former, all you are left with is the latter.