Ted Cruz, Jan Mickelson, And The Atheist Taliban

As Bill Moyers frequently says, you can't make this stuff up:

This morning, Ted Cruz sat down with Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson to talk about atheists. You’ll remember Mickelson as that guy who thinks we should solve illegal immigration by letting undocumented immigrants stay…as our slaves.

But Cruz had more to talk about than immigration. He’s a good Christian, you see, which means the only thing he fears more than God is the “atheist Taliban.”

"This morning, Ted Cruz sat down with Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson to talk about atheists" sounds like the beginning of a joke to me. Unfortunately, Cruz and Mickelson are dead serious

Here's some of what Ted Cruz said:

There is an assault on faith and an assault on religious liberty that we see across this country, and it has never been as bad as it is right now. When it comes to this aspect of religious liberty — driving any acknowledgement of God out of the public square — you have radical atheist and liberals who go to the court system and try to tear down long-standing monuments.

Cruz calls himself a constitutionalist and says that "it matters to be able to live according to your faith and your conscience". He says that the first amendment "protects our religious liberty". I too want to live my life according to my faith and conscience, however my faith is not in any god or religion. As far as "religious liberty" goes let's revisit Everson v. Board of Education and Justice Hugo Black. Black held that "No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance." I like this statement by Black. It is about liberty, period. Not the "religious liberty" that is so important to Cruz. Liberty means that the religious have liberty. It also means that the non-religious have liberty as well. Why is that so hard for Ted Cruz, and many other theists to understand? Monuments to gods and monuments of the Ten Commandments (most of which are incredibly stupid) infringe on the liberties of the non-religious. Why is that so hard for Ted Cruz, and many other theists to understand?

Notice the language Cruz uses, atheists in this case are "radical", they "assault" and they "tear down". How do they do these things? No bombs, no guns, no wrecking balls, just the court system. How dare they use the court system? Self-proclaimed "constitutionalist" Ted Cruz doesn't like it when someone he disagrees with uses a branch of government that is defined in the constitution.

Here is the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If you are Ted "Constitutionalist" Cruz, people have the right to exercise their right of freedom of speech and to lawfully petition the Government for a redress of grievances through the court system, unless they are atheists standing up for their atheist ways. Because if they do, watch out, Ted Cruz will call them an oxymoronic name. Actually, what the phrase "atheist taliban" tells me is that Cruz doesn't believe in Allah, therefore Cruz is an atheist.

Going back to the interview, Cruz also said:

In Texas, I was very proud to defend the Texas Ten Commandments monument, which has stood on the state capitol grounds since 1961. And an atheist came and sued the state — happened to be a homeless man — arguing that you had to tear down the Ten Commandments. We went all the way to the US Supreme Court, and we won 5-4 upholding that monument.

Cruz is correct that Thomas David Van Orden was homeless at the time, but why did Cruz feel compelled to insert this fact into his interview, instead of saying "happened to be a Vietnam vet whose brother was killed in action during that war", which is also true. If you listen to the interview you learn that Cruz likes World War Two vets who like the Christian cross symbol.

Cruz is not for actual equality, he is for Animal Farm equality: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". That kind of explains why he was willing to be interviewed by Jan "What's wrong with slavery?" Mickelson.