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Mark Halperin’s Nauseous Bullying of Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz is a top-tier candidate who could one day be the President of the United States. Instead of getting to the bottom of how he would govern, “journalist” Mark Halperin instead tried desperately to extract a “gotcha” moment discrediting his ethnic bona fides. Halperin’s obvious hope: that the moment might go viral and compensate for the fact that he works on a program with almost no viewers. (Bloomberg TV ratings are not public, but are believed to be lower than CNBC’s — which puts them with the margin of error of having exactly zero viewers).
I get it, some people can’t face the fact that ethnic Americans, immigrants, or children of immigrants often have conservative views. For most other people, it’s not that shocking. Immigrants are hard-working. They take great risks to enter this country. And they are shocked by the amount of people that don’t appreciate the opportunity here and want to turn it into Venezuela.
Like good sons and daughters, conservatives are often influenced by their parents and grandparents. If I was not influenced by my grandfather and father, would that make me less Mexican? I think abandoning my father’s and grandfather’s work ethic and ideals would make me more of an American brat. Since that notion won’t help the grossly biased Mark Halperin achieve his objectives, he would rather use his platform to destroy ethnic conservatives rather than understand them. Hopefully the backlash this exchange is receiving will help him and others to see the errors of their ways. Reading it in print doesn’t do justice the kind of nausea you can induce by actually watching it, but here it is. There’s some good stuff about it on Hot Air too.
Published in GeneralHalperin: Senator, people are really interested in you and your identity. I just wanted to ask you as a historical matter, when you filled out your application to Princeton, to Harvard Law School, did you list yourself as an Hispanic?
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Halperin: … if you have an affinity for or a connection to anything part of your Cuban past, do you have a favorite Cuban food… Cuban dish?
Cruz: Oh, I grew up eating Cuban food all the time, I…
Halperin [cuts him off] What’s your favorite dish?
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Halperin: Alright… do you like Cuban music. Do you have a favorite Cuban Singer?
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Halperin: Finally, I wanted to give you the opportunity to welcome your colleague Senator Sanders to the race and I’d like you to do it, if you would, en Espanol.
Let’s remember that in 2012, Obama avoided FNC, the highest rate news channel by far, but made time for local “morning zoo” radio programs like “Bubba the Love Sponge.”
Frankly, a series of YouTube videos (which could include interviews by Peter) would get more views from a broader spectrum of voters than appearances on all the liberal networks combined.
Silly Halperin.
Ted Cruz is Canadian.
This is, of course, completely wrong. Immigrants do not have “conservative views.” If they did, the Republican party would be an unstoppable electoral juggernaut at the national level.
And, after my “pause for reflection,” what am I supposed to conclude? That Ted Cruz is the son of an immigrant, and therefore all immigration is great?
Personally, I concluded that it’s more than passing ironic that someone who uses “nativists” to describe people against illegal immigration would find his favored presidential candidate to be someone as self-regarding despite her lack of accomplishment and disdainful of the law as Hillary Clinton.
Oh, wait…
“Senator, you once commented that you thought Lucy was funnier than Ricky. In light of this revelation, are you still going to insist that you come from Cuban heritage?”
If immigrants, legal and illegal, were the natural conservatives they’re purported to be, Democrats would demand total border security, and an Israeli-style concrete security wall 15 ft high stretching from the Pacific to the Rio Grande. There are one million legal immigrants to the US per year. If all of them were coming to start small businesses and join the NRA, Ted Kennedy’s immigration bill would have been repealed when Democrats were in charge of Congress.
Great point. Arroyo and Robinson are the two best kept secrets in media. We should get Arroyo to be a Ricochet contributor.
My point is that no one should be surprised if immigrants have conservative views. But you guys are right, there’s a lot of myth here.