Ted Cruz’s rationale for not supporting the legalization of gay marriage directly contradicts his other political and social philosophies. Cruz, who is currently second place in the Republican primary polls said, “No government entity should be able to coerce organizations into…promoting gender policy that is contrary to the organization’s fundamental mission.” It is strongly against the wishes of many schools and religious organizations to have guns in their establishment, but Cruz continues to support the open-carry movement which allows any citizen to carry a weapon without keeping it concealed. He supports the Religious Freedom Act allowing Christian organizations to turn away business from any homosexual, but he does not believe in a school turning away a person carrying a gun into the building because of security concerns. One who is running for president should be able to remain consistent in one social ideology, instead of using contradictory arguments to support his platform. Although Cruz made a contradictory statement, he is entitled to whatever he wants to believe, however, his strong belief of anti-same sex marriage does not end here. He takes his philosophy to an extreme level that few would be able to stand behind.
“I think he’s got some good policies, but he is way too extreme and I don’t think he is actually electable,” McKenna Stam said, former chairman of the Young Republicans. Although he could survive the primaries, due to large amounts of straight ticket voters, Ted Cruz is too extreme to be successful in the general election. Few knew how extreme he was until he supported Pastor Kevin Swanson at the National Religious Liberties Conference. At this convention, Pastor Swanson said, “There are instances in which both the Old and New Testament speak to the matter with unbelievable clarity. You know what that sin is – it’s the sin of homosexuality. In fact, in Romans 1, Paul affirms that this particular sin is worthy of death.” This radical ideal is not one born into our modern society, but rather more than two thousand years ago.
Pastor Swanson is an outright supporter of the anti-same-sex marriage movement. At the NRLC, Swanson said he believed there must be a mass extermination of all homosexual people. About 40% of the United States does not believe in legalizing gay marriage; however, going to the length of exterminating one demographic sounds suspiciously like the Holocaust.
The media did not outwardly present the fact that presidential candidates, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz were all at this conference in support of Swanson. Cruz has made many anti-same sex marriage comments in the past, but never as far as removing them from our society all together. After the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, Cruz said, “The Supreme Court’s decision to let rulings by lower court judges stand that redefine marriage is both tragic and indefensible.” The majority of adults are in favor of the Supreme Court’s decision, and the generation behind them of millennials strongly support the legalization of gay marriage.
Ted Cruz is not only unrepresentative of the majority, but his support of Swanson’s tactics toward handling homosexuals is indefensible. As Cruz stands at second place in the Republican primaries, more people need to be informed of all parts of his policy, not just the economic or foreign policy side. The United States has not seen a president support the persecution of one demographic since the enslavement of African Americans. This is not the Civil War and this is not the wild west. This is the presidential election of 2016. One would think that a candidate running for president would be less interested in persecution and more interested in equality.
