Who says our elected officials are doing nothing about gun violence – Ted Cruz is full of (lamebrain) ideas

Commentary

Cruz’s proposals, pandering to the gun lobby, begs the question…what’s going on at Harvard (and Yale, Princeton and Stanford) that they turn out doltish politicians? And why do people continue voting for them?

In the wake of mass shootings at a school in Nashville (seven dead, one injured) quickly followed by another mass shooting at a bank in Louisville (five dead, eight injured) leave it to Texas senator and Princeton undergrad/Harvard Law School graduate, Ted Cruz, to leap into action.

Regarding making schools safer from mass murderers, Cruz, who Donald Trump once dubbed “Lyin’ Ted” – until the sniveling senator began currying Trump’s favor, leading to a new nickname, “Beautiful Ted” – proposed this a week or so ago: Stationing as many armed police officers in schools as there are in banks.

“You know, when you go to the bank, and you deposit money in the bank, there are armed police officers at the bank. Why? Because we want to protect the money we save. Why on earth do we protect a stupid deposit more than our children?” Cruz said on March 30.

“We have an opportunity right now to double the police officers on campus and keep kids safe,” Cruz added.

He reiterated the sentiment in a tweet on March 31.

The senator’s insistence that banks are a paragon of safety and security came just days before a 25-year-old bank employee opened fire on his colleagues in Louisville.

How did that work out Ted? Or perhaps we should call him “Not-Nostradamus Ted.”

According to Insider.com, Cruz has, in the past, made widely panned suggestions on how to stop gun violence.

After the Uvalde school shooting, where a shooter killed 21 people, Cruz floated a bizarre idea for preventing school shootings: Having a “single point of entry” in schools.

“Fire exits should only open out. At that single point of entry, we should have multiple armed police officers or, if need be, military veterans trained to provide security and keep our children safe,” Cruz said in an interview with Fox News.

Cruz was booed at a September festival in Austin after his comments on gun legislation. At the festival, Cruz suggested that violence “is actually the only thing” that helps stop violence — a common, right-wing talking point often trotted out by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Cruz is an NRA-friendly GOP politician. Days after the Uvalde shooting, Cruz refused to cancel his appearance at the organization’s leadership conference in Houston. Justifying his decision, he told CBS News that the NRA “stands up for your rights, stands up for my rights, and stands up for the rights of every American.”

While Cruz might be the poster boy for graduates of elite colleges and universities acting like morons, make no mistake, he’s not alone.

There’s Josh Hawley, the junior senator from Missouri, a graduate of Stanford and Yale Law, raising his fist on January 6 in support of a riotous mob that would shortly endanger his own life and the life of the institution to which he belonged. 

Or Tom Cotton, the junior senator from Arkansas with a Harvard College BA and Harvard Law JD. Cotton, a Trump uber-loyalist has denied that waterboarding is a form of torture. He supported an immediate Senate vote on Trump’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death a month before a presidential election while refusing to consider Obama’s Supreme Court nomination in March 2016, eight months before the next presidential election rationalizing his stance with these questions: “Why would we cut off the national debate on the next justice? Why would we squelch the voice of the populace? Why would we deny the voters a chance to weigh in on the makeup of the Supreme Court?

Why indeed, Mr. “Veritas?”*

*(Harvard’s motto…”Veritas”=”Truth”)

Then there’s former Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, now the president of the University of Florida.* Sasse earned a Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and a PhD in history from Yale University. While in the Senate, Sasse voted against the bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation, which passed the Senate 87–12, criticized what he calls “alarmism” over climate change, and proposed repealing the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which would give state legislatures the power to select senators, eliminating the requirement that senators be elected by popular vote (which with Republican voter suppression efforts and gerrymandering would guarantee a GOP majority Senate…like, forever!). To his (minor) credit however, Sasse has been vocally critical of Donald Trump, although he generally voted in line with Trump’s positions, leading some critics to call him, “all talk, no action.”

*(The appointment generated some controversy. There were student protests because of Sasse’s opposition to same-sex marriage. The faculty senate passed a no-confidence resolution criticizing the election process and the faculty union passed a resolution expressing concern. But what would you expect? UF is a state university in a state ruled by one man – Ron DeSantis – Harvard/Yale by the way.)

Speaking of Trump, I couldn’t end this section about the enigma of an elite education without mentioning the disgraced, twice-impeached ex-president and his alma mater, the Ivy League’s Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Trump, who transferred to Wharton at a time when the former admissions executive and Trump family friend, James Nolan, who might have offered some assistance, said that 50+% of transfer students were admitted to the now much more selective school. Trump, who famously accused former President Barack Obama of falsifying his college records and transcripts, claimed to news outlets that he graduated first in his class, despite not even being listed among the graduating class’ top honorees at commencement.

Thank goodness Trump didn’t go to Harvard where he might of had to abide by its motto, Veritas. Or would he have? The University of Pennsylvania also has a motto, Leges sine Moribus vanae – “Laws without morals are empty.” Talk about irony! Another thing young Donald didn’t learn in college.