In a stunning show of ingratitude to the party that promoted him to the national scene, Ted Cruz criticized the GOP for
lacking a sense of humor. Or at least for failing to display it more often.
The junior Senator from the State of Texas was at a South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention this past Sunday, and he seemed -- amid jokes and "an apparent Russian accent" -- to be making a case for the viability of a Cruz presidential run. Which is either a display of extraordinary self-delusion, or his best punchline of the event.
During his talk, Cruz had little good to say about nominating moderate Republicans -- the "mushy middle", as he termed them. Which, it should be noted, still means anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-science and anti-poor; moderate, in the Republican lexicon, has come to mean something just left of Absolute Batshit Crazy -- the spot on the scale that is, it seems, science-denying, government-closing Senator Cruz's goal. But the most interesting comments came when he made his case for why humorless politicians don't make good presidential candidates.
“Would it kill Republicans to crack a joke?” he said. “I actually think for some Republicans it might. You know, lighten up a little. … So many Republicans run a Soviet-style campaign.”
He proceeded to demonstrate, in a mock Russian accent: “‘This is a Politburo! You do that! You do that! You do that!’ And a lot of young people are like, ‘Forget that!’”
Of course, if the uptight politician he had in mind was former (
and, possibly, future?) GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Cruz' advice is perhaps more dangerous than anything. The issue with Romney's jokes weren't that there were too few of them, but that they were delivered in awkward fashion, and, well, weren't funny.
But if Cruz thinks Romney's lack of humor gives him an advantage, he should reconsider. It may be true that robots don't tell great jokes, but it's certainly true that jokes don't make great presidential candidates...
Originally posted at Rachel's Hobbit Hole.