Ted Cruz wants police to 'patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods'

by Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2016 Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2016 at 9:40:33am PDT

LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 17: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during a campaign rally at the Siena Community Center on December 17, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Two days after participating in the fifth GOP presidential debate,

Donald Trump is not some weird figure at the fringe of the Republican Party. It’s not just that he’s his party’s presidential front-runner, it’s that Ted Cruz, his main competition and a sitting senator from one of the biggest states in the country, is also saying stuff like this in response to the Brussels terrorist attacks:

We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.

Our government should target people of a specific religion, he’s saying. Our government should send police into neighborhoods—and, let’s be blunt, homes—where Muslims live and … “secure” them. This is scary stuff, or it should be.