Ted Cruz, like most all of us, came from somewhere. In Ted’s case he came from the union of Rafael Cruz and Eleanor Wilson. Rafael, the senior Cruz, is a wretched old scoundrel. He’s a big lynchpin for the Teddy Cruz campaign’s evangelical support because he’s such a raging religious asshole. Right Wing Watch plugged in the tape and recorded the Senior Cruz spewing his special brand of America-is-in-moral-decay on some right-wing radio station. The interviewer asked the strangely worded question: something something, liberals and progressives hate the foundations of our country, why is that? (When you listen below you’ll realize that I’m virtually quoting the question.) Rafael starts in with a long-winded, conspiracy-laden, history-lesson-sounding diatribe about “secular humanism.” This leads him to say that:

It really started with Theodore Roosevelt and progressivism, but then in 1917 when we had the Bolshevik Revolution, then the Communist Manifesto was promoted in universities and that culminated, in 1933, with the Humanist Manifesto; and in my book the Communist Manifesto and the Humanist Manifesto are both highlighted [...] one of the principal signers of the Humanist Manifesto was John Dewey. John Dewey was a member of the American Communist Party.

I can only transcribe so much of a lunatic’s rant before I need a break. Cruz goes on to say that Dewey’s educational philosophies that were so influential were based in Secular Humanism and that means no moral absolutes and, like most evangelicals, this means we are all in handbaskets on roads of gold, traveling to Hell.

Forget that Dr. John Dewey was at odds with many on the left when he began stating very clearly that the communist experiment in Russia had failed, conservatives and evangelicals do not believe in second acts—except for their own second comings. Rafael Cruz admittedly was a Fidel Castro supporter—though he most likely lied about the extent of that as well. What Dewey did want, that isn’t in line with people like Rafael and Ted Cruz’s theories on humanity, was a United States that made sure its citizens were educated. Dewey believed that the U.S. would not survive as a working democracy without an educated populace. This is something that even the least educated amongst us can understand. People like the Cruz crew don’t believe in educating the masses because they do not believe the masses are there for anything but to be beasts of burden.

Listen to the ravings below the fold, and imagine a young Ted Cruz sitting on the couch in his living room, listening to this crazy person tell him how the commies were infiltrating everything. You’ll understand Ted Cruz a touch better, but you may also need to take a shower to wash the dumb off of you.