Open Letter to Tea Party Conservative Ted Cruz, Response to Rush Limbaugh Endorsement

Dear Ted Cruz,

The Progress Texas community understands you are running as a fringe Tea Party Conservative candidate for U.S. Senate, and that you feel you need to double down and show support for Rush Limbaugh. Your advisors lead you astray when they told you bail Rush Limbaugh out and now they have you in a box.

Let's give some back story really quickly. When Rush Limbaugh started his attack on women, and Sandra Fluke specifically, we didn't think that was very Texan. And since Rick Perry made Rush Limbaugh an Honorary Texan and a spokesperson for the state, we made sure all of our members were aware. Thousands of you made your voice heard and told Perry to revoke Rush's Honorary Status. Of course, Rick Perry, when asked by the Texas Tribune, dodged the question on whether he would do anything about the issue but he did decide to start calling all of us names and drive a wedge between people trying to make their voice heard in the Governor's office.

Not long after the Governor's name calling, Progress Texas heard something surprising - a candidate for higher office advertising and financially supporting Rush Limbaugh's war on women.  That candidate was Ted Cruz.

Almost two full weeks later, Mr. Cruz, you had to do what most Tea Party Republicans are doing in Texas, start calling people who want their voice heard in government names. That's not very Senatorial.

In a page long, personal post on your campaign website, you felt compelled to endorse Rush Limbaugh's hateful speech and called him a conservative champion:

Rush has been a hero to the conservative movement for decades.  He’s passionate and he’s fearless. 

[…]

They’re attacking Rush because he speaks the truth and stands up to their liberal agenda.  And I am proud to advertise on his show.  In fact, in light of these attacks, we might even up the buy… 

Well Mr. Cruz, all of us at Progress Texas want to thank you for telling us that you support, and therefore endorse, Rush Limbaugh. We want to thank you for saying he speaks for the conservative movement. We appreciate you making it clear where you stand on the issues. While conservatives running for national office, advertisers, and radio stations across the country abandon Mr. Limbaugh, we appreciate you letting us know that Texas conservatives stand with him.

We find it sad that you support his hateful speech. Here are just a few examples of Rush's attacks on Sandra Fluke and women, from a video of over 70 remarks collected by Think Progress:

• "What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex."
• "We are getting screwed, even though we don't meet her personally."
• "I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between her knees..."
• "Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade?"
• "The woman goes up to Congressional Committee and says she's having sex so damn much she's going broke."
• "Ms. Fluke, and the rest of you feminazis, if we're going to pay for your contraceptives...if we're going to have to pay for this...and thus pay to have sex, we want something for it...We want you to post the videos online so we can see so we can see what we are getting for our money."

And let's not forget Rush's long history of race-batting and attacks on minorities:

• Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro"
• "The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There I said it."
• "What color is the skin of the people in Darfur? It's black. And who do the Democrats really need to keep voting for them? If they lose a significant percentage of this voting bloc, they're in trouble."
• "Obama does not have authentic slave blood. But Michelle does..."
• "It is clear that Senator Obama has disowned his white half, that he's decided he's got to go all in on the black side."
• "Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican-American actress Halle Berry."
• "He even talks honky around white people."
• "So Obama had a menorah there and he lit 'em all. I'm sure he thought it was Kwanzaa while talking about loyalty to Israel."
• "We're being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles. Bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president. We've got to accept this."

Mr. Cruz, we understand why you have to stand by Rush and attack Texans who disagree with you. You are the underdog and presumptive loser in a U.S. Senate race. Not to mention, I am sure the advertising rate is really cheap right now and it might be one of the few places you can afford to advertise. That being said, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. And you are running to represent every Texan, not just the far right Tea Party Conservatives. We are sad to see you support Rush's hate speech but we appreciate your frankness and response.

Hopefully you, Mr. Cruz, you will respect the voices of Texans who voice their concerns and frustrations with your financial support of a conservative champion who constantly and consistently attacks women, minorities, and those that want to get involved in their community and improve their government.

Sincerely,

Progress Texas

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P.S. Mr. Cruz, you have asked for Texans to make their voice heard on your Facebook page. I hope you don't mind we will be encouraging our members to talk with you on Facebook and Twitter too. Of course, I hope you won't ignore them or censor their voices. Just as a reminder, here is the direct call to action from your post:

Please post your thoughts about Rush Limbaugh’s strong voice for liberty on our Facebook page.

And here is the Think Progress video, highlighting Rush's comments, that we discussed before: