{"id":27836,"date":"2016-02-01T14:53:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T20:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=27836"},"modified":"2016-02-01T16:46:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T22:46:17","slug":"cruz-spins-constitutional-into-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/cruz-spins-constitutional-into-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz spins Constitution into votes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Gilbard\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

IOWA CITY, Iowa —<\/strong> When you ask Ted Cruz fans what they like about a man publicly hated by so many,<\/a> one trait stands above the others: Cruz\u2019s self-proclaimed respect for the Constitution.<\/p>\n

\"Campaign<\/a>
Click here to check out all of Medill Reports’ coverage of the Iowa Caucus and the road to the white house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe need somebody in there or the country is going to be over. Someone that supports the Constitution,\u201d said John Koval, who attended a Cruz rally in Iowa City on the eve of Monday night’s caucuses.<\/p>\n

A Harvard-trained lawyer, the Texas senator tells audiences that President Obama has dismantled the Constitution through misguided policies and rash executive actions. No matter that Obama himself is a Harvard graduate and longtime professor of constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Cruz, a champion debater in college, fires up his audiences by lambasting Washington politicians and Democrats more generally. He proclaims his faith in god and his loyalty to the Constitution. He told Iowa City audience, “Our constitutional rights are under assault every single day.”<\/p>\n

Every Cruz fan I spoke with at the muddy Johnson County Fairgrounds on Sunday mentioned the candidate’s \u201cConstitutional values\u201d almost immediately. Their phrasings were so similar, the words sounded as though they had been lifted from a press release.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But what did they actually mean?<\/p>\n

For most, Cruz\u2019s \u201cConstitutional values\u201d are synonymous with the candidate\u2019s evangelical politics. His supporters want the next president to somehow overturn the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on gay marriage, a constitutional impossibility, and maintain current gun laws.<\/p>\n

Many Cruz fans also misunderstand the policies proposed by other candidates in the race. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the leading Democrats,\u00a0 have repeatedly said that they would protect responsible gun-owners and hunters. But many Cruz supporters seem to equate a Democratic president with a complete seizure of firearms across the country.<\/p>\n

Cruz does little to squelch these factual errors. Indeed, he encourages them with rhetoric just vague enough to give him\u00a0 plausible deniability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soul of America is damaged, diminished and on the path to destruction,\u201d the candidate said at Sunday\u2019s rally. He rarely engages in policy discussions with voters\u2014 preferring to talk about the Bible in tones that suggest a Sunday sermon. Cruz went so far to compare ISIS\u2019s goal of an Islamic caliphate to the Book of Revelations, a New Testament text on a potential apocalypse.<\/p>\n

Cruz misled voters in failing to distinguish the significant differences between a caliphate run by terrorists and a democratic Muslim government. Religion is not the identifier of a terrorist. Human rights violations are. But Cruz has done little to help voters understand the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllah does not exist! Islam’s a cult!\u201d one spectator shouted as broadcaster Glenn Beck, introducing Cruz, tried to distinguish between peaceable Muslims and “Islamists.” Security approached the unidentified man and instructed him to be quiet. They did not kick him out.<\/p>\n

To my eye, Cruz\u2019s repackaging of evangelical politics into \u201cconstitutional values\u201d is problematic on several levels. Most notably, it disregards the fact that America was founded by those escaping religious persecution. It also overlooks – or perhaps applauds – a Constitution that permitted slavery and denied the vote to everyone but white men with property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised on the Constitution and raised on the Bible,\u201d Cruz said proudly, ending his speech by reciting 2 Corinthians 7:14 and urging his followers to pray, “that we might pull back from the abyss.”<\/p>\n

Cruz’s pitch helped him to a second-place ranking in the final polls before Monday’s caucus, within striking distance of the front-runner, Donald Trump, and well ahead of a crowded Republican field. The latest predictions <\/a>give him a 39 percent chance of winning.<\/p>\n

Ted Cruz supporters gathered in Iowa City on the eve of the caucuses. (Morgan Gilbard\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Gilbard\u00a0 IOWA CITY, Iowa — When you ask Ted Cruz fans what they like about a man publicly hated by so many, one trait stands above the others: Cruz\u2019s self-proclaimed respect for the Constitution. \u201cWe need somebody in there or the country is going to be over. Someone that supports the Constitution,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":27839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,1145,30,978,1144,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election2016","category-election-2016","category-public-affairs","category-iowa-caucuses","category-the-iowa-caucuses","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nCruz spins Constitution into votes - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/cruz-spins-constitutional-into-votes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruz spins Constitution into votes - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Morgan Gilbard\u00a0 IOWA CITY, Iowa — When you ask Ted Cruz fans what they like about a man publicly hated by so many, one trait stands above the others: Cruz\u2019s self-proclaimed respect for the Constitution. \u201cWe need somebody in there or the country is going to be over. 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