Ted Cruz Defends Nazi Salutes At School Board Meetings, Mocks The Idea That It’s A Bad Thing

admins 10:14 AM
ted cruz nazi salute

Photo via @atrupar/Twitter

October 27, 2021, 2:14 pm*

Every now and then a Republican seems absolutely compelled to go on record defending the use of extremely racist terms, symbols, or gestures, and this time it was apparently Senator Ted Cruz’s turn, as he mocked the idea that throwing a Nazi salute is a bad thing that shouldn’t happen at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. While Republicans were performing outrage over Attorney General Merrick Garland investigating increasing right-wing violence and threats against educators, Cruz scoffed at the idea that anyone should be upset about a Nazi salute being thrown at a school board meeting.

Featured Video
Hide

“My God! A parent did a Nazi salute at a school board because they thought the policies were oppressive,” Cruz said in a clearly sarcastic manner. “General Garland, is doing a Nazi salute at an elected official, is that protected by the First Amendment?”

Advertisement
Hide

Garland, of course, replied in the affirmative, but whether doing the actual Nazi salute is legal or not is hardly the issue here. Still, Cruz went on to argue the obvious, claiming that the gesture was fine because the man who did it was accusing a school board member of being a Nazi for supporting mask mandates, not declaring himself to be a Nazi or supporting the ideology.

Cruz went so far as to accuse “lefty journos” (hello) of being dishonest in their reporting of him saying what he said, further pushing the idea that Nazi salutes are totally fine as long as you’re implying the target is themself a Nazi.

“The parent was doing the Nazi salute because he was calling the authoritarian school board Nazis—evil, bad & abusive,” he said while quote tweeting the footage.

We didn’t think this needed to be spelled out for someone, but the reason people are generally uncomfortable with Nazi salutes, especially right now, is because it’s difficult to tell in the moment why someone is making that particular gesture. During a time when actual neo-Nazi violence has been on the rise and Jewish communities have been facing a massive spike in threats and violence against them by white supremacists, Cruz might want to consider the heart health of some of the people who might have been at that school board meeting.

Advertisement
Hide

One of those “just because it’s legal doesn’t mean doing it doesn’t make you a terrible person” deals, like flying to Cancun during a massive winter storm-fueled blackout in your state while you’re a senator there.

Notably, today is the three-year anniversary of the Tree of Life mass shooting in which an antisemitic Gab user killed 11 Jewish people, including Holocaust survivors, during Shabbat in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community committed in the United States of America.

Cruz was reacting not to any real action upon people who recklessly throw Nazi salutes in schools, but to a memo that Garland sent to the Justice Department simply warning of increased violence targeting educators. The Texas senator attempted to argue that if something isn’t direct physical violence, it doesn’t count as violence at all and therefore isn’t worth mentioning, and its mentioning is worth yelling and defending Nazi salutes about.

“I did a quick count just sitting here during this hearing I counted 20 incidents cited,” he says at the start of the viral clip. “Of the 20, 15 on their face are non-violent.”

It’s been well documented that political violence doesn’t tend to go from 0 to 60 in a moment, but often starts with targeted verbal abuse, threats, harassment, and intimidation tactics. Without intervention, these non-physically violent actions tend to become physical, even deadly, given enough time and tacit permission.

Jewish individuals and loved ones of mass shooting victims understand this very well.

Advertisement
Hide

Advertisement
Hide

Share this article

*First Published: October 27, 2021, 2:13 pm

Tags
Reactions

Post a Comment

0 Comments