He’s a very dangerous man who uses the illusion of candor to hide his lies:
No one doubts that Cruz is a very clever rhetorician. Note how effortlessly he justifies the claim that Manchin-Toomey would create a slippery slope to gun registration by eliding the legal issues involved and sliding right into a broader discussion of Obama’s alleged desire to violate the Constitution wherever possible, which (in Cruz’s telling) essentially ensures that Obama would pursue such a registry.
As it happens, Cruz is right to be concerned about the Justice Department’s seizure of reporter phone records, the weak legal rationale for drone strikes, and the IRS targeting of conservative groups (though note that Cruz deftly slips in the claim that this was “politically minded,” which has not been shown to be the case). But to use serious issues such as these to bolster the completely phony claim that Manchin-Toomey would lead to a gun registry only illustrates how misleading and willfully paranoid the “slippery slope” argument, as applied to the common-sense solution of expanding the already existing background check law, really is.
Let’s all hope that the Manchin-Toomey bill does indeed lead to gun registration. There is absolutely nothing wrong, illegal or unconstitutional about requiring that all guns be registered. Cruz knows that so he’s demaguguing the issue to convince “stupid” people to vote for him. All politicians are corrupt. Some like Cruz, Rubio, and Paul are just over the top corrupt liars.
“uses the illusion of candor to hide his lies”
Bingo. Misdirection two-fer.
Senator Cruz (R-Yadda Yadda)
Hhhmmm…. A Republican Obama? Uh oh.