Republican Sens. Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz talk a big game when it comes to promoting the Constitution, but they have no problem endorsing a petty, unlawful authoritarian.
Of the three self-professed lovers of liberty, Cruz, R-Texas, is the latest to toss his support to Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was twice suspended as the state’s chief justice for refusing to uphold the law.
“This December, the people of Alabama have a clear choice. They can choose a liberal Democrat, who will stand with Chuck Schumer to raise taxes, weaken our military, open our border, and undermine our constitutional rights,” Cruz said in a statement Tuesday. “Or they can choose to elect Judge Roy Moore, a conservative who will proudly defend Alabama values.”
The Texas senator’s statement comes on the heels of Sens. Lee, R-Utah, and Paul, R-Ky., announcing their individual support for Moore. The Cruz statement also comes after Politico reported that Lee and Paul would headline a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for Moore on Nov. 1.
Lee “does not agree with any of his colleagues 100% of the time and believes Judge Moore would be a better defender of the Constitution than his Democratic opponent,” the Utah senator’s office explained in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Asked why Lee didn’t do anything to support Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala., in Alabama’s senate primary last month, even though the state’s outgoing Republican senator is more conservative, more ethical and more knowledgeable than Moore, the senator’s office answered, “We don’t get involved in incumbent races.”
Spokespersons for Cruz and Paul, who also did nothing to support the more conservative Sen. Strange in the Republican Senate runoff, did not respond to the Examiner’s request for comment.
It’s easy to understand the political arguments for why Lee, Paul, and Cruz would support Moore now.
Alabama’s former chief justice shares the GOP senators’ distaste for Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Moore also has indicated that he would ally with the three supposedly Constitution-loving lawmakers against the so-called Republican establishment.
From the standpoint of building alliances in a fractious Senate, endorsing Moore makes sense. But from a pro-liberty, pro-Constitution standpoint, the endorsements don’t make much sense at all.
Moore has demonstrated repeatedly that he has an extremely selective respect for the Constitution and the law. That much should have been obvious from his two suspensions as Alabama’s chief justice.
If that didn’t drive the point home, consider Moore’s absurd and “deeply disingenuous paean to the rule of law” when he suggested recently that it is illegal for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem. If his support for symbolic shows of patriotism via coercion doesn’t strike you as particularly unconstitutional, then consider Moore’s support for barring certain religious minorities from public office due to their beliefs.
One doesn’t even need to focus on Moore’s tenuous grasp of the basic principles of the Constitution to recognize he is unfit for office. Law and order aside, he’s an embarrassing caricature of what a conservative Christian ought to be. He’s the embodiment of the worst right-wing stereotypes and he will absolutely be tied around the GOP’s neck as a giant, cowboy-hatted albatross.
As we’ve detailed before, Moore is a fan of the “birther” fantasy, which holds former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and that his U.S. birth certificate is a likely forgery.
Moore also made a great fool of himself recently when he waved a gun around at a rally, briefly sweeping the barrel across his audience.
Let’s also not forget when he said in reference to all the murders committed in 2017 that “we’ve asked for it” because the country has become more secular. Moore has also voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, going so far as to agree with the Soviet holdover in saying the U.S. is basically “the focus of evil in the modern world” as a result of its embrace of gay rights issues.
The Senate candidate also believes there are certain communities in Indiana and Illinois where Muslim Sharia law is the law of the land. It’s unclear whether he believes Sharia is being practiced by Christians or Muslims.
This is the man Lee, Paul, and Cruz have endorsed. This is the man with whom they’re publicly aligning themselves, despite the fact that Senate endorsements do very little to move the needle (read: they’re supporting him because they want to).
Sticking a thumb in McConnell’s eye may feel good. It may even be somewhat clever politics. But if sticking it to the establishment means backing a clownish, right-wing authoritarian, and all at the expense of your office’s pro-freedom brand, that’s a bad trade.
