A Letter to Ted Cruz

Dear Ted,

I just read where you called me and my fellow Democrats "bat-crap crazy" during your little talk at CPAC.

I really wish you hadn't done that. Not because it hurts my feelings, but because it makes you look like a small-minded crybaby of a bully. Which is not a very senatorial look. It's also admitting that you don't give a damn about a very large group of your constituents. Because make no mistake Ted: I am your constituent, just as my fellow Texas Democrats are your constituents. It also shows that you clearly think that the status quo of the last 25 or more years is still in effect. You know, the one where Texas Republicans are invincible and Texas Democrats just kind of ceded you the state. And that's also a big mistake. We are waking up and we are not going to sit quietly in the corner anymore and let you or any other elected official in this state (or this country) do whatever they want. We will be heard and respected or you and anyone else who fails to listen to us will end up dealing with us at election time.

In the meantime, let me give you a few examples of things that are truly 'bat-crap crazy':

It is bat-crap crazy to claim to be pro-life solely on the basis of your anti-abortion beliefs without also being in favor of a few other things. Such as being against the death penalty. Or being in favor of an organization, such as Planned Parenthood, which saves lives every single day by providing health care of all kinds to those who otherwise would not have access to it. It's bat-crap crazy to shut down access to birth control and education about birth control when access to those have been demonstrably proven to reduce the number of abortions. It's bat-crap crazy when you claim the pro-life high ground while you refuse to take in refugees and send them back to die at the hands of the regimes and violence they are fleeing. If you don't care and protect the child, teenager, or the adult that baby grows up to be, then you are not truly pro-life.

It's bat-crap crazy to spend money on 'bathroom' legislation, instead of spending money on public education or programs that combat human trafficking.

It's bat-crap crazy to pour billions into building a wall along the U.S. - Mexico border to keep us 'safe' from non-existent 'rapists and criminals' when our nation's infrastructure is decaying daily with no plan to repair or replace it. You want to keep people safe and create jobs? Put the money into repairing and replacing our nations roads, bridges, and dams. 

It's bat-crap crazy to spend millions to deport people who have never done any harm to anyone and to separate children from their families by deporting their parents, then potentially dumping these children into our overloaded and underfunded foster care system.

It's bat-crap crazy to ban all Muslims from entering because of the actions of a few extremists. Especially when the facts show that the average American is in more danger of being killed by a toddler who finds an unsecured gun than a terrorist who entered the country illegally. (And yes, here's the stats: http://www.snopes.com/toddlers-killed-americans-terrorists/) Oh, and by the way, people who have truly studied the issue of terrorism say the main thing that will be accomplished by this ban is to make it easier for the terrorists to recruit. Hate breeds hate. So, maybe we need to think about ways to break that cycle.

It's bat-crap crazy to pass laws that allow corporations to pollute our water and earth in the name of 'creating more jobs.' Seriously? How is that going to work? Are the proposed jobs going to be in health care nursing those who get ill from the chemicals being dumped?

It's bat-crap crazy to dismantle the ACA, leaving people without coverage and potentially causing the deaths of the seriously ill who will lose their coverage without a workable plan in place. And I don't mean a plan that won't work for the neediest among us.

It's bat-crap crazy to spend millions investigating over and over again, Hillary Clinton's emails and then to refuse to investigate Trump's staffs' ties to Russia, when the red flags are clearly there. This is partisan politics of the worst kind. 

It's bat-crap crazy to not stand up for a free press and to defend at all costs freedom of the press, a press that fact checks and stands against the promulgation of hatred, bigotry in all its forms, and racism. 

So, based on this Ted, who's the one who is bat-crap crazy? It's sure as hell looks like it's not me. Or my fellow Democrats. So you think about it. And if you decide that you don't care about us, well, we'll see you in 2018. Actually, we'll see you before then too. At every event you hold. And we'll be calling and writing too. We've been silent too long and we are not going to go silent again.