It's Washington, Not Ted Cruz that's Abnormal
According to a new Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans say they have "not very much/none at all" confidence that they can rely on the media to report the news "fully, accurately, and fairly."
Forty six percent say the media is too liberal and just 13 percent think it's too conservative.
Justification for this public sentiment is evident as the budget and debt-ceiling issues heat up and the press can hardly restrain its disdain for Tea Party Republicans and the idea that our nation may really be in crisis.
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New York Times columnist David Brooks does a regular political commentary feature along with Mark Shields on the PBS News Hour. It's hard to believe that this feature is supposed to be balanced, with Brooks the alleged conservative and Shields the liberal. But for PBS, like the New York Times where Brooks writes his column, anyone not on the far left is a conservative.
In a recent News Hour segment about the budget debate, Brooks talked about "the rise of Ted-Cruzism."
According to Brooks, Cruz is not a "normal" Senator who sees himself in Congress to form alliances and pass legislation. Rather, per Brooks, Cruz is more a "media protest person."
The same thing is happening in the House, says Brooks. House Republicans are "not normal - they just want to obstruct."
My organization, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, held an event in Washington two weeks ago titled "Reversing the Urban Plight."
A room filled with about one hundred black pastors and community leaders from around the country listened to presentations by black conservatives like Dr. Ben Carson, economist Walter Williams, Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory, and CURE Chairman and Family Research Council Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell talk about how freedom and conservative principles hold the key to reviving our urban crises.
Senator Ted Cruz dropped by the dinner.
In stark contrast to what the PBS viewing audience heard from David Brooks, this audience heard remarks from Cruz, the freshman Senator from Texas, that everyone in the room found refreshingly normal.
Cruz had a crisp, clear message about getting America back on track and about what it will take to save our low-income urban communities.
He talked about the importance of school choice and personal retirement accounts for low income Americans.
Only in Washington is it considered abnormal and obstructionist for a member of Congress to ring the alarm about the loss of freedom in America, to take a stand to restore it, and suggest that Americans, particularly low income Americans, should be able to decide what kind of school they send their child to and to keep and save more of their hard earned income.
The black pastors who heard Cruz heard someone who wants to liberate, not obstruct, and understood that the obstructionists are the political class in Washington whose agenda is holding onto and expanding their own power.
According to the Census Bureau, while the median American family income dropped 6.6 percent from 2000 to 2012, median family income in Washington, DC grew 23.3 percent, by far the highest in the nation.
Let's recall that the Tea Party got going when it was clear in 2009 that America's new president saw more government rather than less as the answer to America's crisis.
The Obamacare health care law, which passed without a single Republican vote, has only gotten more unpopular. A new USA Today/Pew Research poll shows 53 percent of Americans disproving of the new health care law and 42 percent approving. Forty one percent strongly disapprove and 26 percent strongly approve.
It's Washington that is abnormal. Not Ted Cruz and Tea Party Republicans.
It's only a left wing press that can conclude that that it's those taking a stand for freedom in a country that is supposed to be free that are the abnormal obstructionists.
