Is there ANYTHING positive to say about Sen. Ted Cruz? Is that even the point?

#BackToSchool

It's the sort of bright brisk time where most of life is wilting a little but still mainly green. Thoughts turn to education, to new school years and widening horizons, education financing and gestures to attract voters because VOTING CHANGES THINGS.

The daily barrage of news themes beckons RantWoman down all kinds of vehemence suffused rabbit holes. RantWoman's email and media streams are filled with words like HUMILIATED, DEVASTATING, CRITICAL, URGENT. Climate catastrophe creeps into every weather report. And aside from yowling concern about the state of the world, RantWoman admits to being a little bit of a Rhetoric junkie. 

At the same time, the new school year is trying to encourage RantWoman to find her better self, and RantWoman thanks Sen. Ted Cruz R-TX and Princeton class of '92 for his comments about baristas, bong water, and debt forgiveness for handing RantWoman a splendid opportunity to try to find something positive to say about Sen. Cruz--before she even tries to take on the baristas and bong water comment. 

For the record, RantWoman is Princeton class of '85. It's customary in lots of Princeton publications to list alumni class years. RantWoman lists them here because this post mentions some esoterican of Princeton undergraduate life and also because there is an "Oh, come on?" gripe to other Princeton alumni at the end.

Here we go:

Item #1 #A11y on his Senate website

The first positive thing to say about Sen. Cruz: at least some of the pictures on his US Senate website HAVE ALT TEXT. The web design could, to RantWoman's ear maybe to further toward warm and fuzzy by adding a bit more description. Still RantWoman was thrilled listening to the website to hear the pictures captioned.

Item #2: Senator Cruz has survived at least mild slights. While Googling around to consider points about the student loan commentary RantWoman learned from The Princeton Alumni Weekly that Sen. Cruz was Rejected 3 times from one Princeton eating club before joining another. RantWoman is going to skip some research about the process of bicker, a sort of membership audition a little like other schools' fraternity / sorority rush at that time among eating clubs that were "selective." RantWoman is simply going to note that many undergraduates on financial aid get placed for work study at the campus food service. Many upper class members join one of about10 eating clubs and get waited on by paid staff, not work study students.  RantWoman also learned, thanks to the video linked at the bottom of this post that when Sen. Cruz's father first came to the US, he washed dishes for $0.50 / hour. RantWoman is wondering where disdain for baristas came from given these realities.

RantWoman was spared getting a stint at food service on her resume because she got placed into work study financed tech support at the computer center. RantWoman was never very interested in the eating club culture and opted to join the pioneer student co-op, a household that did all our own meal planning, food prep, and  kitchen management. To this day, co-ops are also more affordable than eating club fees. 

RantWoman has been thinking about how very privileged the student dining situation is. RantWoman has no basis for commenting on the future Senator's views. RantWoman is proud of being a part of co-op culture. RantWoman also feels VERY fortunate that her cook as a co-op member was quite different from life as a waitress or kitchen crew, jobs many people toil at while attending college. RantWoman is very grateful to have had a college experience that did not involve nearly as many economic stresses as many immigrant and first generation college students face. RantWoman simply notes that the student loan forgiveness is explicitly intended to help that sort of student get a leg up in spite of all the peculiarities of the current job market. 

Item #3 January 6 and some alumni's call for Princeton to rescind Sen. Cruz's diploma because of Sen. Cruz's conduct in connection with January 6 events. Princeton alumni rebuke Sen. Cruz after January 6  

Not just rebuke. Hundreds of Sen. Cruz classmates. Over a thousand faculty, students, and staff signed petitions calling for various actions against Sen. Cruz. One college junior wanted the university to rescind his diploma. UGGGH.

To the alum who wrote in the Princeton Alumni Weekly something along the lines of "what about all the other disgraceful alumni?" Nuts. RantWoman thinks there almost certainly are alumni tied to violent coups in other countries, the Confederacy, and other cringe-worthy moments in history. RantWoman is not aware of anyone connected as intimately to a mob assault on the US Capitol as Sen. Cruz. So deal with Sen. Cruz and then get around to the other what abouts after that.

What Sen. Cruz wanted to do while the mob showed up at the Capitol was to read some kind of a statement about Article 2 of the Constitution. 

RantWoman is not super up on what all would be listed on Sen. Cruz' card in any perp deck in line for indictment.RantWoman is interested to read that Sen. Cruz wanted to make an argument about Article II of the US constitution just as the mob broke into the Capitol. 

Oh Good Lord!

Everything RantWoman reads about Senator Cruz career in college and in law school suggests he knows how to debate. RantWoman is scratching her head though wondering why on earth Sen. Cruz would thing his fellow Congress members would be at all in a space to appreciate let alone be persuaded by his oratory if a bunch of red-hatted armed haters were banging at the door. . Why did Sen. Cruz think his presentation needed a whole MAGA mob?

Princeton Alumni Weekly rejoinder to reactions by Pres. Eisgruber and students 

President Eisgruber '83 2021 State of the University speech

Daily Princetonian Cruz Eisgruber search

Oh Good Lord, AGAIN. 

The President of the University weighs in. One alum goes down a whole list of gestures someone might ask, none of which are responsive to the horrors and shame of January 6. One student even suggested rescinding Sen. Cruz diploma.

RantWoman writes as day after day new unforced defense team blunders reveal more and more disturbing and incriminating details of matters related to the August 8 FBI raid on Mar a Lago, The Former Guy's no way secure golf resort. WTF difference would rescinding Sen. Cruz' diploma make? People who want to condemn January 6 have a whole bunch of choices about how to uphold democracy and hold accountable people who threaten it that will have a much bigger impact than rescinding Sen. Cruz.'s diploma.

--Free speech means free speech. Part of why RantWoman sometimes says she majored in political activism had to do with bringing human rights activists to campus to tell their stories. It was too easy to generate bomb threats when people spoke of Palestinian rights. When people spoke of wars in Central America there was one professor of Latin American studies who nearly always had some 5 minute question that heaped disdain on the speaker, showed little evidence of actually listening to the speaker, and presumably satisfied his need to bloviate. But it was a university campus and encountering opinions one disagrees with was assumed to be part of the experience. 

--Full disclosure: RantWoman also participated in a NONVIOLENT sit-in about divestment from companies doing business in South Africa. RantWoman even signed up for a student-initiated seminar in the theory and practice of nonviolence. SO what options are there to work study of non-violence into the curriculum?

--Get out and Vote. Get other people out to vote. RantWoman firmly believes it is possible both to fight vote suppression and to uphold election integrity.

--Support thorough investigation of the January 6 insurrection up to and including prosecuting as many of those who conspired and facilitated events surrounding the day as possible. If Sen Cruz makes the cut, no one is above the law. That is as it should be. The problem is not only about accountability for the insurrection. What else needs to happen for the US to find its better selves?

--Allow RantWoman one more round of head-scratching. RantWoman came across this Senate floor speech about the recent Colombian elections and the grave threat to US interests represented by...voting and free and fair elections and peaceful transfer of power and dealing with corruption and politicians returning to office..

Senate Floor Speech about Colombia and Latin America

RantWoman would probably agree with Sen. Cruz that some of the figures he demonizes and the US is supposed to be terribly afraid of should hold elections, participate in peaceful transfer of power and gracefully retire. Yet those individuals have little to do with the flow of guns SOUTHWARD from the US and all the dynamics that create criminal gangs and send ordinary people fleeing for fear of their lives. Perhaps if Sen. Cruz could venture out of his comfort zone addressing the empty Senate chamber, perhaps he might find time to speak to students, some of whom have lived experience different from his, perhaps if someone could set up space for honest conversations, perhaps, perhaps both sides of the conversation could better live up to academic ideals.

Other media reminding RantWoman that there must be SOMETHING to like about Sen,. Cruz

Ted Cruz according to the Daily Show

The Daily Show Ted Cruz and Texas

Okay, okay, RantWoman still has not found much reason to LIKE Sen. Cruz. And yet clearly there are paths past bile and toward people in the US finding our better selves past all the rhetoric and bile.