Not long before Ted Cruz left the presidential race, he inadvertently performed what Salon’s Amanda Marcotte suggests was a public service by clarifying that right-wingers are entitled authoritarians who readily inflict pain on kids.
Last weekend at an Indiana campaign rally, a boy in the audience yelled “You suck!” at Cruz, to which Cruz replied, “In my household, when a child behaves that way they get a spanking.” Marcotte asserted in a Tuesday piece that the incident “was one of those moments when the cowardice of the conservative movement was laid bare,” and that “enthusiasm for beating children” may be the best indication of “the toxicity of conservative ideology.”
“The reason given for why the child should be quiet while Cruz is speaking isn’t because of basic good manners,” declared Marcotte. “No, the reason is that Cruz is an adult and the protester is a child…The adult can be a screaming moron who is spewing nonsense, but the child is expected to just sit there and take it…under the threat of violence.”
From Marcotte’s post (bolding added):
Looks like Donald Trump is not the only Republican candidate who responds to protesters by suggesting that someone should beat them into submission…
It was one of those moments when the cowardice of the conservative movement was laid bare...
Does anything better illustrate the toxicity of conservative ideology better than the enthusiasm for beating children? Research has shown time and time again that child-beating, even if you employ the euphemism “spanking” to justify it, does not actually achieve better behavior in children…
…Spanking has a symbolic value to the right…It is about asserting authority. The spanker is in charge not because they are in the right or because they have earned that authority, but because they are bigger…The assertion of authoritarian power is all that matters.
…The reason given for why the child should be quiet while Cruz is speaking isn’t because of basic good manners…No, the reason is that Cruz is an adult and the protester is a child…The adult can be a screaming moron who is spewing nonsense, but the child is expected to just sit there and take it…under the threat of violence.
In many ways, this exchange defines the mentality fueling the tumultuous Republican primary. Much of what is fueling conservative voters these days is outrage that their unearned privilege is slipping away from them…
This kid who yelled, “You suck!” at Cruz is in the right. Cruz does suck…The rapturous applause [Cruz] got suggests that this is exactly the message conservative audiences want: That they deserve to win not because they have better arguments, but because they feel entitled to be in charge. And anyone who disagrees should simply get a spanking.
