Ted Cruz's attack on Donald Trump's alleged "New York values" and Trump's 9/11-themed reply in last night's debate have inspired quite a bit of Gotham and Empire State anger: Mike Lupica denounced Cruz in a column that appeared in today's Daily News , an issue with a cover that depicts the Statue of Liberty giving Cruz the finger. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) called Cruz "a fraud and a hypocrite" in a BuzzFeed interview today. And Governor Andrew Cuomo called Cruz's remarks "offensive" and "divisive."
So did we get a Cruz walkback? Yeah -- of sorts:
Here is @tedcruz's response, in full, to his "NY values" comment during the debate (and before). pic.twitter.com/nPfGUtfPUv
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 15, 2016
Cruz may never be president, but he knows what wingnut enjoy more than anything: collecting and wallowing in grievances. In this response, he gathered up a whole mess of 'em, and urged wingnuts everywhere to wallow away.
Not only do right-wingers identify real or ginned-up reasons to be outraged several times a day, they never forget any of their grievances.So Cruz is tapping into a deep well of grievance with this catalogue.
The folks at Free Republic noted that Governor Cuomo said, “We’re not judgmental, negative and hostile, the way Cruz was" -- and immediatelyrecalled that two years ago Cuomo said "extreme conservatives ... have no place in the state of New York." What he actually meant was that they don't really have a place in New York state government, because the typical Republican in the state legislature is a right-centrist -- but wingnuts all over the country have never forgotten this poorly worded remark and have never forgiven it. Cruz alludes to it in his response -- and he knows his audience all over the country will know exactly what he means, because no grievance ever fades from thew wingnut mind.
The same goes for everything else he lists. Conservatives spend all their waking hours listening to talk radio and watching Fox; collecting grievances this way is their idea of fun.
So this will go over very well with his base. Even New York State wingnuts -- who denounce their governor as a gun-grabber and think New York City's mayor coddles cop-killers -- are likely to appreciate it. Trump will win the New York primary, but if there were polls of the GOP race in the state, Cruz might even get a bump after this statement.
(Crossposted at No More Mister Nice Blog)
