Ted Cruz joins the hysteria club
By: Mark C. Hackett
Tags: Foreign Policy, America, Culture, Immigration, Politics

Ted Cruz joins the hysteria club

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

Republicans have been railing against China for quite some time. It’s become a central feature of Trumpist foreign policy especially.

The Republican argument against the Chinese government isn’t entirely bad. For example, China’s treatment of the Uighurs is truly deplorable. There’s plenty of evidence that Chinese officials tried to hide the severity of COVID-19 when it emerged. And there are legitimate concerns around trade, patents, regional security, and more. These are hard issues that require focus, resources, and strong language.

But there’s also the darker side. The racist relabeling of COVID-19 as the Wuhan or China virus is just one example. Elected Republicans sanctioned by China for their outspokenness wear it like a badge of bravado (i.e. Marco Rubio’s Twitter profile), showing that this is really more about their political futures than the actual issues.

Senator Ted Cruz has been particularly outspoken on China, even by the standards of congressional Republicans. You can simply search China in his press releases to see how often the topic comes up for him, sometimes with little relation to another issue he is supposedly addressing. In fact, Cruz is one of a handful of American officials who have been sanctioned by the Chinese government because of how loud he has been about his views.

Some level of hypocrisy and grandstanding is inevitable in politics

You tend to give up something when you negotiate in good faith and compromise. Opting for some progress over none is often the only viable path to take, even if you aren’t an incrementalist.

The best politicians know how to communicate effectively and truthfully to the public why a compromise is better than nothing at all. More importantly, they know how to consolidate their gains and use them to make even more progress further down the road.

Cruz left that world behind a long time ago, but he just took his China views to a hysterical level. He recently blocked The Hong Kong People’s Freedom and Choice Act of 2020 (HR 8428). The bill provides Temporary Protected Status to refugees from Hong Kong and more.

Accepting refugees from places where the United States is at odds with a regime is a basic policy that can have positive and have profound impacts further down the road. It’s also just the morally right thing to do.

For example, the acceptance of Sudanese refugees after 9/11 was part of the Bush Administration’s ratcheting up of pressure on the Bashir regime in Sudan. Many are now American citizens. Some are even small business owners. Others used the opportunity to access higher education and have returned home to help rebuild their country now that Bashir is gone, providing a bridge that will help Sudan’s transition to democracy.

Some pundits have expressed bafflement at Cruz’s opposition to this bill. Why would a Senator who has been so outspoken on China and the crisis in Hong Kong now slam the door shut on those who need support now more than ever?

Hypocrisy is certainly part of the answer, as is grandstanding. Cruz wants to protect his reputation as an anti-immigration hawk. Failing to do so in Republican politics is essentially a political death sentence. But history suggests there is another reason.

America has a long history of closing her doors to those most in need of safe haven

By blocking this bill, Cruz has become the latest successor to the hysterical ghosts of America’s past, who used fear and hate to close the country’s doors to the outside the world with devastating consequences.

Two obvious examples come to mind.

During the build up to World War II, the United States government turned away thousands of Jewish refugees seeking safe haven from Nazi persecution. Some in the Roosevelt administration, including the president himself, believed and stated that Nazi spies would disguise themselves as refugees and slip into the country, or force fleeing German Jews to become spies on behalf of the Third Reich.

Only a few years later, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, giving the military the power to remove Japanese Americans from their homes and throwing them into internment camps. Why? Unsubstantiated claims and fears that, due to their physical characteristics and ancestry, these people would spy and commit sabotage on behalf of Japan.

“There was not a single American of Japanese descent, alien or citizen, charged with espionage or sabotage during the war,” -Richard Reeves, Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II.

Senator Cruz’s decision to block legislation that would help refugees from Hong Kong is the latest chapter in this zig-zag book of progress that is the United States. It’s hypocrisy, ignorance, and fear taken too far. Those most in need of support will suffer from it.

It will be a joyous day when we no longer punish victims for the crimes of their leaders, nor tolerate the hateful fear of the powerful, who refuse to support those who are most in need.

To get there, we must vote for more empathetic leaders who believe in the version of the America that welcomes the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Ted Cruz has joined the hysteria club. The voters should eject him from the Senate in 2024 because of it.