There are many reasons why Ted Cruz would be a terrible president. None of them have to do with where he was born.
Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is emerging as the strongest alternative to Donald Trump, who continues to lead in the national polls for the GOP nomination. The Senator, who comes from a Cuban father and an American mother, has found himself on the receiving end of a barrage of attacks from Donald Trump, questioning Cruz’s eligibility to be Commander-in-Chief because Cruz was born in Canada and not on US soil. Donald Trump knows that Ted Cruz is a threat to his presidential aspirations, and although constitutional scholars say that Cruz is qualified to be president because he is considered “naturalized” due to his American mother, there are many other reasons why Ted Cruz would be a terrible president and none of them have to do with where he was born.
Since taking office as a senator in 2013, Ted Cruz has been hell-bent on destroying the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is known, in any way and at any cost. The law has provided health care to more than 10 million Latinos. He was responsible for the 2013 government shutdown that caused a loss of about $24 billion to the US economy, according to estimates by Standard & Poors. Not only is the Senator willing to ruin the nation’s economy, but also content with seeing millions of Americans kicked off their insurance plans or remain uninsured altogether, including 4.2 million Latinos who have already gained coverage, many for the first time.
In spite of being a lawyer by profession, Cruz is eager to make medical and healthcare decisions for millions of Americans, especially those of women and their reproductive health. The senator has no right to interfere with our personal health or to concern himself with the personal healthcare decisions we make in consultation with our doctors and families to care for ourselves. A major provision the Senator opposes is the mandate in the law that says Obamacare must cover contraceptives for women. His position includes opposition to abortions even in circumstances where the woman’s life is in danger. These are issues to be discussed between a woman and her doctor, not between a woman, her doctor, and the government.
Senator Cruz has supported women who have fallen victim to domestic violence by opposing laws that protect women against domestic violence. Cruz voted against the law because it provided another layer of protection for Native American women and gay women. The senator would like to protect women from domestic violence, but only women he deems qualified of such protections … absurd!
Cruz’s worst offense is directed at fellow Latinos. His opposition to comprehensive immigration reform and President Obama’s executive orders that protect Dreamers from deportations, young people who were brought to this country by their parents without fault of their own . Cruz may be Latino, but he is only interested in representing a small part of the population, which disqualifies him to be president. None of this has to do with the fact that Cruz was born in Canada and not in the United States.
This article originally appeared in the Washington Hispanic
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