Posted on 01/04/2016 10:33:31 AM PST by ObozoMustGo2012
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) on Monday slammed the protesters who have taken over a federal building in rural Oregon, urging them to lay down their arms.
“Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds,†Cruz told reporters at campaign event in Iowa, according to NBC News.
“But we don't have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence on others,†he said. “And so it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down peaceably, that there will not be a violent confrontation.†Cruz said he is praying for everyone involved in the dispute, particularly law enforcement officials who “are risking their lives.â€
The protesters, led by two sons of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, say they are taking a stand against a prison sentence for two landowners convicted of arson on federal property.
They’re also part of a group that frequently protests against federal government's management of Western lands. They protesters have told media outlets that they plan to stay on the refuge for years.
The standoff has put Republican presidential candidates on the spot, with some of them having expressed support in a similar dispute in 2014 between Bundy and the government over unpaid grazing fees.
The support for Bundy eroded when he began making racially charged statements in interviews.
Up until Monday, most of the GOP's White House contenders had refrained from speaking out on the Oregon dispute, but that is beginning to change.
Like Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) condemned the takeover at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, though he told an Iowa radio station that he sympathizes with the movement to shrink federal land holdings.
“You’ve got to follow the law. You cannot be lawless,†Rubio told KBUR in an interview highlighted by Buzzfeed. “We live in a republic. There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. And if we get frustrated with it, that’s why we have elections, that’s why we have people we can hold accountable.â€
Rubio lent some credit to the stated goals of the occupation, reported by local media to involve a small group of armed men with very few local residents. The group is objecting to federal land control and ownership and pushing for the federal land to be given to states or individuals.
“I agree that there is too much federal control over land, especially out in the western part of the United States. There are states, for example, like Nevada that are dominated by the federal government in terms of land holding, and we should fix it,†Rubio said, adding that it shouldn’t be done “in a way that is outside the law.â€
Among the 2016 hopefuls, Cruz has been one of the most vocal advocates for reducing federal land ownership, along with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Cruz led the charge against the Bureau of Land Management’s claims over property around the Red River in Texas, saying he wants to “protect landowners from federal overreach.â€
Rubio has been less vocal about federal land ownership, but his energy policy platform calls for more local and state control over federal property for oil and natural gas drilling or other uses.
Land management is a major political issue in Western states. Nationwide, the federal government owns and manages nearly 630 million acres, with most located west of the Mississippi River.
Cruz and Rubio have increasingly clashed in recent weeks, with both seeking to overtake Donald Trump in polls of the Republican race.
While Rubio is seeking to gain ground in New Hampshire, the first primary state, Cruz has taken the lead in Iowa, which will hold its caucuses on Feb. 1.
Glad you understand the distinction. :-)
The tree of liberty is shriveling up and dying. The worms that are devouring it can only be stopped by frequent injections of hot lead.
Cruz didn’t “slam” the protestors, he merely asked them to stand down and pursue other tactics. What a dishonest journalist.
Same here. The way he phrased that statement is disconcerting, to say the least.
“Make the Government respond with force. They have backed down every time.”
Almost 200 civilian murder victims at Waco would dispute this, except that they are dead.
It was about the Tax on tea....not voting
You ever hear about the Whiskey Rebellion and how George Washington marched the U.S. Army into western Pennsylvania to crush it?
...
And he was president at the time.
My sense of the 60’s is that King’s vision of ‘non-violent’ resistance was a pathway to ‘violent’ resistance in the end.
Kennedy and his people were petrified because when people saw the police dogs, water cannon stuff on television and so on, it ignited various kinds of racial protest across the country in the late spring and into the summer of 1963.
Some of the protest was non-violent, other protests were the first of the riots that would get worse as the 60’s went on reaching a climax with the orgy of riots following MLK’s assassination in 1968.
Sympathy among the white population in 1963 turned to anger and backlash as the decade went on and the tempo of the protests deteroriated into violence.
NON VIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MAY BE A COURSE TO TAKE, BUT THE HISTORY REMINDS US THAT IT CAN DETERIORATE INTO VIOLENCE AND THERE CAN BE A BACKLASH.
Howard K. Smith, a journalist who worked at ABC during this time, did a TV interview in 1974 stating people turned against the civil rights movement ‘when it became violent’.
“But we don’t have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence on others,†he said. “And so it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down peaceably, that there will not be a violent confrontation.
......................................................
Cruz is DEAD WRONG! What does he think the Second Amendment was written for? It was written to ASSURE the American people that they could always resist an overreaching government with ARMS. Cruz is supposed to be such a Constitutional Genius. Well his wizardry just took a plunge if he doesn’t understand the Constitutions Second Amendment. He is revealed as just another pacifist in the style of all the other lawyers in the government. Extensive writings by many of the forefathers bear out the defense provided to the citizens against an overpowering government. SOMEBODY has to stand up against the corruption in Washington. At the root of all this land confiscation is AGENDA 21 of the United Nations. Wake up, America.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ‘round the world.
The Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Lexington and Concord have been forgotten!
“I don’t get why non violent disobedience is frowned upon by the right these days for our causes - it is a Christian aka Conservative invention we should take back from the leftists. The leftists - if you recall - were the ones arguing for armed uprisings in the 60s and 70s.”
I don’t either, especially when the founders themselves set that precedent. Years of correspondence, essays and emissaries were attempted first by American patriots. YEARS.
Didn’t know thanJohn Wayne had endorsed Trump. Has Trump even said anything about this?
I say they will not, and OBozo will have his gun grab talking points, only now this may sway enough to his side when recent polls have shown the argument HAS BEEN going OUR way on the issue of guns.
There in lies the problem. A Constitutional problem.
Next thing you will see, is quartering of soldiers in private homes.
5.56mm
Trump wanted the government to seize land from an old lady who was standing in the way of one of his casinos (which went bankrupt anyway).
But I guess that’s different.
Indeed!
Who knows what Trump will do?
But given a chance to stand up for Kim Davis and her freedom...he didn’t!!
“Trump wanted the government to seize land from an old lady who was standing in the way of one of his casinos (which went bankrupt anyway).
But I guess that’s different.”
You must have missed the part when the old lady got a big fat check as compensation....
Do you think any candidate is going to advocate the threat of violence in this case?
Gosh. Emerson! Again!
A bridge too far...
Now,
A ranch too far...
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