Better described, one might say that the two events have much in common, the inauguration ride is a tradition which symbolizes national unity at a time of the transfer of power. It is significant that power is surrendered, often to a different political party, without violence and the ride down Pennsylvania Avenue symbolizes that tradition.
The ride down to Texas in the People's airplane symbolizes national unity in the face of the searing issue of race and mass murder, a time of national grief and a time of potential national peril which, not incidentally, comes just before an election.
Fantasy writer has suggested that I am unaware of the role Barack Obama has played in exploiting race in the tragic murders in Dallas. Perhaps she has forgotten who it is who formulated Nathan Bedford's first maxim of American politics:
All politics in America is not local but ultimately racial
and who has repeated this maxim to the point of tediousness and tried to apply it to the events of the day.
Yes I think Obama is guilty as hell and I also think Ted Cruz would have been very foolish to publicly decline to ride in Air Force One to attend the memorial service for his own constituents murdered in the line of duty. Consider the context, Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States, the murders were done out of race hatred, the president was about to make a national speech calling for national unity. Obama wants to appear as did Abraham Lincoln and the second inaugural address. But you want Ted Cruz to look petulant.
There are many FReepers during the campaign who disparaged Ted Cruz' heroic attempts to fight against the policies of Barack Obama, a fight often conducted virtually alone. When it came time to belittle Ted Cruz to gain primary victories, his real efforts in a real fight were discouraged. Now Ted Cruz is disparaged because he declines to play the petulant and appear to be childish or rude.
If you want Donald Trump to win this election, the last thing you want is for a leading Republican candidate to betray a pettiness of character in contrast to Obama's well-crafted posture of Lincolnesque nobility.
Besides, we might just consider that we are on the cusp of race riots in this country in which many innocent people will die and the role of leaders of this country is not the fan the flames of racial hatred. It is not to feed the resentments of Black Lives Matter by disrespecting the first black president of the United States. It is to honor fallen heroes and not besmirch the ceremony of their passing with cheap political tricks.
When the time came to resist Obama, Cruz was there but he was left alone at the time and he has been abandoned since. Now you want him to play the petulant.
