Ted Cruz’s father and campaign surrogate Rafael Cruz is slated to speak today at an Iowa venue that received national attention when it refused service to a gay couple. The venue’s owners, Betty and Richard Odgaard, who decided that they will no longer offer the venue for weddings, have since emerged as anti-gay-marriage activists and were appointed to the Cruz Iowa Leadership Team.
The elder Cruz joined “The Jan Mickelson Show” yesterday to discuss his upcoming speech and share stories about why he left Cuba under the Batista regime and became disillusioned with Fidel Castro’s revolution. While discussing the role of Peter Muhlenberg in the American Revolution, Cruz told Mickelson that he would have taken up Muhlenberg’s call-to-arms had he lived in the colonial era.
“I lost my freedom once,” Cruz said. “I’m not willing to lose it again. I’ll die fighting before I lose my freedom again. The challenge is that many Americans still don’t realize how fragile are freedoms are.”
When asked which freedoms “are in peril,” Cruz cited his freedom to buy incandescent lightbulbs: “We see our freedoms under attack every day. Take for example the EPA regulations, they even regulate what lightbulbs you can buy, what kind of toilet seat you can buy. The Clean Air Act, they are talking about modifying the Clean Air Act to regulate a puddle in your backyard.”
“We are seeing more Americans coming under bondage in this administration,” he added, arguing that the Obama administration has been “systematically” taking away freedoms.
