Ted Cruz's Bedtime Story
It's tough to be a conservative Republican and try to use entertainment, because most creative people are liberal. About the only Republicans in Hollywood are Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer. The same can be true of literature--aside from Ayn Rand, there are very few great writers who would be fans of today's Republicans.
So when Ted Cruz, during his miserable filibuster in an attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act, read the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham, we had another example of conservative cluelessness. Cruz said it was one of his kid's favorite books; let's hope that child understands the book better than Cruz does.
Dr. Seuss, real name Ted Geisel, was a genius of the highest order; he was also close to being radical. He was a liberal Democrat and big supporter of the New Deal, as well as a passionate anti-fascist. Often these things would pop into his books, which are largely allegories of basic human decency. The Lorax was about environmentalism, The Sneetches about the folly of racism, The Butter Battle Book about the stupidity of war, Horton Hears a Who about the fundamental rights that all people should enjoy, and Yertl the Turtle about the evils of fascism.
Green Eggs and Ham, while not specifically political, is certainly more reflective of liberal philosophy than conservative. The book was written on a bet--Geisel's publisher Bennett Cerf wagered that he couldn't write a book using only 50 words. Geisel did (and, a bit of trivia, the only word with one more than one syllable is "anywhere") and it turned out to be an enduring classic, one of the first books heard or read by it must be a fifth generation now.
The book centers on a character called "Sam I Am" that implores another, unnamed character that he should try the title dish. This second character refuses it, and the two, in anapestic tetrameter, describe the places and ways it can be eaten:
"I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox
I do not like them in a house
I do not like them with a mouse
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am"
At the end of the book (spoiler alert), the character reveals he has never tried green eggs and ham, and after he does, he finds out he likes them. Geisel's message: don't knock something unless you've tried it, and, in a more visionary sense, leave yourself open to new ideas and experiences.
Cruz, who I mentioned in my post on stupid Texas politicians, has become the face of the government shutdown, mostly through his own machinations. He is callously ambitious, and seems headed for a certain presidential run (despite being born in Canada). He also is despised by members of both parties, and when the vote came to end argument on his filibuster, it was 100-0 (yes, Cruz himself voted against himself).
He was a brilliant lawyer--even a liberal icon like Alan Dershowitz admitted he was a top student at Harvard law--and could have been on the track to being a Supreme Court pick for a conservative president. But he got into electoral politics, and while being a darling of certain Tea Party kooks, has put aside national interests for his own ambition. He's the kind of guy who puts "principle" ahead of everything, even when it fucks everything up.
So while Cruz knows law (though his views of the Constitution are not universally shared) he doesn't know children's literature. The lesson from Green Eggs and Ham is that the Affordable Care Act hasn't even had a chance yet. If it's a complete disaster, it will be changed or stopped through the democratic process, not by taking the government hostage. The first day that the web site was available, it had such heavy volume it crashed. The Republicans real fear is that it will prove to be popular, and they will suffer heavy losses in 2014.
Keep reading Green Eggs and Ham to your children, Ted Cruz. Though Dr. Seuss would think you a major tool, there's hope for the future generation.
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