Apparently, the Washington Post and New York Times don’t like the idea of a non-white U.S. Senator acting all uppity. It’s fine for the lily-white Elizabeth Warren to immediately come out guns blazing, but over the past couple of days both news outlets ripped into in Texas Senator Ted Cruz for not knowing his place.
As we all know, the base of the Democratic Party is made up of union workers who see Hispanics as a threat to their jobs and rich, white, coastal liberals whose only contact with the Latino community is on grass-mowing day. And so, in what can only be interpreted as a racially-coded dog-whistle attack designed to appeal to the worst instincts of the Democratic base, the Post and Times have come together hoping to put an Hispanic back “in his place.”
In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.
The traditional stance for a freshman senator is to hold back a bit. Being reticent and deferential are not qualities that come naturally to those who manage to win Senate seats, but most new senators choose, as much as it clashes with their instincts, to tamp down.
Not Cruz.
Anyone remember Hillary Clinton or Chuck Schumer as freshman senate wallflowers? Anyone remember the Times and Post coordinating to shut those two white senators up?
Yeah, me neither.
What we have here are two predominantly white news outlets made uncomfortable by someone who doesn’t look like them acting all uppity. I had hoped we were past such things, but apparently not.
Hey, these are the media’s rules, not mine.
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