Ted Cruz is not widely popular. He was able to muster enough support to get elected to the U.S. Senate, yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s popular. In this year’s midterm elections, he’s facing a strikingly credible challenge from Democrat Beto O’Rourke. The El Paso area Congressman has attracted support far and wide for his efforts to topple Cruz, including from the well-known singer Willie Nelson. The longtime fixture of public life will be playing at a benefit concert for the candidate later this month, and he delivered a response to his detractors this week on The View.
Somehow, some on the right have managed to drum up surprise that the singer’s support of O’Rourke is in place. Nelson is hardly known for standing behind right wingers — instead, they’ve just got people like Ted Nugent. In addition, it’s hardly as though Cruz is some kind of bridge-builder.
And yet, the Trump supporters rage on.
Co-host of The View Joy Behar posed Nelson the question of whether some of those outraged had misunderstood the basis of his life’s work.
He laughed, replying:
‘I guess so, because I’ve been supporting Democrats all my life… I haven’t hidden it that much. I love flak. We’re not happy until they’re not happy.’
On a somewhat more serious note, he added:
‘Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has a right to an opinion — so I think I have one too.’
Watch below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=CwQTFD6_xaI
The outrage that he told Behar doesn’t, in the end, bother him, has spread across social media in recent days like a virus. Some who were apparently following Nelson to some degree in the past and yet had missed the entirety of his public persona angrily exclaimed that they’d no longer be supporting the singer — as if that would make a difference in the grand scheme of things.
The posts are reminiscent of those who angrily took to destroying their Nike gear in the aftermath of the company’s decision to elevate prominent peaceful protest “leader” Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign. Nike doesn’t care — why should they? They already got their money.
In Nelson’s case, the social media chatter reached such a fever pitch that at least one state official weighed in. Texas state Representative — and Republican — Matt Krause exclaimed:
‘Texans should be better than this. We’ve come to a place where we can’t merely disagree with someone’s political choice but have to attack and berate them. I don’t like his choice either but we shouldn’t resort to name calling. Reflects poorly on our ability to have civil discourse.’
The tumult is leading into midterm elections set to be contentious for reasons far beyond that of Nelson’s choice to support O’Rourke.
Democrats are eyeing growing their political control across the board, including in the U.S. House and maybe in the U.S. Senate too, where the immediate future remains more uncertain. Polls — even somewhat in Texas — have Democrats well on their way to achieving their aims, sitting more than ten percent ahead of Republicans in national generic Congressional ballot polling.
Featured Image via YouTube Screenshot
