Texas tea party seeks Ted Cruz 2.0: David Barton

[TaftFan]

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/texas-tea-party-david-barton-ted-cruz-99278.html

Ok, obviously we want Cornyn out. Barton looks like he could be a really good candidate. He seems to know the Constitution, but mainly focuses on separation of church and state. I need to find more of his views before supporting him.

[IndianaPolitico]

It appears he hates the idea of nullification...
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=46525

[TaftFan]

It appears he hates the idea of nullification...
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=46525
Oh well, that isn't good but not a deal breaker.

Here is some stuff I found from an opposition website:


Barton’s Bible = Tea Party Platform

Barton is one of many Religious Right figures who are challenging socially libertarian strains within the Tea Party movement and arguing that one cannot legitimately be an economic conservative without also being a social conservative. And he is working hard to give the Tea Party movement, its view of the Constitution, and its anti-tax and anti-welfare economic policies a divine stamp of approval.

On a conference call with pastors in the wake of the November 2010 elections, Barton asserted that the Bible “absolutely” condemns the estate tax as “most immoral,” and said Jesus taught against the capital gains tax and opposed the minimum wage. Barton went even further, declaring that taxation is theft and in particular that the Bible condemns progressive taxation, which he insists is “inherently un-biblical and unfair.” He echoed those themes during a three-part broadcast on limited government in January 2011, saying “Money does not belong to the government, it belongs to individuals, and to steal money from individuals through whatever government spending program is taking private property and you’re not supposed to do that.”

In Making the Constitution Obsolete: Understanding What is Happening to America’s Economic and Cultural Heritage, a DVD marketed by the American Family Association, Barton repeats his claims for biblical opposition to progressive taxes. “ Biblically, Jesus says the sun shines on the just, the unjust, the rain falls on the wicked, the righteous, God treats everybody exactly the same, whether you’re rich or poor you pay a ten percent tithe…everyone’s treated the same, so you don’t have any kind of a class warfare, you have equality under the law.” Says Barton, “The concept of justice goes out with the progressive income tax which is why the Bible is opposed to it.”

Barton claims a biblical basis for other Tea Party notions such as a call for a return to the gold standard (floating exchange rates reflect moral relativism applied to economic policy) and opposition to welfare programs (he says the earliest American colonies survived only by enforcing the biblical injunction that if a man will not work he will not eat). The Federal Reserve System, he says, violates biblical principles of competition and transparency. He argues that the kind of government social programs undertaken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt were wrong from a biblical standpoint, because the Bible says taking care of the poor is the job of the church and the individual, not the government.

And he promotes a Tea Partier’s radical view of the Constitution, key constitutional amendments, and limitations on federal authority to address issues facing the nation.“ Congress can do 18 things and that’s all,” he says. He decries the way that post-Civil War amendments have been used to alter the relationship between state and national governments. On the DVD Making the Constitution Obsolete he decries the “perversion of the 14th Amendment” by the courts, meaning their application to any issue other than slavery. He says the south was wrong on slavery but right on states’ rights. He complains that the courts have “abused the process” and thus “completely revolutionized America.”

www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america

There is more info in the link on other topics. I have to wonder what line he draws in regards to enforcing God's law in today's terms. Being a Christian, I agree with him on the Bible but that really isn't the issue. It will be something he will have to answer in the campaign.

Overall, it looks like he could be a strong Constitutionalist, but more of our more secular members probably won't like him.

If anyone is interested in drafting him, here is the FB page. https://www.facebook.com/DavidBartonforAmerica

I say we encourage him to run. If it turns out he isn't our type then there is no loss to us.

[Brett85]

Unfortunately, our country has moved so far to the left that someone with those views probably couldn't even win in Texas. Rand had to water down his views pretty significantly in order win in Kentucky. Saying that the south was right in any regard isn't going to fly in an election for the U.S Senate.