Did Ted Cruz Actually Ejaculate into a Cup? Some Thoughts on How We Cover Politics

We on the political Left often talk about the political Right’s propensity to lob unfair personal attacks at President Obama and his family. We need to be able to look in the mirror and ensure that we do not do the same to politicians in the other direction. By way of example, I have been appalled by some of Amanda Marcotte’s recent “coverage” of Ted Cruz.

Here are some of the excerpts I found disturbing in an article last week:

But like a Christian rock song that has the right structure but is lacking any semblance of the grit or soul that sells real rock music, Cruz may hit some of the biographical marks of Obama but he’s utterly lacking Obama’s charm. Instead, his announcement that he’s running for president is making people cringe, because they are not looking forward to many months of wondering how he seems to always be on the verge of ejaculating.

. . .

Was he masturbating and someone startled him and his face just got stuck that way? It seems so.

. . .

But at least photoshop enthusiasts have an endless number of pictures to use when grafting his face onto the naked bodies of male porn stars.

I understand people making fun of politician’s looks in private. I don’t understand why people think it is appropriate to do so on major online news and culture outlets like Raw Story, where Marcotte writes.

Besides, isn’t this making fun of someone for their looks? Aren’t we not supposed to do things like that? How is this all that different from bullying?

In an article two days later, after quoting Cruz’s recent comments on his taste in music, Marcotte has this to say:

From this quote, we learn a couple of things. First, Ted Cruz does not listen to music, any kind of music. People who listen to music don’t talk about music this way. . . .

Second of all, we learn from this that Cruz probably conceived his children by ejaculating joylessly into a cup and handing it over to his wife and, when she blanched, saying, “Do you want to be the First Lady or not? Don’t worry. We only have to make two. Just enough for the photos.”

O_o

How is this not obviously inappropriate? I am very certain that Cruz did not conceive his children by ejaculating into a cup and handing it to his wife. What is the point of this sort of speculation? What good does it do?

I grew up on the Right, and often saw the Left demonized to the point of complete inaccuracy and nonsense. I refuse to play any part in perpetuating the same from the other side of the political spectrum. This sort of rhetoric does nothing but exacerbate the political divide. I am all for taking a stand on welfare or abortion even if it means the political divide seems unassailable, and I am all for calling people out for the political positions they hold or the political actions they take. But this is not that. This is petty, and it is pointless, and it feels like middle school.

When we focus on Cruz’s looks or speculate about his sexual abilities, we not only waste time we could spend focusing on the issues, we also validate negative conservative stereotypes about progressives. We can’t afford to do either.