Communist: Rafael Cruz
Well, I didn’t know about the “Ted Cruz’s Father Conspiracy” until we started discussing the book.
And I was intrigued.
So I did some brief research to try to give you all a quick rundown of the conspiracy theory. Interestingly enough, Trump is the person we need to thank here for offering us such a wonderful conspiracy. He said during his campaign against Cruz that “his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot,” Trump said during a telephone interview. “I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this? Right? Prior to his being shot. And nobody even brings it up. I mean, they don’t even talk about that — that was reported. And nobody talks about it.”
Trump’s right when he says this is ridiculous. It really is. I don’t think many of us know any right winged communists in America (…maybe Cruz is the first?)
What Trump is referring to in his comments is a photograph of Oswald with a man who is assumed to be Rafael Cruz, Ted Cruz's father. That's the first issue with this conspiracy, the man in the photo was never allegedly identified as Mr. Cruz, but we just assume so because he looks just like him. In the photo, "Mr. Cruz" and his buddy Oswald pass out leaflets on behalf of the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" which is a communist organization.
However, the Warren's Commission's research published this photo with the caption under it noting, "In August 1963, Oswald passed out pro-Castro leaflets for the New Orleans branch of the Communist Fair Play for Cuba Organization. He was the chapter's only member, though he hired two men from the unemployment line to help him distribute the pamphlets."
From this, we can safely assume that a) Cruz was probably not a communist and b) he probably didn't influence the killing of JFK.
Thoughts?
Btw the second part is in black, you need to highlight it to read it. But otherwise I could use a bit more background information. A quick background of what is being asserted would be very helpful. As someone who doesn't know anything about the theory, all I really get from this is that Trump is the source of the theory and it may be claiming that Cruz's father is implicated somehow? Really interesting post, would like a bit more information.
ReplyDeleteNice post, and it's kinda hard to read with the black background and text. For me, I tend to take things with a grain of salt. For all we know, Trump could be making things up. After all, his tweets sometimes contradict and go against the words that come out of his mouth. Remember, it's all just a theory, and hasn't been proven yet.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important thing that this theory points out in relation to Libra is that even when a theory seems to make sense, we should still take it with a grain of salt until there is proof. DeLillo is putting together a convincing narrative, but we should not take it as the objective truth of what happened leading up to the Kennedy assissination.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I think it's pretty cool to relate what we discuss in class to modern day people. Especially now that we have a lunatic in the office. I think it's pretty amusing reading Trump's tweets and see what he says, but a lot of people actually believe him which is crazy.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting theory. I think it's interesting to note how quickly and easily narratives like this can be created and explored. I think this also says a lot about Libra because though we know DeLillo did a lot of research on Lee Harvey Oswald, we can also never be sure if or what he invented or if someone (the CIA!) had tampered with eh evidence previously which would change the outcome of the research.
ReplyDeleteI like how you debunked this. I hadn't had thoughts about it previously and now I have some. It's crazy how close this time period was to today, all of these political figures had impact through themselves or their parents. All of history in this book is so close to real life. Very interesting post.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! That was great evidence, and it was pretty clearly written. A lot of conspiracies theories involve coincidences like the one you discussed, and the truth is pretty had to distinguish from the fiction.
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