Thoughts and Prayers

Ted Cruz’s Hip Hop Ode to Gun Rights

Welcome to the Civic Way journal, a quick take on the relevance of breaking news to America’s future governance. The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.

---

Ted Cruz is the GOAT of political stunts. Like reading Green Eggs and Ham, buying Shiner Bock (to fly his Texas flag) or lambasting state Democrats for leaving Texas the same year he flew to Cancun during a historic energy outage. His 2016 hip hop campaign song, "Time for Truth,” confirmed his street cred.

After the recent Uvalde Texas murders, Senator Cruz sent more “thoughts and prayers” to the grieving families who lost their children at Robb Elementary School. He warned us against trying “to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.” He urged more armed law enforcement officers and fewer exits at schools.

At the recent NRA leadership summit in Houston, Senator Cruz continued his fearless fight for gun rights (and gun lobby donations). Since the summit took place only days after—and less than 300 miles from—the Uvalde mass shooting, critics lambasted Cruz for attending.

What these critics may have missed was Cruz’s gift for grandstanding (and hip hop).

Imagine, if you will, Ted Cruz, in his never-ending campaign for fame, penning a hip hop song, this time in honor of gun rights?

What follows may be the song that Ted Cruz always wanted to write, Thoughts and Prayers (based on Fight the Power, by Public Enemy).

Thoughts and Prayers

You can hide, but you can’t run,

You got pride, but ya’ got no gun

You can pray every day ‘til Easter Sunday,

No matter how ya’ figure, you need a trigger

Gun’s comin’ fo’ ya, and gun’s gotta lawyer

Gonna defend it with the 2nd Amendment

Don’t need no license to start more violence

Gotcha in the sights of our sacred gun rights

No fine at Columbine, no Gomorrah for Aurora

Hundred rounds at Newtown, close the book on Sandy Hook

60 dead near a Las Vegas casino, 14 more in San Bernadino

Hatin’ in Dayton, Virginia Tech’s desolation

Right-wing demagogues, Pittsburgh synagogue

Tucson, Parkland, nine dead in Charleston

Gun shows, Orlando, El Paso, carnage in Buffalo

Uvalde Texas and a nation’s solar plexus

Refrain: Repeat Thoughts and Prayers four times

Handguns, shotguns, every gun under the sun

Guns for the livin’, AK-47s, more at eleven

Empty magazines, AR-15s, reporters at the scene

Lunatics, bump stock tricks, semi-automatics

Active shooters, NRA suitors, childhood looters

Your son or your daughter won’t end the slaughter

No metal detector can protect her

Arm the teachers and deploy the preachers

Gun’s gonna maim her, got one more in the chamber

Public polls, no gun controls, more bullet holes

Politics, theatrics, dirty tricks, no quick fix

Gun lobby, Fox TV, GOP, Mitch de Kentucky

Weakest regulations of the world’s nations

Blame mental illness, amp up the shrillness

Misinform, deny a quorum, kill reform

F-kluster, filibuster, last stand like Custer

Mo’ thoughts and prayers, no end to the terror

Refrain: Repeat Thoughts and Prayers four times

Ted Cruz didn’t write this song, but he could have.

So long as our political leaders are more frightened by gun lobbyists than sickened by gun violence, these killings will continue.

If we truly want a civilized society, a nation of laws and a safe place for our children, we will do what our politicians lack the courage to do—repeal the Second Amendment.