Ted's hero, and Bobby Wingate needs a WWB survival kit.

I know why Ted Cruz saying he wished that there were "100 more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate" is no big deal, it's because we have a black president now, so all forms of ignorance and racism ended when he took office. We are now in a post- racial era in America. Poor Trent Lott must be kicking himself for his bad timing.

Still, for someone who is one of the front runners for the republican nomination to run against Hillary, Ted isn't doing himself any favors by reviving the ghost of ole Jesse.

Jesse, in case you didn't know it, was not the most tolerant fellow in the world. This is not a good time for a politician to be embracing his legacy. Even right wingnuts are saying that this was not a good move for Ted. Ted, it's 2013, not 1953.

Anyway, Ted has been in love with Jesse for a long time. At least since he was ten years old. (Hey, we all have our heroes).

"Cruz's speech began with a little trivia about his political history: His first campaign donation—at ten years old—was to Helms. He continued with a declaration: "We need 100 more Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate."
 

For the ostensibly freedom-loving Cruz, it's an incredible statement. After all, this is the Jesse Helms who entered public life as a journalist defending Southern apartheid in the 1960s, and who won election to the Senate in 1972 as an opponent of integration, interracial marriage and civil rights laws. In 1980, the year a young Cruz made his donation, Helms pushed an appropriations bill—co-sponsored by Strom Thurmond—that would have stripped

the Justice Department of its ability to enforce busing. Helms won his 1990 reelection campaign with one of the most racist political ads in recent memory—accusing his African American challenger, then-Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, of taking jobs from whites to give to blacks—and devoted his time to institutionalizing homophobia, with attacks on gays and assaults on AIDS funding. To Helms, LGBT Americans were "weak, morally sick wretches," and AIDS education was "obscene" and "revolting."

Yes, I can see why he was Ted's hero.

Finally, if you think walking while black (WWB) is some funny racial joke, ask Bobby Wingate. Walking while black almost caused Bobby Wingate his life, and definitely caused him to end up in jail.

'A Jacksonville, Florida man says he was assaulted by a Police Officer and thrown in jail for no reason, and when tried for the crime, it was promptly thrown out of court halfway through the trial.

Bobby Wingate said the last time he walked down the road, he had to call 911 to protect himself from the police, which comes as a shock to absolutely no one because it’s Florida.

While pointing Wingate said, “He parked his car right up here near this curve.”

WTLV reports, “On a 9-1-1 recording of that night Wingate can be heard saying, “He said do I really want to fight him? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“The conduct that is outlined in the transcript and the 9-1-1 call is not only breathtaking, it’s outrageous, it’s disgraceful,” said Andrew Bonderud, Wingate’s civil attorney.

Bonderud said that his client was a target of racial discrimination.
First Coast News obtained court papers which state that Wingate was walking down the road in December when a JSO Police Officer stopped him and asked to talk.

When Wingate told the officer that he was running late for an appointment, the officer cited him for walking on the wrong side of the road.
According to the court papers, the officer then hit Wingate in the face and engaged his Taser, which is when Wingate called 911 for help.

Wingate had to spend a night in jail, and the State Attorney’s Office took the case to trial. Seriously, they took this case to court and tax dollars are paying for this bullshit.

Wingate was actually charged with resisting arrest without violence, and walking down the wrong side of the road. But even in court, the officer testified that he wasn’t sure what side of the road Wingate was on." [Source]

Honestly, maybe Ted Cruz is on to something.