...What first struck me about the interview was not so much the objectively asinine questions Halperin asked but his obvious motive and attitude in asking them. Aside from a few throwaways, all of his questions were aimed at exposing Cruz as an inauthentic Hispanic. And as insulting as that is, there is something more noteworthy about it that some are missing in all the hubbub about the interview.
Halperin’s unstated premise underlying his questions is that one cannot have a bona fide Hispanic heritage if he doesn’t continue to bathe himself in the Hispanic culture and view American politics from a Hispanic prism. If you are ethnically Hispanic but have assimilated into American culture and embrace the American idea of government, you ought not be entitled to lay claim to your ethnicity or to receive support from the Hispanic community. Halperin and his liberal friends apply the same standards to assess African-American candidacies.
Cruz showed extraordinary class and restraint in fielding these boorish questions, but what was even more gratifying to me was that in his answers, he implicitly, though emphatically, rejected Halperin’s assumptions, making clear that though he is proud of his ethnicity and considers his Cuban-American father his hero, he is a full-blooded American, proud of the Constitution and the liberties it protects.
At every turn, Halperin was trying to discredit Cruz as a Hispanic by trying to trap him into revealing...
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