'How freaking dare he?' Internet explodes at Ted Cruz for comparing himself to Rosa Parks

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is suing the Federal Election Commission over a campaign finance law restricting how much candidates can pay themselves back for loans they gave to their own campaign — a law that, if overturned, would make it easier for wealthy candidates to self-fund their campaigns and overwhelm opponents' small-donor contributions.

The lawsuit stems from a loan Cruz made to his own Senate re-election campaign in 2018 to fend off Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX), who funded a gigantic campaign with grassroots support from around the country. Cruz tried to repay himself $260,000 for that loan after the election — but the law limits repayment of such loans to $250,000.

In a new brief filed this week, Cruz proclaimed the law a violation of his constitutional rights — and made a comparison to legendary civil rights icon Rosa Parks:

Cruz was not literally comparing the inconvenience of this law to the indignity of racially segregated buses in Montgomery — he was simply making an analogy about how following the law is not an adequate solution for deprivation of rights. Nonetheless, Twitter users exploded with indignation about the privilege and insensitivity of Cruz's analogy: