Sen. Ted Cruz' dad: America would be like Cuba without Ronald Reagan

Speaking to a Christian Broadcasting Network reporter over the weekend, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) insisted that the U.S. would have been in a state today that resembles Cuba's communist regime, were it not for the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Raw Story readers last saw Rafael Cruz earlier this month speaking to attendees of a tea party conference put on by FreedomWorks, explaining how similar he thinks President Barack Obama is to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. He was still hitting many of the same notes on Sunday, telling CBN about how he raised his son with a healthy fear of socialism.

"When he was four I used to read Bible stories to him all the time," the elder Cruz said. "And I would declare and proclaim the word of God over him. And I would just say, ‘You know Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness.' And I started making declarations about the Word of God to him every day."

He went on to explain how his involvement in American politics led him to join the Religious Roundtable, a conservative group instrumental in the rise of the religious right and the election of President Ronald Reagan.

"I was on the state board of the Religious Roundtable, so when my son Ted was eight years old, all we talked about around the dinner table was politics because I was so involved with the Reagan campaign," he said. "So during that time is when I asked him so many times, ‘You know Ted, when I lost my freedom in Cuba I had a place to come to. If we lose our freedoms here where are we going to go? There is no place to go.’"

Cruz added that his son's political ambitions were not something that emerged in just the last three years, but over the last 30, seeming to imply that U.S. Senator is not his son's last stop.

Sen. Cruz is widely considered a likely contender for the Republican Party's 2016 nomination to the presidency and has busied himself making campaign-like appearances in key swing states of late. Asked about his political future on Sunday's episode of ABC's "This Week," Cruz remarked that he's just "trying to participate in the national debate."

This video is from CBN, published Sunday, July 22, 2013, as snipped by Right Wing Watch.

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[Photo: Flickr user Gage Skidmore, creative commons licensed.]