When Ted Cruz complained last week about a political cartoon featuring the senator’s children, he raised a credible point. Norms and decency standards may fray, but most can agree that politicians’ family members should generally be off-limits unless they choose to enter the arena.  But Rafael Cruz, the Texas Republican’s father, is a different story. He’s served as a surrogate for his son’s campaign, which makes Rafael Cruz’s right-wing vision fair game.  Cruz writes that there is no such thing as separation of church and state and it is not enshrined in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The Ten Commandments, he writes, are the foundations for these documents. […]  The pastor warns that there are five areas where the United States could change and “jeopardize our freedom,” including that “freedom of religion could become freedom of worship,” meaning that people would be punished for worshiping outside of churches. He said Obama has made appointments of people who think the government should discriminate against Christians.  But even putting reality aside for a moment, the challenge for the Republican presidential hopeful is confronting questions about whether he believes any of his father’s nonsense.  I have some relatives whose ideas I consider ridiculous, and I wouldn’t want anyone attributing their beliefs to me, just because of the family connection.  If Rafael Cruz is acting with complete independence, then Ted Cruz probably doesn’t owe anyone an explanation for his father’s offensive rants. But once that firewall collapses, the questions begin.  Well, here we are, 15 months later. The presidential election is indeed heating up, but the Cruz campaign seems to be ignoring this advice. How long until the senator starts fielding questions about the degree to which he agrees with his father’s radical vision?
If Ted Cruz's father is going to be a campaign surrogate, is he prepared to talk about whether he agrees with his father's radical vision?