A few days ago our very own Texan, Sen. Ted Cruz, announced that he is running for president in 2016. Like many politicians, this charismatic, outspoken congressman has as many extreme supporters as he does opponents.
Some of these opponents are so passionate that they have created petitions and campaigns to knock Cruz out of the presidential race. Texas Democrats is just one group that is raising money to “shut down Ted Cruz’s campaign.”
Oddly enough, there was recently a petition created to “shut down” another charismatic, outspoken public figure with a single-syllable last name: our not-so-Texan superstar, Kanye West. Over 120,000 people have signed an online petition launched to prevent a Kanye performance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in the U.K. after the announcement was made last week that West will headline the Saturday night of this year’s festival.
While they may not be from the same state, or even in the same industry, Ted and Kanye may have more of these odd similarities between the two than you might initially think.
The obvious similarities being that 1) so many people love them and 2) so many people hate them. They are polarizing figures that offer some of the most colorful sound bites and extreme takes on matters in their industry, whether it’s concerning Kim Kardashian or Barack Obama. Public figures that take matters to extremes tend to attract either extreme love or hate from the general public.
Not surprisingly, both of these personalities also love the stage. Kanye doesn’t just make his living on the stage, but instigated one of the most well-known stage-hogging events in pop culture when he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMA awards in 2009. Ted Cruz doesn’t just make noise by taking the floor of the Senate more often than a traditional junior senator such as himself would, he’s know for taking the floor for a straight 21-hour-long filibuster in 2013. These two love the spotlight.
And speaking of “shut downs,” Cruz is off shutting down the federal government to make a point while West is proudly supporting his wife’s “breaking of the Internet,” tweeting her naked magazine cover with hashtag “#ALLDAY.”
Hopefully what all these similarities are pointing to is some collaboration between the two masterminds. Cruz could use some campaign theme songs and Kanye could definitely use some policy advice.
