CPAC: Ted Cruz leads massive crowd to boo Justin Trudeau and cheer Canadian truckers

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas addressed the CPAC crown on Thursday afternoon, speaking to the "thousands of patriots," noting that "there is not a mask in sight."

"We find ourselves at an existential moment for our nation," he said, and asked "what is this battle all about? What are we fighting about in this nation?"

He suggested that it was a "battle between power and liberty" that has gripped the nation. "The two are in fundamental conflict," he said, listing off some of the incredible contradictions that we have been facing as a nation.

Cruz spoke about the conflicts the nation is facing.

"We are seeing it every day. Vaccine mandates versus doctors and nurses. Mask mandates versus kids in school. Spotify versus Joe Rogan. GoFundMe versus Canadian truckers.

At one point, Cruz got the entire crowd to boo Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau... twice.

"Justin Trudeau and the God-fearing Canadian truckers," he said to cheering and applause. The New York Times versus Bari Weiss. Levi's versus Jennifer Sey. AOC versus damn near anyone you ever dared to criticize."

"This is not a battle between the weak and the strong," Cruz said. "Joe Rogan is many things but he ain't weak."

"Major League Baseball which went after the voters of Georgia—the Georgia voters are many things but they ain't weak. The Biden Department of Justice when they went after parents, parents are many things but they ain't weak.

"You got to understand what is playing out here," Cruz said. "What is playing out is the powerful are afraid. They are terrified of you. They look at the men and women in this room and you scare the living crap out of them."

"They are afraid of truth," he said, "they are afraid of liberty."

Cruz surmised that what has been learned from these battles is that "big is bad."

"Across the board," he said, "big government sucks. Big business sucks. Big tech, big Hollywood, big universities."

"Any accumulation of power that is centralized is fundamentally dangerous for individual liberty," he said. "What is it that the communists want, the communists want control of everything: they want centralized power."

Cruz said that the kind of influence currently seen by special interests is no different than what James Madison saw, and wrote about in the Federalist Papers. Madison called it "factionalism." Factions, Madison said, will "strip away our liberty" if they are able to gain power.

"And the genius of our Constitution is the checks and balances that divides government that makes one branch fight with another branch," Cruz said. This is what the Supreme Court has called "splitting the atom of sovereignty, he said, because it requires each branch of government to be held accountable to the others, and to the people who they serve.

But now, Cruz said, what's happening is that big government and big tech work in concert, "hand in hand." He noted that the White House Press Secretary called for Spotify to censor Rogan. This is in addition to the multiple times that the Biden administration has called for censorship and suppression of speech since entering the Oval Office just over a year ago.

"There's a pattern of government asking Big Tech to silence dissent. In Canada, the Canadian truckers, Canadian government says 'Oh, GoFundMe, billionaires please silence these pesky truckers."

"By the way, Cruz said, "the workers of the world had a revolt and the left is pissed!"

"The answer is threefold. Number one: fight power. Fight big government, fight big business, fight Big Tech, fight big Hollywood, fight big universities. Fight the centralization of power break it up, break big tech up into a million little pieces."

"Number two: don't ever apologize to the woke mob. It doesn't work. They're not engaged in rational discourse. They are not actually offended at whatever idiocy it is they're whining about about that moment. They want to destroy you. They want to silence you, they want to subjugate you. Respond with joy, laugh at them."

Number three: "Speak out. Use your voice. Every one of you has a powerful megaphone to the world," Cruz said.

"We are taking our country back," he concluded.