No one has remade Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood films, but Ted Cruz is paying homage to a Reagan campaign commercial in a new ad focused on the threat of radical Islam.
“There is a scorpion in the desert,” the announcer says, as the camera shows the creature crawling across the cracked and parched landscape.
The ad goes on to personify the threat of Islamic terrorism to the sting of that deadly creature.
“For most of us, its venom is a clear and deadly threat, but others refuse to even speak its name,” the announcer continues.
That is a clear reference to Barack Obama, whose administration temporarily banished the use of the word “terrorism” in favor of various euphemisms, including “workplace violence.”
“Since the scorpion seeks out destruction, isn’t it time we recognize the scorpion for what it is, before it strikes again?” the narration concludes.
His tough-on-terror ad is modeled after Ronald Reagan’s 1984 commercial about the threat of the Soviet Union, which begins with the line, “There is a bear in the woods.”
While Cold War era Americans had to worry about Soviet spies (like Alger Hiss) and domestic subversion, modern-day citizens are worried about outbursts of radicalized Muslims living in the United States, like the Ft. Hood Shooter, the shoe bomber and other successful and—thankfully, thwarted—jihadis.
Here’s Ted Cruz’s ad:
Here’s the Reagan original:
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