I happened to be standing in the lobby of a car wash when Sen. Ted Cruz was making his presidential announcement speech at Liberty University. Someone in the room muttered, “He’s crazy.” I hear that a lot. It’s a sentiment repeated by people who have no actual knowledge of Ted Cruz or what he stands for. People who say this are simply repeating what they’ve heard in the mainstream media, the same mainstream media that are, quite frankly, scared to death of Ted Cruz.

So, let’s explore where this “Ted Cruz is crazy” mantra comes from. It stems from the accusation that Cruz launched a one-man filibuster to shut down the government. In fact, the liberals are now saying that he did shut down the government and it cost taxpayers billions. None of that is even remotely true. Ted Cruz, remember, was in the Democrat-controlled Senate. He did not have the power to single-handedly shut down the government. He never filibustered. He did make a marathon speech (21 hours and 19 minutes) but, as the New York Daily News noted, “Cruz’s speech was not really a filibuster–he wasn’t blocking anything.”

CBS News wrote, “Though he can’t prevent the Senate from voting to end debate on the House proposal tomorrow, Cruz can speak throughout the night to draw attention to the issue.” And that’s exactly what he did. At issue was the funding of Obamacare in the fall of 2013. The law that Americans overwhelmingly opposed was to go into effect and Republicans, at least some of them, were trying to stop it. In a rare moment of resolve, House Speaker John Boehner pushed through a spending bill that contained no funding for Obamacare. The Senate passed its own version that did. Thus was the impasse that led to a 16-day government shutdown, but Cruz didn’t do that.

Boehner predictably caved and the House passed a bill fully funding Obamacare. That’s when Cruz stepped in with his marathon speech to bring the country’s attention to the problem. Cruz was urging his colleagues on the Republican side to keep the debate open to delay a vote until Harry Reid and the Democrats agreed to defund Obamacare. A handful of Republicans joined with all the Democrats and ended debate thus allowing another Senate vote on a bill that fully funded Obamacare. Senators like Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker cleverly voted to end debate then turned around and voted against the bill so they could go on record as saying they voted against anything that funded Obamacare. They clearly allowed the vote to take place and without a doubt were among the henchmen who allowed Obamacare to be implemented.

Many Republicans predicted Cruz’s “stunt” would have disastrous effects on the party. Instead, Republicans won by a landslide a year later primarily because of Americans’ aversion to Obamacare. Ever since Cruz’s failed attempt to get the Republicans to do the right thing he has been vilified by the press and discounted by the RINOs. They’ve attempted to brand him as some dimwitted tea partier who doesn’t quite understand how Washington works. The truth is, Ted Cruz graduated cum laude from Princeton and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. His father escaped Castro’s Cuba when he was 18 and worked as a dishwasher to put himself through college.

He’s not only the new face of Hispanics in America, he’s the new face of conservatism. Do you think Hispanic mothers would rather their kids grow up to be like Ted Cruz or grow up to clean Hillary Clinton’s mansion in Chappaqua?