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Something that has gotten lost – deliberately, I think – in all the talk about Black Lives Matter and the BLM protests and riots that have taken place in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd is the key distinction between saying black lives matter versus saying you support the “Black Lives Matter” organization.

Fox News’s Tucker Carlson has talked about the differences between the two often on his program over the last couple of months, but you don’t hear Republican politicians make the distinction often. Democrats, of course, don’t make it at all because it benefits them politically to blur the lines between the two.

But on Tuesday during his subcommittee hearing on free speech and the Antifa-esque anarchistic violence happening in cities like Portland and Seattle, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made it a point to explain the distinction in a way the mainstream media here in the U.S. almost never does:

[Cruz] makes a distinction between the statement “black lives matter,” which he calls “unquestionably true,” and the organization Black Lives Matter — which has called for people to “disrupt” the “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” and defund police departments.

“The actual organization denominated Black Lives Matter was created by avowed Marxists pursuing a radical agenda including defunding police departments across the country and that agenda, if implemented, would have the consequence of a great many more Black lives being lost,” Cruz said.

“Every human being is a precious gift from God,” Cruz stated.

Watch:

Sen. @tedcruz: "It is important to draw a distinction between the statement 'Black lives matter,' which is indisputably right, and the organization that denominated Black Lives Matter." pic.twitter.com/RBLeJOBxGn

— The Hill (@thehill) August 5, 2020

During the same hearing, Cruz also called out corporations that had given money to BLM in an effort to show how woke and socially aware they are, while noting that the organization had actually called for the boycott of white-owned corporations, which many of the companies that donated are:

Sen. @TedCruz calls out companies that have donated to Black Lives Matter — including Microsoft, Amazon, DoorDash:

"When corporate America flows millions of dollars into explicitly terrorist organizations … violence and terrorism [flowing] from that should not be surprising." pic.twitter.com/wsC4ntDnHY

— August Takala (@AugustTakala) August 4, 2020

Cruz is right to highlight the differences because the mainstream media and Democrats are actively pushing the theory that if you don’t support the Black Lives Matter movement then you don’t care about black lives. Therefore that makes you a racist or something.

They are, of course, full of it, and no one should let them get away with the gaslighting on this issue nor any other.

Saying you believe black lives matter is a no-brainer. Every person in the world should believe that, and anyone who doesn’t believe it should. But saying you’re on board with the extremist agenda of the BLM group itself means something entirely different and brings up a whole list of politically relevant issues that should be up for discussion and debate in the public square without fear of being shamed and/or false accusations of “racism” being made.

Going forward, anytime a Republican gets asked about whether they believe black lives matter or support “Black Lives Matter”, they need to use Cruz’s explainer as an example of how to respond. Because if the distinction between the two continues to be buried, then Republicans have already lost the debate on the extremist agenda of BLM before they’ve had a chance to really fight it in any meaningful way.