Ted Cruz may be a hack who voted to overturn the election in favor of the guy who once called his wife ugly. But he isn’t stupid.
That makes the Texas Republican’s decision to fly to Cancun in the middle of a pandemic, and while his constituents are forced to boil snow for drinking water all the more curious. At first glance, one would assume that one of the most recognizable faces in Washington simply thought he’d get away with jaunting to an airport, chilling in the United Airlines lounge, heading to Cancun, and then returning to Texas without anyone noticing. But given Cruz’s flair for theatrics, reality could be a whole lot more cynical.
To be clear, there’s nothing that any senator could do to ameliorate a weather-generated energy crisis. But as the usually cringeworthy Beto O’Rourke has done, Cruz could use his ample network to communicate with his constituents, encourage volunteerism, and bring resources to those Texans most vulnerable. Instead, Cruz took his vacation.
Cruz’s office claims that he was simply overseeing the travel of his daughters and wife, a managing director at Goldman Sachs who probably doesn’t need a chaperone. Setting aside the fact that there’s a pandemic and it probably isn’t an opportune time for international family vacations, one gets the sense that Texas’s junior senator, already committed to retiring in 2024, is just phoning it in. This seems especially evident in light of his previous tweet about his state’s current crisis:
I got no defense. ??♂️
A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.
Stay safe! https://t.co/kBPGrGHmvI
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2021
There is an obvious defense available to Cruz: Texas’s ice storm is unprecedented, whereas California has always had scorching, arid summers and incessantly resorts to rolling blackouts. Furthermore, Texas’s increased dependency on renewables and its failure to expand nuclear power have exacerbated the crisis.
California, the bluest state in the union, has a greatly exaggerated version of this problem, compounded by its refusal to upgrade the energy grid, necessitating rolling blackouts, and institute the necessary controlled burns to prevent colossal wildfires.
Yet Cruz decided to throw his hands up and admit defeat. It’s almost as if he has checked out and simply no longer cares.
