Ted Cruz is a disgrace to Texas and to the U.S. Senate. As the Texas power crisis shows how quickly poorly maintained infrastructure can crumble at the hands of intense weather and climate change, Cruz has made his latest mistake in a too-long list of blunders. Despite the crisis already leading to several deaths, Senator Ted Cruz chose to abandon and ignore his state. As a result, Texas Democrats are now calling on the senator to resign, a notion that has passed around many times.
Cruz chose to travel to Cancun, Mexico while millions of his constituents were freezing at home without power, water or food. Unfortunately, about 180,000 Texans were still without power on Feb. 19, but it was still a number significantly lower than the 4 million earlier that week. But problems have still persisted, including access to clean drinking water after pipes had burst due to the frigid temperatures.
Multiple deaths have already occurred due to electric and gas bills skyrocketing as high as $15,000 for a single week. This exhibits the favoritism towards profits for energy companies as Texas’ deregulated market allows supply and demand to be easier to manipulate with no federal laws protecting consumers and the power grid. Of course, it is quite ironic for the whole matter to occur given prior tweets claiming the success of Texas’ power structure while mocking California’s. His hypocrisy, however, lies with his choice to travel during a crisis when Cruz and many other Republicans used to disparage former President Obama for the same action.
But Cruz has shown his lack of integrity and compassion with his actions throughout his political career. Cruz has been part of the Senate as a Texas representative since 2013 and even ran for presidential office in 2016 before even finishing his first term.
As a firm Republican, he is a favorite of many conservatives and “pro-Constitution” Republicans, having backed his loyalty to Trump despite everything. Cruz still chose to endorse Trump despite him viciously insulting his wife and accusing his father of assassinating John F. Kennedy. The senator has continued to act spineless when it came to Trump’s obstruction of justice that led to his first impeachment and his inciting of an insurrection which left five people dead and led to his second impeachment. In fact, he has even gone as far as to acquit Trump and assert the former president’s false claim of election fraud. Many other actions have led to stark criticism, such as in 2013 when he forced a government shutdown in an effort to derail the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.
However, a true assessment of his character can be represented by his time as a solicitor general of Texas, the top lawyer in charge of major appellate cases. In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley was arrested for stealing a calculator from a Walmart, a nonviolent crime that would have merited a two-year prison term. However, during the trial, prosecutors made the error of applying repeat offender laws, thereby increasing the sentence to a maximum of 16 years even though it was only Haley’s second offense rather than his third. After serving seven years, the mistake was finally caught and presented to Cruz. If he was sensible, he would have let Haley go for the time he has served, but instead, Cruz went as far as to take the case to the Supreme Court to argue that Haley should serve his full 16-year term for a crime he was not even guilty of. This truly exemplifies and illustrates the senator’s lack of mercy and heartlessness in his willingness to “uphold” the law, despite the ethical cost and the violation of justice.
With his total disregard for his voters, his spinelessness and his hypocrisy, Ted Cruz has truly earned his spot as one of the most unpopular senators in the country. He still remains an elected member of the Senate, though the arrival of a new administration and shifting opinions could allow for Cruz to be replaced in the future.
