Ted Cruz may not be everyone’s favorite politician, but the abuse he’s coming in for from the left is much ado about nothing. In the midst of Texas’ recent experience with winter weather, millions of households were left without power. Indoor temperatures sank, and millions of people who weren’t used to winter temperatures were suddenly facing weather well below freezing.
In response to that, Ted Cruz’ wife texted some friends of hers and wanted to know who wanted to escape the cold by taking a vacation to Cancun. Yes, it’s lucky to be able to just jet away at a moment’s notice to escape the cold. Some people have that kind of money, while most of us don’t. But one of Heidi Cruz’ friends leaked her text messages to the media, and suddenly there was a huge to-do painting Cruz in a negative light.
According to Cruz’ detractors, he was somehow supposed to do something about the cold and about the suffering of those Texans who couldn’t get away. There was a whole bunch of whining from people unwilling to help themselves that Cruz was supposed to “do something” for them. But they seemed to forget that Cruz was elected to national office, as a US Senator. He isn’t a state-level official, it isn’t his responsibility to take care of state-level issues, and he would be overstepping his authority if he were to get involved in state issues.
None of that matters to Cruz’ opponents, who just want to do anything they can to make him look bad. And this gave them the perfect opportunity, to paint Cruz as a rich, out of touch elitist who doesn’t care about Texas’ huddled, shivering masses. They took advantage of the politics of envy, riling up those without the money to escape the cold and turning their anger towards Cruz rather than towards Texas’ complicated energy market, building codes that don’t prepare for cold weather, or even their own unpreparedness.
While Cruz will likely weather this “crisis,” it won’t be the first time that Democrats will target him in their attempt to turn Texas blue. Just remember that the next time you hear of a politician being targeted for being too rich or too out of touch, it’s highly likely that the reason behind it is political rather than substantive. You won’t hear multimillionaires like Nancy Pelosi being criticized for being out of touch by the media, no matter how many times she sticks her foot in her mouth. Whether you think Cruz is a principled conservative or a Washington establishment swamp creature, he needs to be defended against unjust and politically motivated attacks.
