And Ted had planned to stay for three days-he booked the earlier flight home only after he got in trouble. “Friends” of the Cruz family leaked texts that seemed to indicate that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, had been desperate to get away from the cold. Much of this, it turned out, was a misrepresentation, if not a lie. After an extended period of silence about the Cancún debacle-perhaps caused by the resignation of his communications director after the insurrection-he initially seemed to blame the sojourn on his adolescent daughters, saying they wanted to “take a trip with some friends.” Trying to be “a good dad,” he said, he accompanied the girls to Mexico, planning to return overnight. Which would certainly explain his next move. Perhaps, having realized he would never win America’s love or highest office, Cruz had now become content with courting its disdain. As a precocious child, Cruz idolized the infamous North Carolina segregationist senator Jesse Helms-a reactionary troll who took up lifetime tenure in the upper chamber and retired at the age of 81. Like a cheating husband who leaves lipstick on his collar, he almost seemed like he wanted to be caught. It seemed instead like an admission that he had given up the ghost-that he no longer wanted bigger or better things for himself. His decision to board a United Airlines flight to the Yucatán, with all the plebs and their incriminating smartphone cameras, couldn’t just be chalked up to stupidity. He also knew that Texans, during that miserable week, were bitterly angry and looking to mutilate any scapegoat available. But Americans want to know that their leaders see them-that they see suffering and are doing something about it, even if it’s just scheduling a hearing. Presidents have better things to do, and so do senators, though senators don’t have much to do at all.
It’s a ritual for elected officials to be seen handing out toilet paper and water bottles in the aftermath of disasters like hurricanes, and it’s a largely pointless one.
The Capitol building was vandalized, offices were ransacked, and the country’s self-image and international reputation took a grievous blow.Īnd then he managed to earn a Steer all over again six weeks later, when he escaped to Cancún during the February blackout, perhaps the worst man-made disaster in Texas’s history. At least 138 police officers were injured that day 15 of them were hospitalized, and 4 later took their own lives. The stakes were grave and the consequences dire. Therefore, he argued, the peaceful transfer of power should be put on hold.Ĭruz was widely understood to be positioning himself for primacy in a post-Trump GOP, attempting to outflank Missouri senator Josh Hawley, who had initially led the campaign to overturn the election results. In his chronically insincere and cynical way, he stood that afternoon on the floor of the Senate and implied that he wasn’t stupid enough to think the election was rigged but that other people thought so. Serving as the outgoing president’s lackey, a position he had sacrificed much, including his dignity, to obtain, he helped gin up anger in advance of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. In 2021 we saw Cruz’s old self return on one occasion, and it caused the country serious harm. The lean and hungry fighter who was willing to be hated and worked like hell to advance his master plan seemed content to spar listlessly on Twitter and, from time to time, have his photo taken with his former arch-nemesis. He grew lounge-lizard facial hair and something akin to a mullet. Soft around the middle, which is no crime, and soft in spirit. It seemed to take the fight out of Cruz: he went soft.
But why does he have to take it out on us? That year, our state’s most famous Canadian, who began life as the smart, hardworking son of a middle-class family, saw his best-laid plans put to rest by his psychic opposite, an overgrown rich kid with, at best, middling grades who couldn’t even run a profitable casino. The most relatable thing about Ted Cruz-perhaps the only relatable thing left about Ted Cruz-is that in 2016 his world was unmade and he’s had a pretty rough go of things ever since. Also, check out our Best Things in Texas list for examples of some of this year’s uplifting moments. Ted Cruz isn’t the only 2022 Bum Steer! Read about Greg Abbott, the January 6 rioters, the lady who fed Cheetos to spider monkeys, and all the rest.
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