88 Comments

Erick, thank you for having integrity, and be willing to give light to opinions that disagree with yours! You give me hope!

By sharing this:

https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/a-fair-rejoinder-on-ted-cruz?r=4813i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

You showed courage and fairness. You don’t have to agree, but you have the courage to share a balanced view.

That is what most other commentators, on both sides, do not have. And that it’s the core of our current challenges and division.

Thank you! Keep it up.

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You nailed it, Erick, with this line:

"Optics my foot. Send all the politicians to Cancun and the situation would probably get fixed faster anyway."

We have here a perfect example of what Rush used to call ":symbolism over substance." When I heard about this, I knew Ted Cruz had done the wrong thing, but based ONLY on the appearances of it, not because he could have gotten Texans' power and water service back on sooner. His REAL sin is giving the enviro radicals something with which they can try to bamboozle Americans into supporting a project which, if brought to fruition, will inevitably lad to more Texases and Californias, complete with rolling blackouts. We're already seeing the effects of this here in Indiana; prices at the pump have shot up almost 50 cents/gallon since Inauguration Day, as the markets price in the long term effects of the Keystone XL cancellation, with, I'm sure, more to come.

The whiners will have plenty to complain about in days to come, although I doubt they will be able to realize that put 2+2=Joe Biden as regards energy prices. That's probably why they keep insisting that getting the precise answer in mathematics is somehow evidence of "white supremacist" thinking.

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As a precinct chair, I reached out to voters in my precinct to see if everything was okay. As a Christian, I reached out to members of my Sunday School class for the same reason. As an election judge, I reached out to everyone who had worked with me in the past year. We all came up with ways to help each other in this time of crisis if needed.

I just wonder. If the home of Senator Cruz has a fireplace.

.

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The fact that people are defending this is AMAZING to me! Forget optics, this shows a poor judgement and leadership. Making excuses for this. Not to mention how often he has changed the story. Ted Cruz gets what he deserves for all of his righteous indignation shown towards others. If a Democrat senator had done this everyone’s opinion would be totally different. Y’all sound crazy.

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I have no problem with the senator going some place warm. Its also great to be able to comment now that i paid a 1 year subscription to a man who i enjoy listening to.

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As I read these comments I wonder if only Democrat elected officials are allowed to take vacations. Most of the time, vacations are planned well in advance. And with COVID they are even more planned out. Bad optics, of course, but I'm not seeing anyone complaining about the bad optics of so many other politicians during not just bad times, but normal times.

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So you wake up in your apartment in the middle of the night to take a leak. On the way back to the bed you notice smoke coming under your front door. You open the door and realize that there is a big fire down the hall. So you crawl to the fire stairs and get out. By the time you exit the entire building in engulfed in flames. You call the fire department. While waiting you see no one else coming out of the building and realize that all your neighbors are now dead. Do you a) leave a note saying you ran back in to die with your neighbors thinking that the whiners on Twitter might trash your reputation and cancel you if you don't also die or b) get on your knees, thank God for your life and pray for the souls of the deceased?

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So much of the defense of Cruz seems to rely on the notion that it's a virtue to avoid empty, performative gestures, and that Cruz is aware and observant of this virtue.

You don't have to dislike Cruz to admit that this is laughably false.

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Thank you for sharing your Texas friend's perspective. That that wasn't your initial impression saddens me.

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Ted Cruz is a wealthy man with political influence and a media platform who wants to be President of the United States. He could do more, and his aspirations dictate that he should do more.

His defenders put up straw men about serving soup to the homeless or burning his own house down, as it if was the responsibility of his critics to provide better examples of what he could be doing. He's the one who wants to be President. It's incumbent on him to figure out what he could do with his influence, clout, media platform and wealth to help people and show us what leadership looks like.

Or, he could certainly just "not be able to do anything" and skip town for a few days.

At my job, we just had our performance reviews for 2020. Rough year for the business and rough year for everyone, but we're being graded nonetheless. The people who just showed up and did their jobs got a C, and will probably be safe. The people who pushed a little more got a B. The people who pushed a lot more, took risks, and showed innovation, courage and leadership - often by working around their own constraints - got the As.

Guess who will be considered first for raises and promotions.

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Erick, you need to add more "context" to your missive. Please consider adding words like "petulant," "angry," "miserable," "immature," "infantile," "childish" or any other adjective you feel appropriate to the term "whiner."

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Spot on commentary!

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My understanding is he flew the family down there and came back the next day.....is that true?

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I agree with most of what you said. Just one question: Is it true that he has criticized politicians in the past who take vacation in the middle of crisis? If that is true, then, he lost my whole sympathy for not being consistent. That is called "Lack of Integrity"!

Aside from that, even if he has not real 'role' to play on the practical side of the equation as you describe, you can argue that he is still a public servant, and he should stay and do whatever he can to help. He has a leadership position and influence. He certainly can do a lot more to move the 'powers that be', and to get those that have power, influence, and money, to do more for 'the people'. At the end, 'the people' are the ultimate tax payers, and the ultimate voters.

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Amen, you are so right on. Did Pelosi get this much coverage when she got a hair cut at a closed salon with no mask? How about Newsome eating out at a restaurant while the rest of his state is locked down. Or even Cuomo killing thousands of people. I could go on and on. Apparently hypocrisy is the new norm.

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Maybe he could have raised money for Texas relief (as AOC did, $1M while Ted was fleeing), or led an effort to check on the status of seniors (as Beto did). He had options that didn’t occur to him. Not surprising. Ted is a political mess.

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