We Are Governed By a Mob of Whiners
This really is ridiculous and I don’t care if you disagree. In fact, I dare say if you disagree you need to put some big boy britches on and grow up.
Ted Cruz, the sitting United States Senator for Texas, is not a line man. He is not a power supplier. He doesn’t drive a bucket truck. And, on top of it all, he has zero responsibility, role, jurisdiction, or governance over the power grid for the state of Texas. Ted Cruz is a United States Senator, not a Texas State Senator.
He has zero jurisdictional duties.
The Senator took his family to the beach to escape the cold in Texas.
People are crying over nothing. They’d prefer it if Ted Cruz stay home and emote or tweet or make public performance efforts to show he cares. Misery loves company.
The people of Texas have been let down by their systems and state. They are freezing. They are uncomfortable. They are discomfited. They are angry. I get the anger. Still…Ted Cruz couldn’t do a damn thing about the power and I realize Texans are frozen, cold, and frustrated. Letting emotion get the better of the situation driven by a press that hates Ted Cruz’s guts is silly.
Yes, yes, yes, it looked bad. It was bad optics. Cruz should have stayed behind and fed the homeless in front of cameras and said nasty things about the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Not doing anything substantive but in front of the cameras at home instead of removing his family was clearly the right call.
Now, if Ted Cruz did summon police in Texas, as has been reported, to help his family depart, then that was wrong and the public should hold him accountable for that. But I’m not sure that is confirmed.
Otherwise, a man who could not control the situation or fix the situation decided instead to take his family to a warm beach.
The people whining are the ones who should be heckled, not a man taking his wife and kids to the beach.
Optics my foot. Send all the politicians to Cancun and the situation would probably get fixed faster anyway.
Another thing — all the yelling about whether it was the renewals or the fossil fuels distracts from holding the bureaucrats responsible for this accountable. Now all the yelling about Ted Cruz again distracts from holding the actual culprits accountable for their poor decisions.
And another thing — this situation is completely different from the Mayor of Austin going to Cabo. That dude told everyone to avoid crowds and social distance and he fled the state to do exactly what he’d prohibited everyone else from doing.
The fact that leftwing media hacks think the two situations are comparable speaks volumes about the third rate hackery in modern American newsrooms. Note how many of the major headlines are leftwing publications:
Maybe Cruz should have burned his house down to warm his neighborhood. Surely then everyone would feel better. But at least everyone is so busy yelling at each other that the bureaucrats who caused the problem have time to come up with excuses.
Let me see, should I take a Mexico vacation or perform fake service in front of cameras? Are those really the only two choices? Perhaps he could have performed real services without cameras. There was really nothing he could do? He couldn't pick up people and drive them to warming centers? Because he is a US senator and not a state senator that means he has no simple human responsibility for the Texans who elected him to that high office? To his neighbors? To his fellow humans?
Remember, Spidey, with great power comes great responsibility. Surely, there was something this powerful politician could have done to help, even if it was not on line 10a of his job description (maybe go to the last line--other duties as assigned). And if he really couldn't think of anything, then perhaps he doesn't deserve his power.
Why do we claim it is "only" optics when the optics are bad--he and all politicians certainly understand how to perform when the optics are good. Don't we look to our "leaders" for inspiration, for, how shall I say it, leadership?
Of all things to take the media to task for, this is the hill you are going to defend?
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.