Ted Cruz’s Cancun scandal is a second Alamo for Texas Republicans
Texas is facing one of its worst crises since the Alamo, which happened 185-years ago, coincidentally during a late winter freeze in San Antonio. But this time it’s not Mexican Generalissimo Sant Anna causing the death and destruction. Rather, it’s an unprecedented failure of governance by the state GOP.
Legendary American Davey Crocket fought to the death against Mexico at the Alamo. This week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took a decidedly different approach and fled the crisis to Mexico, presumably for their ample heat and hot water.
Ironically, the fallout from this failure should be similar to that of the Alamo, which led to the Republic of Texas joining the United States in the first place. Perhaps, just maybe they’ll join the United States’ electric grid for the first time, and prevent these sorts of manmade disasters in the future.
Texans could even find themselves more open to elect Democrats to replace their Republican trifecta in state government because it’ll be the only way to get adults to step in and regulate its basic utilities and critical infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott (R) falsely blamed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s (D-NY) Green New Deal—a framework of ideas that hasn’t even become law yet—for the crisis.
But the Trumped-up Governor of Texas is just continuing the proud tradition that recently deceased conservative talker Rush Limbaugh began shortly after the Reagan administration abolished the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine in 1987. No matter what the problem, Limbaugh would deliver dramatic, lie-filled talking points and most importantly blame the “libs.”
Abbott baselessly pointed to the failure of the state’s renewable energy as the culprit for this epic failure even as they made up less than 10 percent of the state’s generation.
What could be more absurd than blaming windmills for an energy crisis in Texas, where oil and gas are among the first things you think of when you think of Texas.
Texas’ lack of winterization is no big secret. The federal government issued an extraordinarily detailed report (embedded below) in 2011 explaining why the GOP-dominated state needed to invest in its power infrastructure or face a cold-weather disaster.
Ridiculous doesn’t give a just description of Governor Abbott’s abdication of leadership by disseminating disinformation about the source of his state’s current woes.
I had to google the state seal of Texas to check if there was an oil well on it.
There is not.
Power plants are not operating, water is not readily available to millions of Texans, many roads are impassible three days after the snow stopped and there are shortages of most water, food, and emergency services across the entire state.
Despite all of those hurdles, Ted Cruz managed to get a police escort to ensure he made it onto an emergency flight to Cancun, Wednesday evening, for a relaxing family vacation while his constituents freeze.
JUST IN from @houstonpolice, via @emcabcnewsprod:
— Ben Siegel (@bensiegel) February 18, 2021
"Cruz’s staff contacted HPD personnel at IAH on Wednesday … and requested assistance upon the Senator’s arrival at the airport."
"HPD officers monitored his movements through the terminal."
Maybe Texas would be better off if Abbott joined Senator Ted Cruz in Cancun for a margarita by the pool.
Meanwhile, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who oversaw the genesis of Texans’ powerlessness re-appeared after his stint in the Energy Department (which he forgot that he wanted to abolish before running the place and not abolishing it), blithely told his constituents that possibly freezing or starving to death is worthwhile to avoid federal regulations.
In fact, numerous Texas politicians have openly and repeatedly mocked the difficulties other states have experienced during natural disasters, despite blaring warnings their policies were leading their state into a potentially deadly disaster.
That is the unfortunate state of modern Republicanism, and it was all started by Rush Limbaugh.
He knew his listeners did not want long policy discussions. They wanted to be entertained and feel like they were part of a movement. They wanted to fight back against the libs. The only way to keep them was to blame Democrats and liberals for everything, no matter how much of a stretch it was.
The tragedy is that Republicans simply have no interest in long policy discussions, they just want to own the libs. They won’t try to solve problems; they will assign blame, always to the “other.”
The GOP establishment allowed Limbaugh to really take over the party after the gross failures of the second Bush Administration’s wars, tax cuts, and deregulation and the result was the rise of Donald Trump. At least with Limbaugh gone, Trump and his clones may have a hard time coming up with new material. Perhaps Rush not being available the past month may have contributed to the disgraced “former guy’s” silence.
Rush was more important than any Republican leader.
His influence dwarfed Reagan.
I imagine whoever replaces Rush Limbaugh will seek to continue his tried-and-true money-making formula of disseminating disinformation, mockery, and the politics of self-destruction. All Americans can only hope now that advertisers wake up and realize the danger of using their money to sponsor lies that harm their customers. Then, just maybe, we will see more balance in broadcasting.
Unlike Senator Ted Cruz whose reputation was never good and now lies in tatters amongst the broken glass of the Capitol, Governor Gregg Abbott isn’t the worst of the Republican Party today. But he’s clearly infected with the same viral lies Rush started spreading as patient zero. After last week’s gross display of shamefulness by 43 Republican senators refusing to convict Trump for obvious crimes against America there’s little hope that Republicans will recover from this.
But there is glimmering hope that Texans who survive this week’s new Battle of the Alamo learn the cold lessons their GOP political leaders have shared about vacations for the wealthy and frigid starvation for the people, and vote them all out.
Christopher Hahn is a former aide to Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer and the most aggressive Liberal commentator on Fox News. Follow him on Twitter, @ChristopherHahn.
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