The Can-Coup Cruz
Let me ask a simple question: What consequences does senator Ted Cruz face for his attempted vacation to Mexico?
Many people are having a good laugh at his expense. Some are genuinely angry. Others are pointing to the work of AOC or O’ Rourke in comparison. Still, discarding the idea that basic human empathy could be a motivator, why shouldn’t Ted Cruz have traveled to Mexico?
Will the local Texas GOP censure him, as State parties have moved quickly to do for senators voting in favor of Donald Trump’s impeachment? They’ve already taken longer from the break of the story to now than most other parties took when responding to their own senators, so there’s no real reason to think this might happen.
What about from the voters? Does Ted Cruz face a meaningful possibility of losing re-election? Donald Trump won the State comfortable in 2020. Republicans have had control of Texas for 20+ years, and while Democrats dream of a Purple Lone Star, their polls consistently prove to be far from electoral reality. In the 2018 midterms, the biggest backlash to the Right in the last decade, he held on to his seat. Even if it hurts his polling, he won’t be up for re-election for another several years.
Okay, you might say, but what about other Republican leaders? Won’t they be upset with him? I would ask… like who? Governor Gregg Abbott, who pretended to not know about the developing scandal this morning? Rick Perry, who said Texans would rather die in the cold than allow some form of federal involvement in their failing power grid? The GOP mayor who resigned after telling constituents via Facebook that he “didn’t owe them anything”? Maybe one of the centrist senators whose Republican opinion polls are circling the drain as the party of Trump moves to purge them from its ranks?
The sad truth is, there’s no real political calculation that would inform Cruz (again, other than basic human decency), that this wasn’t a good idea. He faces no meaningful consequences.
In essence, Ted Cruz and the majority of the GOP’s role has been pushed into a sort of performative-internet-trolling. Their purpose within the wider political discourse is simply, singularly, to “own the libs.” No policy need be proposed. No responsibilities fulfilled. Clap back at AOC on Twitter. Half-heartedly endorse conspiracy theories. Go on FOX to complain about the most recent iteration of your culture war.
For Republican voters, that’s all you need.
So let’s not forget that that’s the root of the issue. Ted Cruz can vacation while his State collapses specifically because he faces no meaningful consequences. And that fact, that he will go on undaunted by what should be a politically suicidal gesture, that is a problem that goes much deeper than Cruz himself.
I’ll be honest that I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe it’s rank-choice voting, maybe federal level voting rights legislation, maybe compulsory voting, maybe some sort of modification of the Democratic party to make it a more appealing alternative.
All I know is that if something doesn’t change at the root, we’re going to see a lot more Can-Coup Cruzes.
