Conservatives trying their hardest to defend Ted Cruz are embarrassing America

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the story by now. On Thursday, as Texas struggled through the fourth day of a deadly deep freeze, it emerged that Ted Cruz had… left. By his own admission, he flew his family for a family vacation in Cancun, Mexico, even as thousands in his home state – the one he’s supposed to represent and, presumably, care about just a little bit – remained without power or heat, with many struggling to access clean water and food.

Cruz contends he was merely accompanying his daughters after they asked to go on a trip with friends; media reports paint a different picture, with Cruz’s wife Heidi reportedly planning to trade the family’s “FREEZING” home for the Ritz-Carlton, according to texts obtained byThe New York Times.

Yet conservative commentators wasted no time leaping to Cruz’s rescue, doing some astounding mental gymnastics in the process. In their desperate attempt to defend his actions, they turned to an old trick: instead of providing evidence of why leaving Texas in its hour of dire need wasn’t objectively bad (because it is, in fact, objectively bad, and they know it), they focused instead on discrediting those doing the criticizing instead. Predictably, it didn’t take long until a familiar cry resonated in the distance: the overdone, hazy allegation that this was a case of “cancel culture”.

Donald Trump Jr (of course) purported to denounce “the hypocrisy of those trying to cancel Ted Cruz”. Ben Shapiro described the outrage over Cruz’s vacation as overblown, and, in a classic case of whataboutism, attempted to redirect scrutiny on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. (Apparently, there’s only room for one political leader under the microscope at any given time.) A number of conservative commentators, including Dinesh D’Souza, demanded to know what exactly Ted Cruz could have done if he’d stayed anyway. Still others said simply that the Senator “deserved a vacation”.

To put it bluntly: Yes, when you are a state’s Senator, you are expected – reasonably so – to give a crap when things go wrong in said state. If you do not want to give a crap, no one’s forcing you to be a Senator. If you only take a theoretical interest in your constituent’s problems – if you truly, genuinely feel that it doesn’t make a difference whether you are physically there or not – then perhaps you should consider a different line of work.

No one is trying to “cancel” Ted Cruz. Indeed, if “cancel culture” were a real, scary, threatening thing, do you really think this man would have remained Senator for eight years and positioned himself as possible GOP presidential frontrunner for 2024? Please.

What Cruz is facing is a little something us adults like to call consequences. Adults who fail spectacularly at their jobs deal with those all the time. There have been calls for Cruz to resign, and they’re far from unreasonable. Yes, it does beg the question whether a man who has no problem Marie-Antoinetting while the people he is literally paid to represent are quite literally left out in the cold should retain his position.

This is what you sign up for when you run for office. This is what you sign up for when you choose a job that places an enormous emphasis on accountability and optics. And despite what some might think, optics are relevant in politics for a reason. How the public feels about your actions isn’t a detail when you’re a politician: it’s at the core of everything you do. This is a man who – as highlighted in a video released byThe Daily Show as the scandal was unfolding – has spent years criticizing his Democratic counterparts for playing golf and allegedly being “out of touch” with the everyday American. If that’s your strategy, don’t expect to jet off to the Ritz in the middle of a crisis and emerge blemish-free.

Hundreds of thousands of people were still impacted by power outages in Texas on Thursday. That was down from millions earlier in the week. Thirty Texans have died in the past few days from the impacts of the weather crisis, including an 11-year-old boy who died of suspected hypothermia. A couple was forced to ration oxygen for their prematurely born, five-month-old baby. 

“Cancel culture” has become a sinfully attractive term for conservatives. In many ways, it’s the legacy of moral panic: the progressive mob is coming for you, and it’s going to take your freedom. But time and again in this country, we see the real restrictions on freedom being enacted by conservatives. Just two days ago, South Carolina — like many states in the Bible Belt — signed into law an effective abortion ban which is now being challenged in the courts. And it’s conservatives who have been behind most historical American book bans for reasons as spurious as mild profanity (last time I checked,The Catcher in the Rye wasn’t exactly an Eminem banger.) That’s without even going into the school curricula bans on giving basic information to children about issues as fundamental as contraception and, in some cases, evolution.

What’s happening to Ted Cruz isn’t new. It’s not unique to him. It’s a tale as old as time, and a normal part of public life. It happens as a result of a range of behaviors, including when you disregard decades of warnings and decide – against all common sense – to mess with Texas.