Two right wing religious extremists have rushed to defend Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his trip to Cancun while the rest of Texas is in a state of emergency. Texas is currently sandwiched between two storms, the first dropped temperatures to single-digits earlier this week, knocking out the power grid for millions, the second is slated to hit Thursday, again bringing extreme low temperatures.
Senator Cruz opted to fly to Mexico rather than stay on the ground in his home state to help Texas residents.
Some of Cruz’s defenders, like religious right extremists Erick Erickson and Dinesh D’Souza, think there’s nothing a sitting U.S. Senator could do in a crisis.
They’re wrong.
First, here’s what they’re saying:
“You people.” As in, millions of Texans trying to not freeze or starve to death.
What they’re exposing is their ignorance about government.
Conservatives, at least Republicans in general, tend to think government serves little important function. They love to toss around the old Reagan joke: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.'”
In times of crisis, often the government is the only entity that can effectively help.
And don’t forget – we are the government. Government is people, the people we choose to lead and represent us. We hope they do it well.
Because conservatives don’t believe in government they consistently abuse it, under-estimate it, and make it worse.
So here’s what a few experts are saying about what Cruz could have done instead of fleeing to sunny Mexico.
First, Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, who was the Deputy Policy Director for Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett:
For a more in-depth explanation, here’s a senior fellow from the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. Notice how he uses the same word “performative,” but explains why that’s not what good lawmakers do.
“In a local emergency,” Glassman says, lawmakers “are conduit to tons of resources and a resource who can effectively coordinate certain sets of actors and lean on people to make things happen. Can very much turn into administrators.”
Apparently, no one told Senator Cruz, or his religious right supporters.
Image by Matt Johnson via Flickr and a CC license