It is insane that the progressive press has spent more time dissecting Ted Cruz’ escape to Cancun than questioning New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about his culpability in thousands of nursing home deaths but this is 2021 and nothing makes sense.
What does make sense is the Texan senator’s mad dash for the border as his home state faced a once-in-a-century freeze-out.
I can’t blame him. Given that I’ve been spending months calling out politicians for their hypocrisy in dealing with COVID restrictions they themselves have put in place, does that make me a hypocrite myself?
No. I’m not a hypocrite and neither is Ted Cruz and this has nothing to do with “whataboutism”.
Cruz’ wife wasn’t about to sit around and play board games with their teenagers while they all froze to death. They are a wealthy family. They have resources. When Heidi Cruz realized her family could be without modern comforts for days, she told her husband to figure it out, and he did. That doesn’t make Senator Cruz a hypocrite, it makes him a husband.
If a freak snowstorm hit our southern California county and we lost power for days and we had as much financial wiggle-room as the Cruz family, you can bet your happy ass I’d demand my husband take our family somewhere warm while the powers-that-be figure things out. And he would do it because every husband knows the very unhappy alternatives to ignoring your wife’s demands.
As President Obama once personally told my sweet husband, if mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.
The real reason no one should give a rip about Cruz’ Cancun kerfuffle is that unlike his liberal peers, he isn’t out there every day lecturing the entire country about staying home. He’s not accusing healthy, productive people of murder just because they want to celebrate a birthday with family or attend a funeral in person. He’s not calling snitch lines to out desperate restaurant owners who refuse to completely close their doors in the hopes of avoiding bankruptcy.
The mayor of Austin scolded his city’s residents for entertaining the idea of attending family gatherings for Thanksgiving..from his condo in Mexico.
The mayor of Chicago closed down schools and businesses and forced tens of thousands of Chicagoans into bankruptcy and poverty even as she continued to visit her own hair salon for cuts.
Governor Gavin Newsom shut down nearly every restaurant in the state except the ones at his personal winery and of course, The French Laundry where he was caught with a large group of friends dining maskless and indoors. Prior to his disastrous dinner, Newsom admonished Californians every day to stay home, obey the “science” and make personal sacrifices for the “greater good.” Not unrelated, Newsom is now on track to become only one of a handful of American governors who have been recalled.
Then there is Newsom’s “auntie” Nancy Pelosi, who purposefully delayed stimulus money for suffering Americans even as she appeared on late night tv talk shows to model her $12,000 subzero freezer filled with pricey ice cream. Like Lightfoot, Pelosi was also happy to make exceptions to business closures and masks when it came to her own hair.
The list goes on and on. Political hypocrisy has been on full display for Americans to see and those who have been paying attention really couldn’t care less about the Cruz’ trip. Cruz isn’t out there telling Americans to stay home while he jets off to warmer shores. Cruz isn’t demanding businesses close while secretly patronizing his own wineries or barbers. Cruz hasn’t been pretending to care about getting stimulus checks out to Americans while flaunting his comfort and hypocrisy on live tv.
In fact, Cruz was just doing what he has been saying all along that every American has the right to do. He was taking care of his family. He has done nothing but encourage Americans to be cautious but still live their lives. He wants businesses open. He wants schools open. He wants Americans to be free even as they exercise extra safety measures for the time-being. He has been consistent in that message, so it isn’t strange that he’d be living it out himself.
I realize that many conservatives out there who don’t want to be accused of double standards are using words like “tone-deaf” but I don’t believe even that applies. Ted Cruz is a federal senator, not the governor and not a local politician. He’s under no obligation to stay in a disaster zone in which he cannot offer one bit of help. Short of having a weather machine and the ability to sign checks from the state coffers I’m not sure exactly what he was expected to do.
It was frikking cold.
I am willing to concede to the “tone-deaf” crowd, even if I do not agree. There’s certainly an argument to be made.
I am not willing to continue with this ridiculous nothingburger of a scandal. I will not placate the progressive lunatics in the press who are wetting themselves with excitement that they can finally do a “SUCH TERRIBLE HYPOCRISY!!!!” story on a Republican for once during this pandemic.
At least Cruz wasn’t killing grannies by locking them away in nursing homes and then writing a book about his flawless COVID strategies.
The only thing Ted Cruz did wrong was apologize.