San Antonio's KSAT reported earlier that "photos circulating on Twitter late Wednesday purport to show Texas Senator Ted Cruz on a flight to Cancun, Mexico, during the state‘s historic disaster." The station added, "there isn't a smoking gun." But more recently Fox News — yeah, I know — "has confirmed" the story.
The usual suspects were already at it, defending the indefensible. For instance Erick Erickson, formerly of Red State and now star of the catchily named program, the erickericksonshow.com, rushed to uphold the renowned honor of Sen. Cruz.
The fact that people think Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, can do anything about a state power grid, even his own, is rather demonstrative of the ignorance of so many people who cover politics. They’d rather performative drama than substance.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 18, 2021
The bigger but regrettably unknowable fact, Erick, is what shrinking number of people think Ted Cruz can do anything about anything? His answer to life and Texas' problems is simply a nihilistic garble, intermixed with ritualistic hosannas about heavenly Donald Trump. That old Republican saw about American neighbors helping neighbors? Pshaw. Just pack up, grab some taxpaid cash, and scram.
Folks unhappy with Cruz aren't "ignorant" about politics, whether covering it or not. They see the Cruzian version of modern conservatism all too lucidly. Its ideology is concise and just as quickly dispatched in times of trouble: I've got mine, and you, you poor slob, you're on your own.