Commentary: Ted Cruz is the Texas poster boy for today’s GOP

The elephant is a noble, stately, intelligent creature. It deserves better than being the symbol of today’s Republican Party led by self-serving, divisive, would-be authoritarians who put politics ahead of country. Sen. Ted Cruz is the Texas poster boy for how low the Grand Old Party has sunk.

Cruz, a longtime foe of bipartisanship, shut down the government in 2013 temporarily to try to kill the Affordable Care Act and bring attention to himself. He reportedly is widely disliked in Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, once famously said, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you.”

I thought Cruz had hit bottom last February when he hopped to Cancun, Mexico, during a killer freeze – effectively thumbing his nose at the millions of Texans who were suffering. But he sunk even lower this month when he got slapped figuratively on both cheeks by Fox News entertainer Tucker Carlson for calling last year’s rioters at the U.S. Capitol “terrorists.” Instead of standing up for himself, Cruz groveled like a little kid caught in the playground by the school bully.

It was ugly, even for Cruz, who previously showed a lack of political courage when he became a big enabler of former President Donald Trump after Trump said terrible things about Cruz’s wife and father during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The sad thing is that Cruz angered Carlson by telling the truth. Two weeks ago, one year after the Capitol insurrection, Cruz told a Senate committee that the rampage was a “violent terrorist attack.” It wasn’t the first time he said it. On the day of the attack, Cruz called it a “despicable act of terrorism.” He followed with a tweet saying: “Yesterday’s terrorist attack was a horrific assault on our democracy. Every terrorist needs to be fully prosecuted.”

Cruz was trying to have it both ways after helping to stir up the mob attack. He was among those ushered out of the Senate chambers ahead of the mob, which was trying to stop the certification of electoral votes giving Joe Biden the presidency. At the time, lawmakers were discussing Cruz’s objection to Arizona’s electoral votes as part of an effort by him and others to help Trump by questioning the election results.

This time around, Carlson was having none of Cruz’s “terrorist” talk. After all, the folks being called terrorists were Trump supporters – the kind who watch Fox News. Carlson and fellow Fox conspiracy mongers were falsely blaming everyone from Antifa to federal agents for the Capitol riot instead of the right-wing extremists who actually rioted.

After Carlson ripped into Cruz on air for the “terrorist” comment, Cruz asked to be on Carlson’s show the next night to explain himself. Then, rather than sticking to the truth, Cruz retracted his statement about terrorists, calling his phrasing “sloppy” and “dumb.”

The bully had won, but it wasn’t enough. Carlson kept badgering Cruz, saying he didn’t believe Cruz said “terrorist” accidentally. Eventually, Cruz tried a Trumpian deflection, saying, “I agree it was a mistake to use the word yesterday, because the Democrats and the corporate media have so politicized it.” The sound-bite was too little, too late. Cruz humiliated himself on TV in front of his political base.

I was left wondering yet again how this guy got elected to the U.S. Senate twice and was runner-up in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. I wonder how people can keep voting for him. He’s an opportunistic hypocrite posing as a tough guy – certainly not the kind of person I want to represent me in Congress. We would have done better electing Dumbo.

McCann is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. He is a retired journalist and may be reached at Easywriter12345@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Opinion: Ted Cruz is Texas poster boy for today’s GOP