Beto and AOC are Good People - Ted Cruz, Not so Much

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

If the United States Senate gave a "Dumbass of the Week" award, Ted Cruz would no doubt be a regular contender for the honor, but last week he would have won it hands-down!  Last week while Texas was suffering from snow, freezing temperatures, and power outages, Senator Cruz thought it would be a fine time to gather up the wife and kiddies and fly to a resort in the sun-drenched seaside city of Cancun, Mexico.   Poor naive Ted didn't see anything wrong with his quickie vacation until he was in the air, heading south, and suddenly began seeing pictures of himself and his luggage on social media and having his name trending on Twitter.  By the time his plane touched down in Cancun, he had decided that perhaps he would be wise to head back home.

But by the time Teddy made his way back to Houston the next day, it was already too late.  Permanent political damage had been done.  He was a laughing stock on social media, and plenty of Texans were good and pissed.  A member of Ted's staff had leaked information about the senator's trip to the press, and now neighbors were also sharing his wife's vacation texts with members of the Fourth Estate.    Protestors were gathered on the front lawn of his nice home in Houston, and someone even had the brass (pun intended) to hire a mariachi band to show up at the senator's residence and give an impromptu concert.  All that was missing were the taco trucks!

Teddy Boy went into full damage-control mode.  He had a photographer snap his picture as he loaded, completely by himeself, a case of bottled water into the back of a very nice SUV - in a parking lot that appeared to be almost completely empty.  And while that photo-op was undoubtedly intended to show Ted doing his bit for the relief effort, it could just as easily have been a snapshot of him doing his own personal shopping.

Meanwhile, in a less-advantaged part of Houston, New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several prominent Texas Democrats had their sleeves rolled up and were working the lines at a Texas food bank - real relief efforts with real people who had been seriously impacted by the statewide weather and energy disaster.  Not only was AOC, a person often vilified by conservative Republicans such as Cruz, working to directly connect Texans with life-saving food, she had also raised nearly five million dollars in donations for several Texas relief organizations.

And meanwhile, on the other side of the state in El Paso, Beto O'Rourke, the young dynamo who almost beat Cruz in the senate race two years ago, was also hard at work providing care to his fellow Texans.  Beto was working to connect people with warming centers and to get the homeless off of the streets.  He also created an internet relief effort that raised more than $1.4 million, and he was seen loading water onto trucks for distribution to poor households in the Rio Grande Valley.  There was even one report that he had personally driven an SUV loaded with bottled water more than eight hours from the El Paso area to people in need living in Austin.

Everywhere poor Ted Cruz turned he bumped into contrasting realities - and they were spectacular.  Others were energized, focused, raising money, and saving lives with actual on-the-ground hard work, and then there was Ted, bumbling around, trying to seem relevant in a world gone mad with caring and sincerity.  

Ted just not fit in.

So he went back to Washington where he could do his Senate thing - and yesterday his Senate thing was questioning people about why police efforts to protect the Capitol failed during the riots of January 6th, riots that he helped instigate.

Beto O'Rourke is the future of Texas, and Alexandria Occasion-Cortez is the future of Congress.  Both are focused on the needs of people and getting things done.  They represent the strength and ideals of our nation.    Ted Cruz, on the other hand, and people of his stripe represent themselves and focus on meeting their own needs.  

As sentient human beings with at least a modicum of free will, there are always choices we can make.  We can choose to do our bit to feed, clothe, and shelter those in need, or we can fly off to Cancun.  Our choices define us and inform the world as to who we are.

Beto O'Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are good people.  Ted Cruz, not so much.