Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott Aren’t Leaders. They’re Dealers

How do you picture a junkie?

Do you see a drug-crazed derelict clutching a toilet? Ribs buckled, chest arched, gasps filled with vomit in the hopes of a fix that might not come? Do you see broken, used needles bloodied on the floor? Do you see an addict wrapped in blankets trying to bury their cold flashes?

Do you see desperation? Do you see fear? Do you see death? What do you think you see?

Look again.

Take a look at the young man having to boil snow, makeshift chemistry on the fly, only to dump it down the toilet just so it will flush. Take a look at the single mother, filling a bathtub with snow and ice just to have a handy reservoir in order to scrape the shit out of their infant’s soiled diaper. Listen to her silent prayer for the feces to make it down the toilet only for it remain stagnant, a muddied pillow caked to the porcelain. Watch her try not to throw up because of the stench, but to stay strong in the darkness for her baby.

Picture the diabetic just about out of needles, trapped in their frigid home sans power for a week. Consider the desperation of looking at the needles already used, and knowing they may have to be used again. And again.

Take a look at the elderly widow huddled in blanket after blanket only to have warmth escape through cryonic crevices. Watch the heat escape her body like a Senator from Texas bound for warmer climes. She reaches for her rosary beads, lays down on a refrigerated bed, says a Hail Mary, unsure if these are prayers or last rites.

Do you see desperation? Do you see fear?

Do you see death?

Does it look like Texas? That can’t be Texas, can it? Texas is the proud, boastful king awash in barbecue and beer, filled with wildflowers, and tall tales of gridiron glory. The Lone Star State is the loquacious boaster who can eat all the jalapenos with a pitcher of margaritas, and two-step until the Red River runs dry.

In fact, this is Texas. Gaunt, cold and, quite literally, scared shitless. Tonight, countless Texans are in the dark, in the frigid temperatures, many sitting near feces-filled toilets hoping that leadership will come through.

One small problem, though. Men like Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz are not leaders. They are dealers. They are fear merchants, pushing paranoia over policy, blame over solution.

Texas, like so much of this nation, looked down on drug addicts, not realizing that they were fear junkies themselves. And when people needed a fix, they found out too late that there is no fix.

There never was one.

Texas governor Greg Abbott went on Sean Hannity’s primetime Fox News show Tuesday night, and offered no solutions to the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in his home state.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott remarked. No matter that the Green New Deal proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has absolutely nothing to do with the matter at hand or is even a federally-implemented solution to climate change. Abbott’s chief export isn’t leadership. It’s not ideas. It’s fear. And he spewed forth fear the first chance he got.

Hannity never pressed the governor for details on how Texas was going to solve the issue where the state’s citizens were literally freezing to death. He didn’t need to for two reasons:

1. He’s in the same business. He’s a fear peddler hooking up large swaths of this country with warnings of nefarious liberal plots. Every night at 9 PM Eastern, millions of Americans get their fear fix from him, and then get a second, sanguine bump from Tucker Carlson.
2. Hannity knew good and well that Abbott didn’t have a government-mandated plan. The plan is to let Texas thaw out, let the insurance companies take care of the busted pipes, and all the home damage. He’ll say some thoughts and prayers to the dead, and then everyone will move on because we have COVID-19 to not solve next. This was like Stringer Bell hanging out with Omar Little at an Orioles’ game. A friendly get-together of fellow craftsmen so to speak.

This isn’t new territory for Republican government in crisis. Fear was pretty much the only thing Donald Trump knew well, and he sold like he was from Mitch & Murray in Glengarry Glen Ross.

For a moment, fear sold well and Americans were buying it from Donald Trump like they needed a new Cadillac El Dorado, a set of steak knives or they were fired. But when crisis hit, fear didn’t work anymore. That’s because fear isn’t an idea. It’s not a solution.

When times were good, Americans and their Republican brethren were quick to shoot up with fear. It didn’t matter if they shot up with sharp salvos at their liberal nemesis on a Q-Anon message board or shot up each other at a local Wal-Mart. But when COVID-19 crossed our borders, and infected Americans at an alarming rate, Donald Trump didn’t have an idea on how to stop it.

He had ideas on what to blame or who to blame, but he had no idea on how to solve the crisis. That’s because fear is reactive, not proactive. And this is the issue with Republican policy for the last 20 years.

Put simply, they don’t have any policies. They are simply pushers of an unlimited product that an alarming number of Americans simply cannot get enough of. That’s why Donald Trump blamed the Chinese, or the fake news when COVID-19 struck. That’s why he encouraged people to not wear masks.

To show strength. To not show fear. Fear, not policy, and certainly not science, dictated Trump’s COVID-19 response.

That’s why Greg Abbott blasted the Green New Deal almost immediately when he went on Hannity’s show. He has no idea how to solve this problem other than by letting nature take its inevitable, and occasionally, horrifying course.

And that’s why Ted Cruz left the country. He genuinely doesn’t know how to solve this crisis. He knows how to act like a paranoid demagogue, though. He knows how to instill fear and distrust into the electoral system. He knows how to whip up fear-laden extremists into a frothy lather of hate like he did on January 6.

They know how to manufacture a crisis. But to actually solve one?

Nah.

That takes ideas and solutions. Republicans don’t broker in those. And they haven’t for a long time.

On February 17, 2021, former Senatorial and presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke did what Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz should have done. O’Rourke, along with 150,000 volunteers, made wellness calls to Texas seniors scattered throughout the state.

Read that again.

150,000 volunteers. That’s what leadership looks like. It’s not about placing blame or changing the subject. It’s not about pitting people against one another. It’s organizing a massive number of people for common good. It’s about picking up the phone, and actually getting ideas from the people on what they need, and then putting those plans into motion.

That’s not what Greg Abbott is doing. He’s mugging for Sean Hannity while checking Fox News’ pockets for more product. That’s definitely not what Ted Cruz did. He didn’t come to Texas to help. He didn’t even stay in Washington when his people were in need. He left the country so he couldn’t be reached.

This is the problem when you have no policy, and all you have is fear. Fear is worthless when the buyer overdoses.

When people are struggling to live, what they really need an antidote of hope.