Why conservative politics are dying

If you haven’t heard about it by now, frankly, I would be shocked: Texas has had some pretty bad weather. Reports have come out about a lack of water and heating. People are dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. There are statewide power outages.

Naturally, in times of great need, we look towards our leaders and ask them—in return for electing them—to lead us and do their part by helping their constituents.

My research has suggested that these storms are a result of two massive winter stormed that rolled through on Feb. 10 through 13. Now, I am no meteorologist, nor am I a politician; however, my watch says as I write this that the day is Feb. 25. That means some of our fellow Americans in the south have been without the means to survive for 17 days.

A problem like this requires all hands on deck. Congressmen, governors, state officials—all of them should be making solving this issue a top priority. So what have our elected officials been doing?

Well, Ted Cruz was rather infamously spotted flying to and partying it up in Cancun, Mexico; while traveling to Mexico he was improperly wearing a mask, during a pandemic, with his state facing record-breaking extreme weather. I am not going to waste your time, or mine, explaining why this behavior is inappropriate, I assume that nearly 12 months into a pandemic the issues inherent here should be obvious.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Congressmen and women have been doing more for aiding the people of Texas than their own representative, Ted Cruz. Notably, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised several million dollars for Texas, which is insane when you realize that AOC represents New York, not Texas. A non-Texan representative was doing more for Texas than any other Texan-official.

There have also been several other issues that have come to public attention as a result of the extreme situation in the south. For a reason unbeknownst to me, ERCOT, or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, has a board filled with many members who are not Texas natives.

Furthermore, dozens have died as a result of ERCOT’s mishandling of this disaster. They have been upping the prices as a result of the emergency, which is called price gouging (and is fairly illegal, if you were wondering).

One energy company has gone bankrupt because they refuse to pass-on a billion-dollar bill from ERCOT onto consumers. And still, the CEO of the energy supplier said, “I don’t believe I would do anything differently, despite deaths,” as reported by Independent News.

And where was Ted Cruz during all of this? In Mexico. This scandal represents everything wrong with conservatism in America. Cruz acts exactly how Democrats in the capital and all over the country expect Republicans to act. He furthered and justified the stereotype that Republicans don’t care about their constituents.

A Pew research study reported that both sides of the aisle—Republicans and Democrats—view each other as immoral, close-minded, lazy and unintelligent. Republicans are more likely to see Democrats as lazy and immoral. Democrats are more likely to see Republicans as close-minded and unintelligent.

Cruz made an unintelligent, immoral and lazy decision. There is a time for a loose government approach, and a natural disaster is not one of those times. Republicans are consistently electing foolish leaders that present a bad image for the Republican Party, including Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

When you think of a Republican, most think of a gun-toting, Trump-loving American who doesn’t actually care what is best for all of America. If Republicans can’t get their public image under control, they’re not going to make it much longer.

In reality, most Americans agree something must be done about issues like gun violence, even if they have different approaches to addressing that issue. The majority are asking for government involvement on these issues.

To understand that the majority often stand in opposition to some Republican policies and politicians, look no further than Trump, who had a poor approval rating throughout his entire presidency.

Republicans need to find a way to re-appeal to the masses or the modern Republican is going to die out.

If a man who has been impeached twice is the best possible candidate we can find to represent the Republican party, we’re in trouble. If the best Texan we can find to be in congress is a man who abandoned ship when his people desperately needed him, we’ve seen how Texas has been in trouble too.