George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924. As a young child, Bush’s parents, Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush, moved the family to Greenwich, Connecticut where his father became extraordinarily successful working as an investment banker. After years of meddling in Greenwich politics, Prescott was elected as a Republican senator from Connecticut and served from 1952 until 1963.
As a teenager, H.W. Bush was sent to boarding school in Massachusetts at the esteemed Phillips Academy Andover. After graduating, H.W. Bush enlisted in the United States Navy and served during World War II from 1942 until September 1945. While in the Navy, H.W. Bush became married to Barbara Pierce of Rye, New York.
Following his discharge from the Navy, H.W. Bush finished his education at Yale where he earned a degree in economics and graduated in 1948. Between 1946 and 1959, H.W. Bush and Pierce would have six children - including a future president and a future governor.
Following his graduation from Yale, H.W. Bush moved his new and growing family to Texas, which he saw as the land of limitless opportunity. At the time, Texas had a population of 7.6 million people and was the sixth most populous state following New York, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Ohio. Politically, Texas was a deep blue state. In the 1948 presidential election, Texas voted for Democrat Harry Truman over Republican Thomas Dewey, 65% to 25%. Texas had an extremely popular Democratic Governor, Beauford Halbert Jester, and two Democratic Senators; the newly elected Lyndon Johnson and Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.
Following in his father’s footsteps, H.W. Bush entered politics and worked to grow the diminutive Republican Party in Texas. In 1963, he was elected chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County, where Houston is located. After running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1964, H.W. Bush was elected to the U.S. House in 1966 and served two terms. H.W. Bush would go on to serve in many high level positions in the federal government, including Ambassador to the United Nations and Director of the CIA.
In 1980, Republican presidential nominee, Ronald Reagan, chose H.W. Bush as his running mate. Not only did the Regan-Bush ticket flip Texas from blue to red, but they defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter and captured the White House. Through the present day, Texas has remained a red state and has consistently voted for the Republican nominee for President. Texas voted H.W. Bush into the White House in 1988 and supported his losing reelection campaign in 1992. In 2000 and 2004, Texas would support George W. Bush in his winning campaign for the White House and successful reelection bid. Most recently, in 2014, George P. Bush, the grandson of H.W. Bush and the nephew of W. Bush was elected Texas Land Commissioner.
The rise of the Bush political dynasty in Texas mirrors the exponential population growth of the state and its transformation from a reliably blue state to a deep red state.
In 1963, when H.W. Bush was elected chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County, Texas had around 10 million people and was the fifth most populous state. Texas had a Democratic Governor and was represented in Washington by a Democrat and Republican in the U.S. Senate.
By 1988, when H.W. Bush was elected President, Texas had over 16 million people and was the third most populous state. Texas had now elected a Republican Governor and was still represented in D.C by a Democrat and Republican U.S. Senator.
In 2004, when W. Bush was reelected President, Texas had over 22 million people and was the second most populous state - behind only California. At this point, three years into the twenty-first century, the Republican takeover of Texas was complete. Texas had a Republican Governor and two Republican U.S. Senators.
As the population of Texas exploded by 120% between the 1960s and 2000s, the size of several other heavily populated states saw their residency level off. Between 1963 and 2004, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio each saw their population grow by under 35%.
The sheer size of Texas’s population might lead one to conclude that there would be a cornucopia of talent to hold public office in the state. For many years, this was indeed true. Texas was the second state to elect a female governor in 1925, and one of only a handful of states that has elected more than one female governor. In addition, one Texas Governor, W. Bush, one Texas U.S. Senator, Lyndon Johnson, and one Texas Congressman, H.W. Bush, have gone on to be elected President of the United States.
Unfortunately, as of late, the political leadership in Texas has left much to be desired. While the competition is stiff amongst the political class in Texas, perhaps the biggest offender of human decency in the Lone Star State is Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz.
Cruz served as Texas Solicitor General from 2003 to 2008 after being appointed by then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. In 2012, Cruz was first elected to the U.S. Senate after defeating his democratic opponent by over 16 points. Following a losing presidential campaign in 2016, Senator Cruz ran for reelection in Texas. To the surprise of many political observers, Cruz faced an extremely tough race. On Election Day, Cruz defeated his Democrat opponent, Beto O'Rourke, by a margin of 50.9% to 48.3%, the closest U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1978. For context, O'Rourke fell roughly 220,000 votes short, out of 8.3 million cast, of unseating Cruz.
Why was Cruz almost defeated in a state that overwhelmingly voted for him in 2012 and voted for the Republican Presidential nominee by almost 10 points in 2016 and over 5 points in 2020? The Senator is a uniquely despicable person who should never have entered public service. And while it is true that O'Rourke is charismatic, tall and handsome, looks and rhetoric alone do not allow Democrats to almost pick up a Senate seat in Texas.
Many Americans, outside of the sovereign state of Texas, were first introduced to Senator Cruz during his ill fated run for president in 2016. Despite leading in the polls for the GOP nomination for president, then-candidate Donald Trump launched a series of assaults against not just his opponent, Senator Cruz, but the Senator’s wife, Heidi.
Trump began his attacks on Heidi Cruz by tweeting that, “Lyin' Ted” should “be careful” or, “I will spill the beans on your wife!” What these supposed “beans” were, was never very clear. Cruz responded on Twitter saying that if Trump attacked his wife, Trump was a “coward.”
The next day, Trump retweeted an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife, next to a picture of his wife, Melania, with the caption, "No need to 'spill the beans.' The images are worth a thousand words." Cruz retorted with a relatively passive tweet writing, “Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life.” When asked about the twitter exchange with Trump, Cruz told reporters, “Donald, you're a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone."
As you might expect, Trump did not stop his attacks on the Cruz family. Facing a must-win primary in Indiana, Trump told the fine people at Fox News that Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump told Fox. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don't even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it,” Trump said. Adding, “I mean, what was he doing ... with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible."
For the record, there is no evidence that Cruz’s father had anything to do with the JFK assassination or ever met Lee Harvey Oswald. Cruz responded to Trump’s latest salvo saying, “Let's be clear: this is nuts. This is not a reasonable position. This is just kooky. And while I'm at it, I guess I should go ahead and admit that my dad killed JFK, he is secretly Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard.”
In addition to slandering Cruz family members, Trump decided to go after the Senator’s faith. Following Senator Cruz’s attacks on Trump’s very questionable business practices, Trump tweeted, "How can Ted Cruz be an evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?"
While campaigning in the evangelical-rich state of Iowa, Trump questioned how a Cuban American, such as Cruz, could possibly be an evangelical. "To the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, okay?" Trump said at a rally. "Just remember that, okay? Just remember."
It is not surprising that campaigns for the presidency get heated, or that Trump viciously attacked anyone, and everyone, that stood in his way of winning the White House. Trump’s vulgarity, viciousness and cruelty was well known, and documented, long before he ever ran for public office. However, it remains rather shocking that a United States Senator, from the second most populous state in the nation, would suckup and bow down to his attacker, even if that man became President of the United States.
After Trump was elected President, Senator Cruz did everything in his power to defend the lawless president and pander him. In 2018, Senator Cruz penned a glowing profile of President Trump for Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.
“President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature,” Senator Cruz wrote. “President Trump is doing what he was elected to do: disrupt the status quo. That scares the heck out of those who have controlled Washington for decades, but for millions of Americans, their confusion is great fun to watch,” the Senator continued.
Following President Trump’s first impeachment, Senator Cruz played a critical role in securing Trump’s acquittal during his Senate trial. Cruz acted as Trump de facto, supplemental defense counsel, while also serving as a juror. Cruz was the genius who advised Trump’s defense team to argue that Trump’s interest in Biden family business dealings in Ukraine was indeed legitimate.
Following the advice of Senator Cruz, Trump’s defense team argued that President Trump "did absolutely nothing wrong," by withholding aid to Ukraine until they conducted an investigation into the Bidens. Trump, they claimed, was not seeking a political advantage, but simply working to root out corruption in Ukraine. Following months of impeachment proceedings, President Trump was acquitted on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress. Only one Republican Senator, Mitt Romeny, broke with the GOP, and voted to convict Trump on the first charge. All Senate Democrats found the president guilty on both charges.
Senator Cruz would astonishingly again come to the aid of his newfound brethren following President Trump losing reelection. After four long, tense days of ballot counting, Joe Biden was declared the next President of the United States on November 7, 2020. Immediately following the call, Trump began promoting a series of falsehoods about voting problems throughout the country and insisting that the election was stolen from him. Helping to promote the fictitious and fanciful claim that the election was stolen was none other than Senator Cruz.
Appearing on Fox News with Conspirator in Chief Maria Bartiromo, Senator Cruz said, “We’ve seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud and that’s produced a deep, deep distrust of our democratic process across the country. I think we in Congress have an obligation to do something about that.”
When it came time to certify the electoral college votes, Cruz, along with a handful of other Republican senators, voted to overturn the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. At least four additional Republican senators who planned to reject the election results, changed their mind, after the U.S. Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters chanting, “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!”
Cruz’s embrace of a man who viciously insulted his wife and tried to implicate his father in the assassination of an actually beloved President, is quite jarring for anyone who has even an ounce of dignity and self respect. Yet, the length to which Senator Cruz will go to debase himself only continues.
Texans are well prepared for hurricanes and heat waves, but snowstorms and freezing temperatures are another matter. In February, Texas was hit by an unprecedented winter storm that blanked the state in snow and ice and brought single-degree temperatures for days. The storm left over 4 million Texans without power and nearly half the state experiencing water disruptions. In total, over 30 Texans would die as a result of the storm. Governor Abbott mobilized the state’s National Guard to conduct welfare checks and bring people to warning centers across the state.
As Texas was dealing with the fallout from the storm, Texas Senator Ted Cruz was boarding a flight with his family from Houston to Cancún. Text messages revealed that the Cruz family was headed to the Ritz Carlton with their friends to escape their “freezing” homes. Oh, if only all Texans could escape the cold for a luxury resort south of the border on moments notice. As the Cruzes were away, the conditions in Texas got so severe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had to be activated to help send support to the Lone Star State.
After being caught on camera abandoning his constituents, Cruz booked the next flight back to Texas and returned almost 24 hours after he departed. Controversy over? Nope. Trying to explain why he had deserted his state instead of perhaps coordinating relief efforts or searching for missing seniors left without power, Senator Cruz blamed his children for wanting to go to Mexico.
“Like millions of Texans, our family lost heat and power too,” Cruz wrote. “With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas.”
Even if it is true that the Senator’s pre-teen children wanted to go to the Ritz in Mexico during the winter storm, shouldn’t a good parent know not to blame their children in an effort to address a public relations nightmare? Also, apparently, the Senator needs to be reminded that children have parents because they are not always right. It is the job of parents to teach their children to help others in times of need and not abandon those who are suffering for a quick trip to Mexico.
Unfortunately for his family and the people of Texas, Senator Cruz is as craven as they come. Not only does the Senator not care about defending the honor of his wife, his father, his children and his God, the Senator does not care about his constituents. Public service is supposed to be about improving the lives of others. Senator Cruz has shown time and time again that he does not care about anyone, with the possible exception of himself, but I am not even sure about that. The over 29 million people of the great state of Texas deserve to be represented in the Senate by someone who cares about their livelihood. Texans should not have to wonder whether their senator will abandon them in times of need and question if their senator will grovel before a sexist, racist and lawless bully.
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