Ted Cruz — a candidate the Chronicle endorsed in 2012, by the way — is the junior senator from Texas in name only. Exhibiting little interest in addressing the needs of his fellow Texans during his six years in office, he has kept his eyes on a higher prize. He's been running for president since he took the oath of office — more likely since he picked up his class schedule as a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Houston's Second Baptist High School more than three decades ago. For Cruz, public office is a private quest; the needs of his constituents are secondary.
It was the rookie Cruz, riding high after a double-digit win in 2012, who brazenly took the lead in a 2013 federal government shutdown, an exercise in self-aggrandizement that he hoped would lead to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Cruz, instead, undercut the economy, cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion (and inflicted his reading of Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" on an unamused nation). Maybe the senator succeeded in cementing in his obstructionist tea party bona fides, but we don't recall Texans clamoring for such an ill-considered, self-serving stunt.
I'm puzzled how people like Ted Cruz, including specifically Ted Cruz, manage to become a senator. By accounts nobody likes him. He is not charismatic. I get that any asshole with a bit of luck can fall backwards into a House seat, but Texas senator is a pretty big prize. You don't just have to convince a bunch of other assholes to vote for you in the general. That's easy! You have to beat out all of the other people trying to be a Republican senator from Texas. The primary's the thing. How did he get all the way there? I'm sure this could all be explained to me. But I don't care so much about Ted Cruz specifically, just how so many horrible people somehow manage to become US senators. Not just horrible to me, but seemingly just... horrible.