Senators are powerful and have influence. Presumably the Senate is not going vote on emergency legislation to aid Texas, and it wouldn't help in the next few days if they did, but there's potentially more to the job than "shitposting," "pretending you are being useful on Teevee, "encouraging a violent mob to murder your colleagues," and "voting for stuff."The fact that people think Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, can do anything about a state power grid, even his own, is rather demonstrative of the ignorance of so many people who cover politics. They’d rather performative drama than substance.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 18, 2021
You can get on the phone and scream at FEMA, "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE GENERATORS YOU PROMISED???" For example. Stuff like that. Maybe no direct powers, but when the senator or a member of his staff is on the phone, you pick it up and take the call.
I bet even Joe the Biden would take a call from the Zodiac Killer and say, "hey, man, tell us what you need, we'll do what we can." Not because Biden is awesome or all powerful, but because that's part of his job even if after 4 years of Trump nobody remembers that.
But aside from being lazy and indifferent, Ted Cruz has no idea. He woudn't know what to ask for. No clue about what his state needs, what the Feds could provide, or even businesses if he called them up and asked nicely. Get the local generator distributor hooked up with the local trucking company. Whatever, I don't know either, I'm not a US senator.
There are consequences of electing people who don't just have bad ideology and bad policies, but who have no clue and do not give a shit at all.