Conciliatory Cruz

The Texas senator sells out his ideals for the sake of party unity — and survival.

What does Ted Cruz see when he looks in the mirror each morning?

A husband and father? A senator? The next president of the United States?

Maybe that last one has been put on hiatus until 2020. But even as Cruz’s political popularity reached its nadir after he refused to endorse Trump at the Republican National Convention, our state’s junior senator could still look in the mirror and see a man who stood up for what he believed.

Now that mirror reflects a new truth about Cruz — he’s just another politician. The golden child of the grassroots has tarnished. Our state’s greatest Republican dissident finally joined Team Trump. We thought he would be a holdout until Election Day.

When his colleagues acquiesced to their new leader, Cruz was not afraid to speak honestly about the reality television show host who had come to control the Grand Old Party.

Trump is “utterly amoral,” a “narcissist,” a “serial philanderer” and a “pathological liar,” Cruz said back in May. Cruz was correct then and he’s correct today.

In July, Cruz made it clear that he wouldn’t put Trump ahead of his own political ideals. He would hold the line against a candidate who had insulted Cruz’s wife and spread lies about his father.

“I care a heck of a lot more about America than I do about any political party,” Cruz told Politico reporter Glenn Thrush. “If the Republican Party stands for individual liberty, if we defend the Bill of Rights, if we stand for keeping this country safe, then we deserve to win, and if we don’t, we deserve to lose.”

Since that time, Trump has run for the White House on a platform that treats individual liberty as an inconvenience and the Constitution as a burden. Nationwide stop-and-frisk doesn’t exactly comport with the Fourth or 14th amendments. Praise for Vladimir Putin doesn’t overlap Jeffersonian ideals.

The real estate scion even sold out the longtime Republican Party platform of free trade and robust international presence. And until this week, Cruz could come back to Texas, look voters in the eye and say that he still prioritized those traditional values over partisan convenience.

The freshman senator never promised to play nice with others. As he’s said: “If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy.”

Instead, he promised to serve as a true right-wing choice instead of merely echoing from Washington.

So what sent Ted over the line? It was supposedly the Supreme Court. Merrick Garland is still waiting for his confirmation hearings before the Senate and the next president will likely have more empty seats to fill. Earlier in the campaign, Trump promised to appoint justices within Cruz’s comfort zone if elected, and Cruz supposedly pressed the matter before getting on board.

Why Cruz takes the word of this “pathological liar” is a mystery. The pro-choice Republican nominee has promised court positions to supporters left and right. He even supposedly added to his short list Peter Thiel, a gay Silicon Valley billionaire who has used his massive wealth to fund lawsuits against publications that aim a harsh eye at the tech industry. Trump’s campaign now denies that claim.

The truth behind Cruz’s change of heart rests lower on the hierarchy of needs — survival. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has his eye on higher office and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul has been floated as a primary challenger. A refusal to fall in line doesn’t exactly earn the goodwill of party higher-ups and funders.

So what does Cruz see in the mirror? Now that he’s on Team Trump, a second-term senator is probably staring back. But the idealistic upstart whom Texans first elected is long gone.