Thumbs up, down
Cruz in the doghouse after Cancun trip and his dog left at home; Texans help each other.
What a week. As millions of Texans were left in the dark due to a power grid failure caused by a deadly mix of cold weather and poor planning, the Thumbs had to twiddle just to stay warm. We learned a lot while we shivered, including that uninsulated pipes are a Texas standard and that you can still see your breath even if you’re seething. That didn’t keep Texas politicians from doing their darnedest to get us hot under the collar — including by falsely blaming renewable energy sources for the lack of power — but it was former Gov. Rick Perry who really made our blood boil. “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry said. To which Texans answered: Nuh-uh — or whatever they could push through chattering teeth. The problem with blaming potential federal intrusion, or the nonexistent Green New Deal, is that neither caused what happened in Texas. Too much regulation can be needlessly burdensome, but the state’s overly friendly relationship with the energy industry means we hope for the best and fail to prepare for the worst.
Not only that, but when times are sunny and the benefits of a dynamic independent power grid are evident, Texas officials can’t tell the difference between touting and taunting. Twitter had no trouble finding mean-spirited partisan posts from GOP politicians commenting on last year’s California blackouts. “Alexa, show me what happens when you let Democrats control energy policy,” joked U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw. “California’s politicians did this, not the heat,” harangued Attorney General Ken Paxton. “California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” mocked U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Oops. At least Cruz was willing to own up to his behavior, tweeting Tuesday that he had no defense. “A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good. Stay safe!” Wise words. (Thumbs could’ve done without the shrugging emoji, however.)
If only Tuesday Cruz could have advised Wednesday Cruz not only to stay safe, but to stay in Texas. Instead, the state’s junior senator decided it was a brilliant idea to jet off to Cancun with his family. A lot has been written about that appalling choice, but not enough has been said about the Cruzes leaving the family dog behind. Maybe it was just a semantic experiment to prove what a Snowflake’s chances are in a frozen hell, but it was not a good look when journalist Michael Hardy swung by Cruz’s empty house and took a photo of the forlorn pooch. According to Hardy, a security guard said he was taking care of little Snowflake (aww), but that didn’t keep the internet from siccing the ASPCA and PETA on Cruz. Folks on social media had no trouble pointing out hypocrisy and blame-dodging by Texas politicians, but some also had trouble keeping things in perspective. Take singer and actress Bette Midler. We usually worship at the altar of the Divine Miss M, but her comment about the weather being sent from God to punish Cruz and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was anything but heavenly. “If this isn’t payback, I don’t know what is,” she wrote, referencing the senators’ vote in 2017 against a $51 billion Superstorm Sandy relief bill (among other sins). If God did wake up on the old side of the testaments and was in the mood to smite some smug pols, He missed the mark almost as badly as all the Texas Twitter haters who made the seas run red with schadenfreude. Thumbs’ rule of thumb: Save the over-the-top Texas smack-downs for when millions of people aren’t still in danger.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, at the end of the long, dark, frozen, no-drinking-water tunnel that we’ve been through, sit the stories of kindness, community and resilience that we should all celebrate. The kind that can thaw a heart frozen by contempt for those who failed us. There are countless experiences of neighbor checking on neighbor, of strangers lending a hand, of businesses putting people over profit. Take the H-E-B in Leander. When power went out as customers filled the aisles trying to gather needed supplies, the store manager made the call and let everyone walk out with their groceries. “This is the America that I know,” wrote a customer on social media. “Most Americans are still kind, thoughtful, generous and caring.” This week’s crisis has us questioning a lot of things, but the basic human decency of our fellow Texans is not one of them.