The Man Who Holds Trump’s Jacket

It’s often a good idea to let things go, but one of my flaws is that I struggle to move on sometimes. I’m not talking about my impeccable memory, I’m talking about my emotional vexation. I gave it a few weeks and I still can’t let this go, so forgive me for this tiny rant. Ted Cruz, the conniving Cancún humbug, the filthy fraudster, the vulgar vexing ventriloquist for fascism, demonstrated once again his absolute contempt for everyone who votes for him. During a Senate hearing a few weeks ago, Cruz pestered the Secretary of Homeland Security about the “crisis” at the southern border; he took out a graph showing Border Patrol encounters, pointed to it, and said, (I paraphrase) “look how many more people are coming across on your watch!”  By definition, these were people C.B.P. “encountered,” stopped in other words. He thinks his supporters are so completely stone-cold dumb, he can just bring up a graph that disproves his own talking point and his supporters will be too stupid to understand something elementary students would find mundane. Every time he opens that hole under his nose, we see how low he thinks of his constituency if he thinks they’re that gullible. I don’t know what enrages me more, the insulting, loathsome contempt this hump has for human beings, or that he’s right. He can literally bring up a graph I would use to refute his abject nonsense, say it proves his point, and none of his supporters, not a single one, will ever hear about it, realize it, or remotely understand or give a flying fuck (pardon the language). Also worth noting is that the reason the U.S. sees so much immigration from South America, is because people are fleeing from conditions we created. As much as I loathe his voters I still, believe it or not, have more affection for them than that contemptible globule of dung can muster for his own wife. I want them, like everyone, to have healthy and prosperous lives, something they’d like Mexicans and trans-people not to have. Ted Cruz, the sniveling obsequies little coward, campaigned for Donald Trump after the pumpkin perp insulted his wife’s appearance. He refused to endorse Trump at the R.N.C. because, he said, “history isn’t kind to the man who holds Mussolini’s jacket.” But the Republican Party’s base was being taken over by alt-right demagogues and theocrats, playing to the deep-seated fears of their obscurantist base, forcing the incumbents to follow or get replaced. Even arch-conservative Republicans like Mark Sanford weren’t safe. So Cruz swallowed what little was left of his pride and debased himself for the man whom he had called “a pathological liar.” He sacrificed his character and integrity on the altar of self-interest. Of course, he was far from the only one, so it might be wrong to single him out. But I’ve been tired lately so the writing is going slow, and today I just had this urge to lament and opine on the sorry state of this man’s moral fortitude. Whew…