Yesterday, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas posted a lengthy screed in response to this week’s election results, and it is worth reading. He is clearly positioning himself for another presidential run, particularly as the newly elected officials take office and he finds himself the only remaining statewide elected Republican in Texas still holding office.
Cruz’s analysis begins with a reasonably well-considered assessment of what went wrong for the Republican Party in this week’s elections. Unfortunately, as the essay progresses, it takes an abrupt turn into fearmongering, hyperbole, and outright nonsense. His increasingly unhinged comments suggest that he fundamentally misunderstands the lessons his party should be learning from its decisive rejection by voters.
The analysis begins to unravel when Cruz writes:
“We can be certain that the Democrats in Austin and in Washington will overshoot. In Texas, they will try to raise taxes dramatically. They may even try to adopt a state income tax, or even a California wealth tax. They will try to shut down the energy industry, destroying jobs across our state. They will embrace the radical transgender agenda. They will persecute those they perceive to be enemies, especially Elon Musk.”
After considerably more of the same, he concludes:
“But hear me now: we will bring Texas back. I am filled with hope and optimism. Texas will be red again. We have not suddenly become a bunch of tofu-eating, gun-banning, tutu-wearing pinko commie liberals. That ain’t us. Texas is still Texas.
“We will rebuild as a true blue-collar party, not by embracing socialism, but by being real free-market conservatives. The way we built the Texas economic miracle in the first place, and we will build and rebuild America as well.”
Really, Ted? Free-market conservatives?
Under the Republican-led second Trump administration, the United States has cozied up to Russia while betraying allies such as Ukraine, which the United States has committed to support through the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances; and Denmark, whose territory the administration has openly threatened to seize.
At the same time, the federal government has moved toward direct intervention in private enterprise, acquiring equity and quasi-equity stakes in numerous companies, often alongside sole-sourced lucrative government contracts benefiting wealthy political allies. The administration has increasingly abandoned free-market principles in favor of protectionist policies, including tariffs that have imposed significant economic hardship on Americans and our allies.
For all of Cruz’s blustering about socialism and communism, it is the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party, that is embracing government intervention in the economy and abandoning traditional free-market principles.
Today’s Republican Party is one in which free speech appears to be protected only when it supports the current administration. Federal deficits have reached staggering levels. Military interventions and engagements have cost billions of dollars and put American servicemembers in harm’s way, while the administration has replaced the concept of peace through strength with a newly branded Department of War.
It has replaced the rule of law with apparent immunity from accountability for those who are politically connected or financially useful to the administration. It has replaced individual freedom and constitutional rights with government overreach and disregard for constitutional protections. It has replaced respect for our constitutional framework with open contempt for the Constitution itself. It has spouted endless bluster of the threats from Muslims while accepting a 400 million dollar gift from the Muslim Qatari royal family. It has persecuted and deported countless peaceful people in the US pursuing legal immigration, while at the same time actively helping to bring into the United States a Trump-supporting politician from Brazil illegally fleeing accountability for his alleged criminal actions in his home country.
And for all its talk about being the party of the working class, this administration has demonstrated an extraordinary disregard for blue-collar Americans and the economic challenges they face.
The Republican Party that was once grounded in conservative principles is gone. And Ted Cruz has no genuine interest in bringing it back.
It has been replaced by a party whose guiding principles increasingly appear to be that the wealthy should not have to pay their fair share of taxes and that the wealthiest Americans, provided they remain loyal to the administration, should not be subject to the same laws as everyone else.
Cruz’s screed makes clear that this is precisely the arrangement he wants to preserve. No accountability for political allies like Elon Musk. No meaningful tax burden for himself and his wealthy friends, while the rest of us continue paying our fair share.
He wants to sell Texans a return to traditional conservatism while defending a political movement that has abandoned it.
Ted Cruz can go fuck himself.
- One Step Forward — Big Challenges Ahead for 2028 - November 6, 2026
- Ted Cruz Wants to Bring Back the Republican Party. Which Republican Party Is That? - November 5, 2026
- Crush. Kill. Destroy. - November 3, 2026
I was so disappointed that Cruise immediately jumped to name calling. I thought after the blue wave that we would be spared, if only for a few days. Thanks for your insights, Cliff.