Fresh off weeks of infamy and accusations of sedition in the wake of the January 6 uprising at the Capitol, Ted Cruz, the US senator from Texas, was faced with a crisis in his home state last week: a once-in-a-decade snowy blast that left at least 4m state residents without power or heat in minus 18C temperatures, with some using melted snow to flush their toilets.
Greg Abbott, Texas Republican governor, declared a state of emergency. Beto O’Rourke, the onetime Texas congressman and Democratic presidential candidate, organised a statewide virtual phone bank to check on more than 150,000 elderly residents.
Cruz decided to take the approach extolled by James Taylor: