Storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the rioters sought to subvert the democracy they claimed to be defending. And perhaps, given the prevalence of misinformation and the persistence of the Big Lie, they really believed this.
But they were not alone. They had enablers.
President Donald Trump, who now says he wishes he had marched to the Capitol with the insurrectionists, was the main instigator, lying about a stolen election.
But he, too, had help, lieutenants who assisted publicly and privately.
This brings us to Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas who embodies one of the most troubling ironies of this polarized era: Sometimes, the biggest enemies of democracy are those who should be its stoutest defenders.
As a U.S. senator, Cruz had a sacred duty to uphold the Constitution. As a Harvard law graduate, he had the expertise to speak up for democracy.
But according to a recent bombshell story from the Washington Post, Cruz instead worked behind the scenes to help Trump overturn the election.
The Post recently recounted a key piece of dialogue in the conspiracy:
“‘Would you be willing to argue the case?’ Trump asked Cruz, as the senator later recalled it.
“‘Sure, I’d be happy to’ if the court granted a hearing, Cruz said he responded.”
An aside: “The case,” of course, was indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid to overturn the election, which has only resulted in Texas State Bar complaints. Paxton may lose his law license for filing the frivolous suit, and Texans are paying for his defense.
For Cruz, though, that telephone conversation set in motion a series of efforts to deny Joe Biden victory at the polls.
Spurred by these findings, the House Jan. 6 committee is trying to determine if Cruz and John Eastman, a friend and fellow attorney, were working in concert to benefit Trump.
What is self-evident is that the two men followed remarkably similar paths to achieve the same end.
Both men clerked for then-U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, and both men crafted plans in which Vice President Mike Pence would decertify the Electoral College results. Again, from the Washington Post:
“‘It was a very dangerous proposal, and, you know, could very easily have put us into territory where we got to the inauguration and there was not a president,’ Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a committee member, said earlier this year on the podcast ‘Honestly.’
“‘And I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.’”
Without these machinations behind the scenes, the Jan. 6 revolt never would have happened.
In a statement to the Post, Luttig said Jan. 6 “was all but foreordained, because Cruz was the most influential figure in the Congress willing to force a vote on Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.”
These sad episodes reflect the real tragedy of the attack on the Capitol. The former president may have been the instigator, but the assault would have been impossible without his enablers. They all conspired to shred the Constitution.
That they failed is a credit to the document they sought to undermine. The Founding Fathers, aware of the dangers embodied in a centralized government, created a system with three co-equal branches. It was that dynamic that, in the end, saved our democracy.
Cruz should remember that he won his Senate seat fair and square. Nobody tried to steal his votes. His victories were victories of democracy.
San Antonio Express-News
