My rip-roaring social life allows me to watch Air Disasters, a program on one of those cable channels skipped over by millions. Each episode analyzes and documents the cause behind the tragic destruction of a plane loaded with human life. Each story revolves around a small thing – a screw, a wire, a microscopic air bubble – that over a period of time went unattended and then went on to trigger a series of regrettable, irreversible events. The screw suddenly pops at the wrong time at the wrong place. A wire long-frayed blows. A microscopic air bubble balloons into disaster. Perhaps the very design of the plane itself lends itself to ruin.
Ted Cruz’ win last night to become the nominee of the Texas Republican Party for the Senate was a hard-earned victory that was a very personal triumph for him. But it speaks more to what Texas Democrats did – or did not do – years ago to avert catastrophe, which is what the 41-year-old Cruz is for them. For years, the decision-makers in the party that once dominated political life in Texas began to commit the mistakes that have now caused a historic crash that will reverberate for decades, yes, decades to come. The beatdown that Cruz gave the incumbent lieutenant governor last night is nothing compared to the beatdown Cruz has given to Texas Democrats who believed that demography alone would bring their state back into the blue column.