Fill in the blank with something better.
I apologize for my silence since last Wednesday. Several of you reached out to me prior to Wednesday expressing your frustration with Ted Cruz over his objection to the electoral college vote. For those of you who don’t know why anyone would reach out to me about that, it is because I was classmates with Ted at Princeton. I first met Ted in the summer before we headed off to college 1,600 miles away from our hometown of Houston, TX. That means that I have had the opportunity to know not just the politician, but the man. I can honestly say that I have found Ted to be frustrating from the moment that I met him, and I certainly felt that frustration going into last Wednesday.
Then January 6th came. The only thing that I really found shocking about the “insurrection” was that anyone was shocked. Indeed as I have pointed out recently on this page, it is difficult to imagine anything other than Civil War based on how divided this country is. Anyone with a pulse on the ground should know this. Anyone who didn’t know that Trump was planning a coup simply wasn’t listening to him. Many still aren’t. And rest assured, I am sorry to have to point out that this is far from over. Not that I want this to devolve into Civil War. I don’t. I would prefer that we figure it out. I would prefer we evolve, together. But it isn’t going to be easy. Given where we are, this is going to be quite hard.
It is hard to know even where to begin. Those of us who spent the first four years of our adult lives with Ted have been internally debating what our role should be. Those discussions have been civil, intelligent, deep. We don’t all agree, just like the rest of America. But somehow our ability to even have the discussion without devolving into hate has been one of the most encouraging things that I have experienced in this last week. In the meantime, well over 400 members (and counting) of our class have signed a petition condemning Ted’s decision to, in our minds, spread a lie for his own political gain and incite the events of Wednesday in the process. I am among them. You can read the full statement here:
I feel it is extremely important that we each speak our truth. I further feel that it is important that we each always and forever seek deeper truths, admitting that our individual and even collective perspectives are always limited. With this in mind, my analysis is that these three steps will lead toward healing:
- Be honest with ourselves and others, by telling our own deepest truths as well as the deepest truth about our history.
- Listen to each other utilizing tools such as Nonviolent Communication.
- Reset our democracy with substantial reforms.
In the name of these first two points, I would like to share with you my response as to why I signed the petition denouncing Ted’s actions. I ask you to respectfully listen as I state my truth. It doesn’t have to be yours, but this is most certainly mine:
As a Texan, a Houstonian, and a Princetonian, I have had to give Ted Cruz a great deal of thought. He was “my” senator for seven years, before my wife and I ultimately decided to leave Texas for her home state of Vermont in 2019 (which I realize Ted may well consider a victory). If you asked me how Ted represented me during that time, I’d have to say that he didn’t. Why would he? I am gay. I am also a progressive. I never voted for him. Nor did I ever agree with him in our preceptorship (small discussion group) on American Political Thought, a course that we both took at Princeton. I believe in transparency. So there you have mine. Why on earth would Ted ever represent me? In his Texas-sized world, I am a minority. I am a minority in Texas politically speaking (although just barely these days). I am further a minority in terms of sexual identity. If you believe the latest statistics, roughly 4% of adults in Texas identify as LGTBQ+. What this amounts to is that at a statewide level, Ted has been politically safe ignoring (voting against) me, my values, and my concerns. Fine. That’s our political system for you. He won the election, after all. (Note: representation by the people who are supposed to represent us is highly lacking on both sides of the aisle.)
Perhaps, then, you can forgive me for letting out a little chuckle when Ted uttered these words on the Senate floor, “Recent polling shows that 39% of Americans believe that the election that just occurred was ‘rigged.’ You may not agree with that, but it is nonetheless the reality for half the country (strange math, but whatever)…. Even if you do not share that conviction…. simply telling the voters to “go jump in a lake, the fact that you have deep concerns is of no moment to us.” The entire time that Ted was my senator, he was in essence telling me to “go jump in a lake.” So, you know what, I did. I moved to a beautiful lake in Vermont!
To unpack what Ted seemed to be saying on this day was that it was important to hear the voice of the minority and stand up for them. But he then justifies his actions by asserting that the minority is by some strange math half the country. Or perhaps more to the point, he is gambling that half of the country believes there was widespread election fraud and will therefore vote for him in 2024. But let me be transparent. I think Ted is being disingenuous. I don’t think he cares what either the majority or the minority of Americans think. I think Ted cares about what he thinks, particularly what he thinks will get him elected President. I am far from alone amongst our Princeton classmates in thinking that Ted is, and has always been, self-serving. It may well be that Ted believes that he is following our school motto of “in the nation’s service.” But I would argue that if so, he is not being honest even with himself.
I would like to take to heart Ted’s comments, both before and after the insurrection, that we need to tone down the rhetoric and instead work on healing the deep divide in this country. I can’t, though, because I have spent way too much of my adult life listening to Ted’s divisive rhetoric that I believe has in no small part led us to said deep divide. Furthermore, I know too well that if we are to understand how January 6th could have happened in the United States, we need to retrace our history. Specifically, we need to get uncomfortably honest about our history. Ready for some Texas history? It was impossible to miss the “Come and Take It” and Confederate flags waving in the mob last Wednesday. It is no accident that a) the “Come and Take It” flag is a favorite of Ted’s, the Texas Tea Party, and the Texas Republican Party or that b) it was being waved side-by-side with the Confederate flag. Now if you are a Texan worth your salt, you know the history of the “Come and Take It” flag, or should I say, you know the official (Anglo-white approved) version that you were fed in your seventh grade history book.
That version tells of how the Texas founders rose against the evil empire of dictator Santa Anna’s Mexico, beginning by refusing to give back the cannon that Mexico had given, loaned, whatever to the colonists to “protect themselves” from Native Americans. The official version says nothing about the completely fabricated disinformation campaign that the Father of Texas, Stephen F. Austin, waged about the Karankawas specifically to justify their extermination (in part by said cannon). Nevermind those pesky Native Americans and the fact that their land was stolen by the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and then the Anglo colonists. Just get rid of them. Problem solved. They were cannibals anyway (note: you really ought to fact check that for yourself). Now as for those dang Mexicans, well they had the nerve to a) require the Anglo colonists to start paying taxes just like everybody else after giving them their first four years for free so that they could get established, b) not allow the Anglos to become the State of Texas because they didn’t yet meet the population requirements like everybody else (is that white privilege I smell?), and c) do the most egregious thing ever- outlaw slavery in 1829 and by 1836 feel it was time for the Anglos to start complying. In case you were wondering where all those Anglo colonists were coming from, they were coming largely from the South… with their slaves in tow. Now I am not saying that Santa Anna wasn’t a bad dude. He was. Even his own people thought so and fought against him. What I am saying is that the history of the Republic of Texas is much more nuanced and complex than the white-washed version that we have sold ourselves and everyone else on. I am also saying that it is way past time to come clean. That starts with honesty. That starts by acknowledging that anytime we wave the “Come and Take It” flag, we cannot divorce it from the fact that it is connected to both genocide and slavery. To paraphrase Lyndsey Graham (Lyndsey Graham of all people!!!), “If you are looking for historical guidance, this (flag) is not the one to pick.” I’m sorry, Texas. I know this is painful, but what we are looking for is on the other side of this great divide.
Ted is a smart person. You are all smart people. I don’t need to connect the dots for any of you. I simply want to use this moment to suggest that if we are serious about healing the divide, then honesty is the way forward. It is o.k. to have been wrong. It is o.k. to admit our mistakes. It is o.k. to let the other sides of the story come out. It is even o.k. to scoot over and allow others to have power. Doing so is not a threat to either our individuality or our democracy. Doing so is the very foundation of democracy, and the more perfect union that we seek. It is time to let go of our old notions of power-over that are based in un-evolved survival instinct. It is time to learn how to do power-with. Because the truth is that evolution was never rooted in competition or survival of the fittest. Evolution has always been based in cooperation. Even the dumb old trees know that (on second thought, I suppose that is why they are so old). If you don’t know what I am talking about, ask an ecologist.
So that is my truth. If you found that hard to read, I would like to share a resource with you that I hope gives all of us hope. Please watch this short film:
If you are interested in bringing this sort of conversation to your community, check out the group behind this movie:
We have to start with honesty. We have to be able to have the hard conversations. I encourage each of you to seek these conversations in your own lives and communities. If you are having trouble imagining how we overcome political gridlock in this country, I refer you to this report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences:
Read through the recommendations, think about how they would transform our government. If that change resonates with you, then tell others, tell your representatives, and get involved.
Finally, what I want to say to Ted after all of these years is this:
“Let go. You don’t have to be right, nor do you have to save this country. You don’t have to win the debate. I get that it feels scary to you, but let the future unfold. Let our country evolve. If you want to call yourself an originalist, then dig deeper. Our Constitution didn’t just drop out of the sky. It emerged in the natural progression of the Western worldview. That being the case, it has a great deal of context. It has precedents. It has history. So if you want to be an originalist, then you have to go back to the founding thoughts upon which the Western worldview was built. If you dig deep enough, you will discover that much of what we once thought to be true about the world is flat out wrong. Our systems are built on fallacies layered upon fallacies. Saying so doesn’t make us unAmerican. It makes us very much American. Because the good news is that we know much better now. We simply have to admit as much. You can do it, Ted. Be a real originalist. Have an original thought. Heed Thomas Jefferson in his assertion that every generation must write the Constitution anew, based on the best knowledge available to them at the time, so as to not bind one generation to another. In the words of Jefferson, “the earth belongs to the living and not to the dead.” It’s going to be o.k., Ted. Change is scary, but what awaits us on the other side of this is better than anything we have experienced before. All you have to do is let go and come along for the ride.”