When he's not outrightly obstructing legislation, Cruz is usually playing politics, whether that be forcing colleagues to vote a germane abortion amendment at 2:30 am when trying to close the budget, or attacking Mitch McConnell to the press. Cruz's self-proclaimed "maverick" tendencies have left him with little to no allies in the Senate. Cruz has had difficulty calling for roll-call votes in the past, with not one member of his party helping him as a sufficient second.
Cruz often puts publicity over substance when it comes to advertising himself. The Senator has been known to skip committee meetings debating his own bills, like his bill that sought to grant the president power to strip people who associate with terrorist groups of their citizenship. Instead of coming to the Judiciary Committee, he was giving a speech on the contents of his bill to a conservative policy group.
His rhetoric also lacks nuance. As conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks wrote, "But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them." Much of his role as a Senator has been to draw criticism against his enemies (Democrats) and to paint anything not intrinsically conservative as an existential threat to society; in fact, the worst epithet that Cruz can hurl at a colleague is publicly calling them a Democrat.
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