The following is a piece of opinion and analysis.
Judging by the sounds emanating from the Texas GOP after the New York City mayoral election, one would think Zohran Mamdani magically shut down every barbecue joint in the Lone Star State and ordered cable carriers here to cancel reruns of Walker Texas Ranger.
Take Gov. Greg Abbott, who fired off a tweet Wednesday portraying the win by Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a threat to free enterprise itself.
“The battle lines between capitalism and socialism were clearly drawn last night,” Abbott declared. “We will secure capitalism for the future of our country and deny the expansion of socialism that is creeping across the US.”
The MAGA-acolyte governor even suggested Texas would be the key bulwark in the coming fight, calling our state the “unrivaled HQ for capitalism in the U.S.”
Drama much, Greg?
And then there are U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy — the Tweedledum and Tweedledummer of Texas right-wing politics. Both of these bloviating buttheads have leaned into unfounded claims that Mamdani, the first Muslim elected New York mayor, is an Islamist radical intent on toppling Western Civilization.
In a series of tweets that began in June, Cruz has hyperventilated over the prospect of a Mamdani win, smearing the then-candidate with Islamophobic slurs and encouraging New Yorkers to flee to Texas.
“To all my friends in New York who are not communists; come to Texas! We love freedom & we’re not nuts,” the senator urged in one tweet.
Cruz ratcheted up the anti-Muslim fervor even further the night before the election, sharing a meme depicting a voter deciding between two ballot choices.
The first option, an apparent reference to chief Mamdani rival Andrew Cuomo reads: “A Democrat. Just a Democrat.” The second, obviously meant to represent Mamdani, reads: “An actual communist jihadist. A literal Karl Marx-quoting, America-hating jihadist.”
It’s hard to imagine how “fellow” jihadis would reconcile Mamdani’s fervent support of LGBTQ+ rights, but Cruz has never been one to let the facts get the way of a good ol’ stack-the-bullshit-high Texas tall tale.
Not to be outdone in the anti-Muslim hysteria department, Roy last month shared an op-ed with right-wing website The Federalist tagged with the provocative-yet-absurd headline “Mamdani’s rise signals the Islamic revolution remaking the United States.”
Yes, that’s the same The Federalist that came under fire for peddling pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and utter falsehoods about public health recommendations made during the COVID-19 pandemic. And also the same The Federalist that’s recycled debunked claims about the 2020 election being stolen.
Here’s a spoiler about Roy’s op-ed: it maintains The Federalist’s high standard of fact-free reporting. In the piece, Roy claims without proof that Mamdani’s pro-immigration stance is actually a disguise for his ultimate agenda of bringing “Islamic cultural revolution” to the U.S.
Let’s put aside the pearl clutching for a moment and get to reality: Abbott, Cruz and Roy don’t believe any of this shit. They’re educated men who understand how politics and the law work, and they’re fully goddamn aware the United States isn’t teetering toward Leninism or sharia law.
Like other Republican politicos who have hitched their political fate to President Donald Trump, they’re scared shitless right now.
Not of a 34-year-old New York politician with an infectious smile and an understanding that voters are struggling with the rising cost of living. Instead, they’re terrified that voters have woken up to the fact that their party and the increasingly unpopular president to which its tethered itself haven’t done jack shit to remedy the economic pain of ordinary Americans.
Shortly before launching into another anti-Mamdani screed on Fox News Wednesday night, Cruz took a rare moment to share a truthful statement about the dire straits in which he and other Republicans now find themselves.
“Look, last night was a disaster. It was an electoral blowout,” the senator said of Tuesday’s broader election outcome. “The results in New Jersey were disastrous, the results in Virginia were terrible.”
That moment aside, no one’s ever accused Cruz — much less Abbott or Roy — of being good at self reflection. As the midterms grow closer, expect to see all three to continue holding up Mamdani as a convenient distraction.
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