Indeed I have many Texan friends, and they are gloriously piling onto Sen. Cruz. I've even seen reporting that one of his wife's friends showed the text message exchange with Heidi Cruz in which they planned the trip as a spur-of-the-moment thing, giving the lie to the Senator's claims once he was caught.
I don't feel bad for Heidi Cruz: she's a powerhouse in finance and (in her own right) became a partner at Goldman Sachs. She should have the skillset to keep her personal business restricted to trustworthy people. She also is capable of earning $millions in a year, so if she doesn't want to suffer through a week without power, I cannot blame her.
Yes. One of Heidi Cruz's friends released the private group text to the media and outed Ted's lies. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/539528-heidi-cruz-says-family-went-to-cancun-because-of-freezing-house-in-texts-nyt
Do we seriously think that anything will happen to Fled Cruz? It seems that all he will need to do is rant about socialism, say "Don't Mess with Texas" a bunch of times, bitch about liberals, and fire up a new batch of exceptionalist/secessionist/libertarian/bootstrap rhetoric. It seems to be working for Gov. Abbott. Their constituents are literally freezing to death and running out of water, but I suspect this will roll right off of them. They're Republicans in Texas. Memories are short, and this will be forgotten by the 2022 election (when presumably Abbott will be on the ballot) if they complain enough about voter fraud.
(I'm very cynical and disgusted by Republicans today and am incapable of being objective.)
I feel you. Unfortunately, I think the people that are (most) freezing/without water/power are not the same ones that will decide if there are any consequences for him before his next election, and maybe not then either.
I think there are 3 groups. Those that aren't suffering as much as others through this and are sticking with their partisan lines (mostly Republicans, because it's TX), those who are suffering and would hold him (and others) accountable but don't hold the political power to do so and those who are suffering but don't care about holding him (and others) accountable, probably for a combination of reasons (because of course, socialism is way worse, lack of trust in democracy - that you get rid of this asshole and just get another asshole and nothing ever changes, etc.).
If someone could harness the power of the liberal portion of group 1 with group 2 and engage group 3 enough over time, maybe something would change. And there are groups working on it. It's probably still years away, like Stacey Abrams' work was a decade in the making. The Texas Organizing Project, two of the leaders of whom have been compared to Stacey Abrams, is doing good work. See:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-georgia-elections-democrats/. It's a long battle though.