Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 4:30am

Exit Ted Cruz: For Now

 

Only Trump knows why he decided to give a prime time slot to Ted Cruz when he knew, based upon an advance copy of his speech, that Cruz would not endorse him.  It might well be a final sign of contempt for a defeated adversary who Trump believes is now harmless.  “Let him say what he wants”, Trump might have thought, “what do I care?”

As for Cruz after the personal attacks that Trump had made against his wife and father, he could not endorse Trump. He plans to run in 2020.  He knows that there are two possible outcomes in the fall.  If Trump loses he will not be associated with what most Republicans will then regard as a mad episode in the history of their party.  If Trump wins, Cruz likely assumes that his Presidency would be a train wreck of epic proportion and that if Trump runs again he will be vulnerable in the 2020 primaries.

This morning Cruz appears to be a Judas to all the pro-Trumpers and to much of the GOP.  To the vanquished Never-Trumpers he is a hero, the champion of conservatism that did not bend the knee to The Donald.  Cruz is playing a long game of chess and he is probably where he precisely planned to be.  Well played Mr. Cruz, well played.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 6:18am

I confess I was for Ted Cruz. Now, I know better.
.
He’s (and the #NeverTrump die-hards are) helping elect Hillary, who will appoint three to four even-more progressive Supreme Court justices.
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Millions of GOP primary voters are (what?) “chopped liver.”
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He pledged to support the duly-constituted nominee and now he refuses. In my book, that’s lying. He’s stabbing all of us in the back.

Exeunt Ted: forever.
.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 6:29am

2020? 2020!!?? Give Hillary four more years of fundamental transformation: And, what of America and our way of life will have survived?
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It don’t mean nothin’.
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After giving Hillary a big assist, #NeverTrump jackasses will tell us that Trump couldn’t have won, even with their assist.
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It don’t mean nothin’. There won’t be anything left.
.

Branch
Branch
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 6:51am

Catholic “Never Trumpers/”I’m not voting!” are paving the way for Hillary. Their pseudo-moral objection to voting is so self-important it makes me sick.

T. Shaw is absolutely right. I have no idea what you Never Trump people are thinking. There will be nothing left by the time Hillary is done and you prigs will have it on your consciences.

Branch
Branch
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 6:52am

What Catholic Never Trumpers are to this election are what open boarders Islam apologists are to Europe.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 8:55am

They welcomed Cruz like it was Palm Sunday. He spoke of principles. By the end of the speech, they were chanting “Crucify him!” Cruz. Genius.
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If Trump is so great and nothing will stop the Trump train (“You’re be sick of winning so much.”), what’s the big deal? If Trump supporters are so confident in their candidate, a call to vote your conscience should not rattle any Trump supporter, unless there is something bothering their conscience. If Trump and supporters want me to vote Trump, you have to have something better than “He’s not Hillary.” Give me affirming reasons.
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Ditto what Donald said.

Brian
Brian
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 9:42am

T.shaw,

I’m a jackass, huh? Sound like a Trump man for sure.

That’s how they treated the runner-up for President, too. And his wife, the almost First Lady. She needed a police escort to exit the building and ensure her safety from these people.

I want no part of it. I will never support a man with character that produces such as that.

And truth be told, you don’t really know WHAT Trump’s policy goodies are that you base so much on. Because he’s never really said Anything more than “It’s going to be great!”

Dante alighieri
Admin
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 9:42am

If Trump is so great and nothing will stop the Trump train (“You’re be sick of winning so much.”), what’s the big deal? If Trump supporters are so confident in their candidate, a call to vote your conscience should not rattle any Trump supporter, unless there is something bothering their conscience. If Trump and supporters want me to vote Trump, you have to have something better than “He’s not Hillary.” Give me affirming reasons.

For the same reason they booed Cruz when he urged Republicans to “vote their conscience.” Why would such a statement elicit boos unless those in attendance were implicitly acknowledging that a vote for Trump was a vote against their conscience? These people feign confidence, but in their heart of hearts they understand they are backing an inept, morally bankrupt, left-wing Democrat who is substantively no different than Hillary Clinton. Thus they are left with mathematically and logically implausible cliches such as “not voting for Trump is the same as voting for Hillary,” as though the Cheetoh Messiah (or any GOP candidate, for that matter) is owed obeisance.

Foxfier
Admin
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 10:44am

If “don’t stay home, vote your conscience, choose who you think will be the best for the constitution” means “don’t vote Trump” to the Trump supporters, why exactly am I supposed to be willing to vote for him?
The guys who SUPPORT THE GUY think he’d be worse for the constitution than Hillary? Whu?
*****
He pledged to support the duly-constituted nominee and now he refuses. In my book, that’s lying. He’s stabbing all of us in the back.
Exeunt Ted: forever.

So you’re a #NeverTrump, then?
He DID publicly announce he wouldn’t keep his pledge, after all, before he won. Far as I’m concerned, that freed anybody else who joined in the deal and was still running from at a minimum supporting him, even before one points out again that support =/= endorse and the Trump supporters are the ones implicitly arguing he’s to be considered worse for the constitution than Hillary.

It was beyond moronic when the Federation ignored that the Romulans were violating their treaty, and bound themselves by it even when dealing with open violations; the stakes here are real, rather than plot points.

Foxfier
Admin
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 10:46am

Cruz acted like someone loyal to the principles of the party, even if that means working with someone you loath.
Trump acted like the party should be loyal to his personal whims.

Alice
Alice
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 10:55am

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2016/07/21/calculated-risk/

Is worth reading. Trump cannot fix what’s wrong with the country. Both he and Hillary are in many ways the object lessons of what needs fixing.

Prudential judgment will have to be used to determine which candidate is most likely to create circumstances that could ever save our nation.

Perhaps admitting the solution will not be political is a start for us Catholics. And admitting what would save Catholicism here in the US isn’t politics.

TomD
TomD
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 11:29am

“Let him say what he wants”, Trump might have thought, “what do I care?”

if so that is a greater degree of magnanimity than the Democrats showed Gov. Bob Casey in 1992.

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 12:00pm

T. Shaw – You’re a liar, your wife is ugly, and your dad killed Kennedy.

I expect a civil reply.

Paul – I’m sure they weren’t angry because their consciences were nagging them. They were angry because that was the spot in the speech where he would have said to vote for Trump, and he conspicuously didn’t.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 12:31pm

Pinky,
The Trump supporters are still angry long after the speech is over and have not properly digested the gift Cruz gave them with “vote your conscience.” That’s what happens when you are consumed with anger; the ability to think is clouded.
I love The Federalist’s comparison of “vote your conscience” to a Rorschach test.
As it turns out, “vote your conscience” wasn’t just a line in a speech. It was a Rorschach test, and the Trump campaign failed miserably.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/07/21/vote-your-conscience-was-a-rorschach-test-and-donald-trumps-campaign-failed/

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 12:38pm

Kyle, I don’t quite agree with the column. It seems like you don’t have to spin it (even though it’s a convention) and you don’t have to take offense at it (even though this is politics). You could ignore it. You could say, yeah, well, we don’t have to agree on everything.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 12:57pm

If Hillary wins, her party will be unleashed to do as much damage as possible to our Constitutional Republic and the rule of law. Obama has done many things that ordinarily would not stand but for the opposition party’s fear of being branded racist. Trump would enjoy no such immunity. He would be tightly restrained. My favored candidate did fail to keep his word. He should have known the meaning of his pledge to support the ultimate nominee. As to Trump’s apparently unforgiveable insults, “Et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris”. I suppose that means I must forgive Ted Cruz, so I do but the bumper sticker has outlived its usefulness and will be removed. Hillaria Delenda Est

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 1:02pm

In order for Cruz to make an effective presidential run in the future he has to learn that when speaking less is more. He gets way too verbose. For example, during the debates he went after Rubio about the Gang of Eight. Great! I too thought the G8 bill was a scam and proved that Rubio is the two faced piece of political excrement I had hitherto thought. But the way Cruz went about it allowed Rubio to spin Cruz’s adding poison pill amendments as support for amnesty. All Cruz would have to have done is ask, “Senator Rubio, would a President Rubio veto a Gang of Eight like piece of legislation should it reach his desk?” And more than likely, Rubio, being true to form, would not have given a straight yes or no answer to that question. To which Cruz could respond ladies and gentlemen the fact that Senator Rubio is not willing to give a yes or no answer to that question tells you that he is not being honest with you. And he still has not disavowed that bill. And then let the mic hit the floor!

Dante alighieri
Reply to  William P. Walsh
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 1:44pm

Can we please get over this ridiculous pledge thing. As outlined below, Trump broke it months ago.
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/07/21/one-ever-vote-someone-broke-pledge-gop/

TLM
TLM
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 1:47pm

Both parties are taking the country to hell. I guess you could compare them to the tortoise and the hare……one is just going to get us there FASTER, and that would be Hillbillery’s party. If this convention didn’t expose the corruption, and diabolic narcissism of both parties and the people that run them to ‘the people’, NOTHING will. Can’t wait to see the Dems’ party of death in action next week.
,

Brian
Brian
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 2:29pm

TLM, Yes. Both parties are taking the country to hell. I am a lifelong 5’decade Republican and Imsay pox on those people. Don’t recognize it any more.

I think Cruz, statesman that he is, recognizes this as the fundamental point. The current Party system (both sides) is played out and we are about to see some real revolutionary (in the strictly political sense) never seen in our lifetimes.

GW Bush worries that he will be the last Republican President. I think that’s possible. I think Trump will lose. And when he does, the Party will never recover from it. Cruz will emerge as the only adult on the stage who knows how to salvage conservative principles instead of compromise them. So many people are yearning for this. And he will do it by forming a “Constitutionalist” political Party. THAT was the point of his speech. Trump is doomed. Cruz is setting the stage for the inevitable next.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 5:32pm

The pledge is kind of a sophomoric idea….especially in a year and a field of contenders like this. I think my two favorites, Santorum and Rubio both took the pledge, but they grimaced a bit when put on the public spot during the “debate”. Neither of them went to the coronation party last. Rubio sent his in, ( and he really is very busy with a very tough contest in Florida. I haven’t head about Santorum’s support yet…. It may be tacit and it may take the form not fighting against Trump.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Thursday, July 21, AD 2016 6:31pm

Perhaps the most significant thing, and easily the most amusing, is Mark Shea putting up an oblique defense of Ted Cruz:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2016/07/exactly.html

Just me
Just me
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 9:15am

Mr. Zummo, If you break a pledge that doesn’t give me the right to break mine. Mr. Cruz knows better he was brought up by a God fearing man who is a preacher. I’m sure Cruz was taught “Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.” I’m sure he is hurting right now,for he is a good man and he broke his word.

Just me
Just me
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 10:36am

I”m not talking about a contract. I’m talking about my word. You are a lawyer you think in contracts, I’m just a mother, Grandmother and a great grandmother and so I think different then you. I just want all my family to be men and women of there word. My grandmother said that is what people will judge you on.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 10:54am

So how do judge Trump then?
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Just curious, since he went back on his word too.

Just me
Just me
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 11:11am

If you are talking to me, Mr. Schreiber, I am judging no one. I just said that’s what my grandmother said and that is what I tried to teach my children and they taught their children and I hope my grandchildren are teaching their children.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 11:14am

I”m not talking about a contract. I’m talking about my word
If you hold contracts to be a different matter than giving your word, that speaks to you, not others.
This isn’t an ancient Irish tragedy; we do not have a geis forcing us to ignore the spirit of the pledge for the words alone.
***
Imagine there are two farmers. Their co-op asks that, as a condition of joining, they state that the guy who gets his stuff bailed first will have everyone else helping him load it.
Months before harvest, when it looks like he’s going to lose, one starts talking about how he’s only going to help folks with their loaded if he likes the guy who gets his stuff bailed. He also starts calling around suggesting that other farmers are bankrupt and won’t pay their bills, so they have trouble getting help. The co-op does nothing.
The one who announced that he wasn’t bound by his agreement manages to get his hay bailed first.
And suddenly the agreement is important, again.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 11:46am

If you are talking to me, Mr. Schreiber, I am judging no one. I just said that’s what my grandmother said[.]
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Spoken like a lawyer.
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So allow me to rephrase: Is Donald Trump a man of his word?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 11:52am

Based on some of the stuff I’ve heard to day, Donald Trump is more interested in making sure Ted Cruz stays beaten than he is in beating Hillary Clinton. I don’t know what that bodes for Donald’s (McClarey, not Trump) November prediction, but it’s an ill-omen for the future of conservatism in the GOP.

Just me
Just me
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 12:10pm

Your not saying to me “Spoken like a lawyer” Please!! That is funny! All of you are so much more educated then I. I am just a very simple old woman from a different time. I just got through high school with very low grades! Y’all have made a mountain out of a mole hill in what I wrote. No I don’t think Mr. Trump is a man of his word. But I don’t think it bothers him (to brake his word). On the other hand I do think it bothers Mr. Cruz.

Mr. Schreiber are you a lawyer?
have to go finish my ironing, Blessings to all

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 12:33pm

Not a lawyer.
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Not a mind reader (“I do think it bothers Mr. Cruz. [to break his word]”) either, for that matter.
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And the issue here, it seems to me, isn’t whether or not keeping or breaking one’s word bothers or doesn’t bother any particular candidate. The issue is whether or not it bothers you as a voter.
,
Because politicians are only going to get worse until we start demanding that they get better.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 12:52pm

It also matters if we consider his actions to be breaking his word.
Kind of like the endless “Israel violates cease-fire by shooting back” stories.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 1:06pm

Yah but 🙂
just out of curiosity Donald, did the pledgers make the pledge or contract with the GOP or with the other candidates- it seems to me that if one of the other pledgers breaks his word to the party that would not release all the other pledgers from their bond

Even though I didn’t like the pledge idea- it reminded me the ornery big brother knuckling the other brother under and insisting he cry uncle..,

Just me
Just me
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 1:17pm

Y’all make me smile. I am not in your league to argue any point. Most of the time I have to go look up some of the words y’all use. All I can do is to vote. I am an election judge I do my best to see to it that everyone gets to vote if they need help, help them and it doesn’t matter if I agree with their vote or not. In my state we had the voter ID but the powers that be have cast that down. We that worked the poles really liked it. Please don’t ask me why it just made it easier for us and I don’t see where it discriminates

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 1:45pm

My father told me that a man is as good as his word. He also said some people will never lie when the truth will serve. Apparently the truth about the Benghazi attack did not serve the political interests of Hillary and Obama. But Hillary’s fabricated stories about being “under sniper fire” and ducking for her safety, or that she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary who climbed Mount Everest when she was five years old, serve no purpose at all. One can only suppose she has a rich fantasy life, something William Safire speculated upon twenty years ago. If one lives in a state that goes Democrat always, an abstaining vote can be a statement of principle. I live in a state that can go either way. So I must vote for Trump to keep Hillary away from the levers of power. If we just charitably presume poor judgment on the part of Hillary and Obama, their policy decisions have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives here and abroad, to say nothing of the vast sums of money wasted for no good purpose.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 2:16pm

In case of you are wondering if Cruz was right for not endorsing Trump, this ought to convince you he was absolutely right:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2XD_0OEVxq0&feature=player_embedded

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 2:29pm

Greg, would that be a video of proud Trumpilles dragging the corpse of slain Cruztor behind his chariot as he circles the fabled walls of Quicken Loans Arena?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, July 22, AD 2016 2:50pm

If the Clinton people are smart, they’ll realize Trump has just laid out the roadmap to beating him in November with that bit of self-indulgent crowing.

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