http://www.nationalreview.com/node/431811/print Confusion in the Anti-Establishment Ranks
By James C. Capretta — February 24, 2016
Some conservative commentators — notably Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham — have been cheering on both Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the GOP presidential-nomination fight. These commentators like to lump Cruz and Trump together because this allows them to explain the Trump phenomenon as emanating from the same source they say has been propelling Cruz forward — a righteous conservative revolt against an unprincipled GOP “establishment.”
But it should be obvious at this point that Cruz and Trump are tapping into very different sources of voter energy, and Trump’s source — a decidedly non-conservative populist movement — is far more potent and dangerous.
Since arriving in the Senate in 2013, Cruz has been plotting to foment and then ride a wave of conservative discontent all the way to the presidency. Cruz’s pitch, pushed by Heritage Action and others, is that GOP voters have been betrayed by “Washington Republicans” who abandoned their principles after getting elected. He points to the refusal of many House and Senate members to stick with him over a shutdown of the federal government as a way to stop Obamacare in 2013. His allies also often cite the support of some in the GOP for reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank in 2015; they point as well to the budget deal John Boehner struck with President Obama in the final days of Boehner’s speakership.
Whatever one may think about these supposed violations of conservative principles, it’s a weak foundation for a presidential campaign.
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