Including Cruz himself?
Look, I like Cruz but he bears blame too. Nearly the whole conservative establishment bears some blame, from Limbaugh to Erich Erickson (who was pro-Trump way back when) to Ted Cruz. Even I supported the guy at one point.
@AbaraXas @Weird Tolkienish FigureForgive me, but I can't quite figure out who posted what in that last post. But let me try to wrap a bow around it and address it below.
“I’m pleased to welcome Donald Trump into the race for the 2016 Republican nomination for President of the United States. His experience as a successful businessman and job creator will prove crucial to ensuring the eventual GOP nominee is not only well-equipped to defeat Hillary Clinton in November, but also to make America great again.”
“When it comes to Donald Trump, I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific. I think he’s brash. I think he speaks the truth,” Cruz said during an interview on “Fox and Friends” promoting his new book. “And I think NBC is engaging in political correctness that is silly and that is wrong.”
"He’s bold and brash, and he’s willing to speak the truth. And he’s taking on the Washington cartel," Cruz said.
[...]
"I appreciate Donald focusing on illegal immigration," Cruz said. "I've been proud to defend him for focusing on illegal immigration."
“Quite a few members of this field have attacked Donald Trump. A lot of folks in the media have asked me ‘Ted Cruz, will you do the same?’ I have been glad to praise Donald Trump for speaking out boldly and brashly and for focusing on illegal immigration.”
Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
The Establishment's only hope: Trump & me in a cage match.
Sorry to disappoint -- @realDonaldTrump is terrific. #DealWithIt
12:03 PM - 11 Dec 2015
6,755 6,755 Retweets 9,024 9,024 likes
The above is a very cute trick, practiced frequently by "relative moral values" progressives. You take a quote, or a series of quotes out of context, and then claim that they represent either hypocrisy by the author (usually a conservative) or support of a political position or person that is clearly in conflict with the facts.
So, can you think hard, think REALLY hard and figure about what the difference might be about most of these undated Cruz quotes, versus now, May 15th, 2016? (I don't want to make this too difficult, but the answer is NOT "Cruz lost".)
Think ... think .... think ..... Got the answer yet?
Well, since this format is not particularly interactive, I'll state the obvious. In 2015, Trump was one of 16 new announced candidate for the President of the United States. At that point,
every fair candidate was "big tent", i.e. everyone welcomed everyone else into the fray. Moreover, Trump, like Cruz, was
clearly an outsider, an antagonist to the GOP-e status quo, and in that vein, was a confederate of the Cruz camp in the goal of ripping control from the GOP-e Senators and Congressmen/women who did not oppose Obama, and actually acted in concert to support Obama's policy and ideological prerogatives against the intent and desires of conservatives who put them into office.
So, how would you have had Cruz respond, in the early days of the campaign? Trump's a liar? Trump's never done anything conservative in his life? Trump's a charlatan and cameleon?
Well, first, that would have been unfair, and therefore, immoral. Second, it would have been unwise, and harmful to the open GOP primary election?
What's different now? Why do some conservatives consider themselves righteously "#NeverTrump"? Simply, because Trump has since 2015 validated every negative fear any
true conservative has ever had about Trump. (Now, if you're a pro-choice, pro-tariff, pro-government intervention, anti-Christian, pro-BLM, believe in global warming, or are pro-Trump "suggestion" about immigration and anything else he's said or might say, then I'm sorry, but the "true conservative" adjective does not accurately apply to you. I'd rather keep the "apples" separated from the "oranges", in logical discussions about Trump.) Trump not only has been the full-metal-jacket progressive in conservative wool, but he's gratuitously attacked and savaged every conservative of any note or accomplishment in the GOP, simply for being conservative (and "not a Trump supporter").
Aside from the personal insults to Cruz, his kids, his wife, his father, his non-existent Mistresses, his gardener, his childhood first love, his church, and anything else Trump may have thought up in Trump's fertile but
weak, little mind, but has yet to tweet, Cruz has come to the conclusion that Trump is running 180 degrees in the opposite direction from conservatism, and thinks he'll be disastrous for the country, the conservative movement, and the GOP party - in that order.
So, when someone posts all those so-called Cruz positions, by attributing quotes from Cruz circa 2015, as the OP above did, he or she is being blatantly dishonest about Cruz.
Hell, why can't the Trump supporters just be honest! Damn, why the hell can't you be honest? We might even make some progress at party unity, towards defeating Hillary in November.
However, Trump himself has not done that, and clearly, never will. He'll keep on with insults, lies, or misrepresentations, while crying about being insulted, or "attacked" every time someone calls him on his words, deeds, and previous history. And, the Trump supporters will be with in lockstep, justifying, obfuscating, and lying with Trump every step of the way. It leads to the
very logical conclusion that Trump really doesn't care about winning, that he might just be hunky-dory with whoever the Democrats shoo past him into office. If he WANTED the office, he'd be mending bridges - big time.
He wouldn't be taking a campaign break. Nothing that Trump has done has changed my mind that he's Perot for 2016, a life long FOB&H (Friend of Bill and Hillary), Billionaire, pseudo reformer, and GOP spoiler, in the race entirely to turn over the White House to a President named Clinton.
That's why I call Trump supporters immoral, even some of my previous dearest "friends" such as Sarah Palin. That's why I use the term "Immoral" for the Trump supporter's behavior, and "amoral" Trump supporters in general. Trump isn't the worst politician ever, not worse than most Democrats, not worse than many GOP and so called conservatives. However, as leader of the GOP, he'll be the ruin of the party, he'll set back the conservative movement years or even decades, and he probably will lose the election putting
<enter designated leftwing Democrat candidate here> in office to change the country from a Constitutional republic to something very left wing.
That's on that rat-bastard-liar Trump, and everyone his supporters, be they simply confused, ignorant, misguided, or fully amoral - it doesn't really matter, at this point.
