Not only was I not a hater, I was a fired up supporter. Then my candidate told me to take a hike.
I’m in the same boat, FRiend. I’m deeply disappointed in Cruz.
However, I can see how Cruz decided to support it. A lot was pushing him that way: Big donors in favor, general inclination to free trade, wife with background in intl business at Goldman, desire to moderate his image, etc.
IMO, this issue was the perfect storm and Cruz could not see the forest through the trees.
“IMO, this issue was the perfect storm and Cruz could not see the forest through the trees.”
Or he looked at the fact that every President since Roosevelt has asked for a TPA and there was no reason not to give this President the same ability to negotiate trade deals.
What’s in the trade deals is another fight, which didn’t yet take place. However, once the TPA changed, Cruz did what was right and will vote against it.
I agree that it was the perfect storm, but he should have recognized it. If he had some kind of personal belief in these supposed ‘free trade’ things actually being about free trade, then I can’t fault him, although I saw through them a while back. We were all sold that stuff. That was ‘doctrinaire republicanism’. We (by gosh) supported free trade.
But it turns out it wasn’t free, it wasn’t trade, and it wasn’t a benefit.
What worries me is that his naiveté on this could be telling me he’s not ready yet. I don’t think it will matter, though. If he stays in the race all the way to Ohio, then I’m voting for him. He has a lot of other stuff about him that I do support. I lived through OJT with Obama. I can now live through OJT with anyone.