It’s been clear for a long time that the party establishment will do anything and everything they can to sabotage those not in their “clique.” People will say, “Well, how did Dubya overcome it ? He was a Conservative !” Well, Dubya was NOT a Conservative (his open borders stance confirmed that), but the Bushes are part of that establishment. They were the ones backing Bush, Sr. over Reagan in 1980.
Cruz will have to run against both the establishment and the Democrats (de facto allies). The establishment will hope to take him out ahead of time. If he does get the nomination, I expect we may see Goldwateresque attacks and endorsements by some RINOs of the Democrat nominee, dragging up the usual talking points against non-leftists.
Make no mistake, the establishment sees the rising tide against them and are in panic mode. They don’t want to lose their power. The anti-establishment challengers were underfunded and lacking in a definitive winning game-plan. But 2016 will be a fight for the soul of the party. If we lose, the Democrats will win again. One thing is clear, our side needs to continue to fight from here on out and draw up battle plans NOW. We can’t wait until just before the next primaries. The establishment will always have deeper pockets and resources, but they can be outworked by the passion of our side.
Well said. I don’t rule out a 3rd party strategy, with Cruz as Tea Party nominee. Whichever way, we have to back the least of all evils, else evil triumphs because good people cut off their nose and do nothing else.