I have read the article carefully and I think there is much of merit in it. I think the article accurately diagnoses the current deplorable state of the Republican Party. When the author spins out intricate conspiracy theories and projects the motives of candidates like Graham so far into the future I lose confidence in his predictive abilities. The world simply does not function under so intricate a web spun by conspiratorial elitists. They would and do conspire but the very fact of the entrance into the debate by Donald Trump and his profound unsettling influence on the debate, which I favor on the merits, reveals how impossible it is to micromanage a two-year convoluted nomination and election strategy.
I agree that conservatives have been divided and conquered in the past series of nominations and we have an obligation to ourselves and to the country to prevent that from happening now. I have posted long and hard that we should favor Cruz and if he falters Scott Walker. I could be very content with either one as nominee. These men are conservatives, each has bucked the establishment at personal political risk. Scott Walker won his battle and got results, Ted Cruz did not but, of course, but Cruz was not in position as a chief executive to get results as was Scott Walker. I am not happy with Cruz's vote on trade and on the Iran deal but no candidate is perfect and I'm about trying to find the most electable, most conservative candidate.
As I have posted, the attraction of Donald Trump is that he has seized on a couple of salient issues and brilliantly punched through the clutter to make himself heard and, equally important, he is feeding red meat to a starving and ravens conservative audience. But we true conservatives must understand and even except that we are a subset of a subset and not the majority voice of the electorate. We might be, as Donald Trump says, a silent majority but the key word is "silent" and not the reflexive, default position of the electorate. So Donald Trump is expressing the right message on a subset of issues directed to a subset of a subset of the electorate. I have also posted long and hard that the way to gain the independence and the Reagan Democrats is not by retreating from conservative principles but by inspiring the country with conservative principles. The trick is not to make a bigger tent, that will take care of itself if we can introduce the people to come into it. Donald Trump does not have the range or the grasp of conservatism to be the man to do that.
I am nearly but not quite to the point where I am in despair of the Republican Party. If we cannot elect Cruz or Walker or if they are somehow unmasked as frauds, then I might be in a position to support Donald Trump on the theory that the wrong messenger is better than no message at all.
We are not quite there yet.
