Cruz is disliked by his colleagues in the Senate — he can’t even get them to support him, so how could he get enough support from the people to defeat Hillary?
“Cruz is disliked by his colleagues in the Senate “
That does not matter. Cruz is disliked by voters
Facts be damned - perception is everything.
Once the stigma of “unpopularity” is attached to a person, in whatever venue, there is a herd mentality of “piling on” that is almost mindless, and feeds upon itself. If everybody else is saying he is terrible, or abrasive, or in some other way not of the favored profile, then the herd draws tightly together, and forms a solid wall of censure and harsh rebuke. Not a considered judgment, but warmed up for a good, solid, Orwellian “Two-Minute Hate”.
The people who engaged in this groupthink thing, if they have the least amount of introspection, come away with at some perhaps poorly articulated but very real feelings of have committed some grievous sin against a fellow human being. Some will rationalize this as being, well, he deserved it anyway, a conclusion based on nothing at all except what you may have heard someone else repeat.
But there remains that deep gut feeling that something is gravely wrong, and you can’t seem to dislodge it from your mind.