“Pretty amazing for a guy who was for a time the most capable conservative in my lifetime.....”
That point is where people are making it unnecessarily hard on themselves to understand. Cruz was never a constitutional, anti-globalist conservative, but he was extremely, and I do mean extremely, good at pulling off the deception. He understands the conservative talking points inside out and can argue for them at length, off the cuff and without notes. People who are not familiar with the kind of steely eyed ambitioin required to completely deceive people in such a way have a hard time believing it when they see it in others. I too believed Cruz to be the real thing a while back, but an examination of the facts just don’t support that anymore IMO.
Remember, we know that’s what RINO’s do - lie about their conservatism to get elected. Cruz was just better than the others at it. Look at his actual accomplishments in the Senate and you’ll see that he took a stand for conservatism only when it didn’t matter. As we see this story unfold in the next few days, remember that Cruz’s conservatism was never any more genuine than his appearance as a devoted family man.
I don’t entirely agree with that. He did “take a stand” on occasion and sometimes was the only Republican to do so.
So maybe he was a faux conservative. But at least he honored the conservative tradition by feigning conservatism. The rest of the Congress didn’t even bother with that.....
As a sidenote Jesse Helms was the only great conservative in my lifetime that I can think of. Now that man was a genuine, fearless conservative. And as effective as any one Senator could be.
Cruz still has Steve Deace and sidekicks totally fooled. That show has become the nightly Three Hours’ Hate. (Of Trump.)