“Ultimately it comes down to this, I think...trump supporters, for whatever their various reasons are, are willing to take him at his current word. Anti-trumpers do not have that faith, we look at empirical evidence that all points elsewhere.”
We have to. We took candidates coming from the usual places (governor, Senator, etc.) at their word and based on their prior record that they would be CONSERVATIVES, and with very few exceptions, we kept being DOUBLE-CROSSED. For a person like me, with no political connections, it becomes VERY DIFFICULT to trust anyone from that system and, sadly, Cruz is from that system and has done some questionable things in both his campaign and after being elected to the Senate, and he will still need the BIG MONEY (i.e., GOPe) to get the top job.
So it becomes easier for us to look at motivation, and when we do that, we see that Cruz has a lot to gain by being top dog, while Trump, worth billions, has no other rational reason to put himself through this nightmare, as he could just as easily fund a very nice retirement anywhere in the world. That leads most of his supporters to believe he is telling the truth, as he has nothing to gain from lying (other than what the mind readers say about boosting his ego)...so Trump wins that, easily.
In fact, ironically, the only person likely NOT LYING to us is Jeb, who promises to flood this country with enough Illegals to put a final nail in coffin for conservatism. Thankfully that’s not working too well for him.
Fair enough, FRiend. But trumpsters should not delude themselves about one thing: While it is true that trump does not need the money and is in fact sacrificing personal wealth, do not think for a moment that the power of the presidency is not sufficient lure in itself...especially for a man who has everything else.