I was about to give up visiting FR because of some of the wild threads here with gratuitous insults being thrown about. Ghastly.
Then I stumble on this thread and there are good posts from people, even from those who disagree.
If all threads were like this one here, FR would be a much better place.
Thanks to most of you upthread!
Thank you!
I agree except on giving up. The pro-Trump anti-Cruz insults, and the anti-Trump pro-Cruz ones, are all shockingly inappropriate. We should stick to criticisms of the candidates, and those should be based on verifiable facts that are not cherry picked and not taken out of context.
I despise Jeb "act of love" Bush, and I bash him for his views, but I didn't bash the rare Jeb supporters who mostly showed up as new members eight months ago. My "act of love" criticism is based on speeches where I have heard him say that in context, and on his sustained positions on rewarding illegal aliens for their crimes. My other criticisms of Jeb are similarly based on his actual words and sustained positions in context.
I despise Marco "Gang-of-Eight" Rubio and bashed him as a liar and a traitor, but I didn't bash the rare Rubio supporters, some of whom are long time FR regulars. My criticisms of Rubio are based on his actual votes and speeches, just as my criticisms of Jeb are, and I have carefully checked that those are consistent positions in context.
I may despise Kasich even more than Jeb or Rubio (pro-Amnesty, pro-assualt weapons ban, and now "bake the cupcake" dismissal of religious freedom), but I won't bash his two supporters that I've seen here. As with Rubio and Jeb, I had to watch the video of Kasich making reprehensible statements before I fully accepted that he is an unacceptable, anti-freedom traitor.
This is certainly the most dangerous time for American freedom in our history. We are at far greater internal risk than in the first Civil War, and we are at far greater external risk than in WWII. I can understand the tension. However, we should keep it civil between conservatives, even conservatives who trust Trump's questionable background and conservatives who trust Cruz's questionable outsider status.
My own views, not that they matter: I consider Cruz the best person for the White House among all those who ran this year. I believe Cruz now has zero chance of getting the nomination, since the only way to stop Trump is with an open convention, and I expect the establishment to give the nomination to someone other than Trump or Cruz if they get an open convention. I trust Trump far less than Cruz to stay conservative in office (I've read a lot of recent and older stuff from both), but I trust him to be more conservative than any establishment pick would be. Since the only realistic choices are Trump or someone equivalent to Kasich, I'll vote Trump in the Maryland primary and the nervously hope Trump will win. I hope people will respond to our positions politely and respectfully, whether they agree or not.