Posted on 03/15/2016 6:49:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Might the establishment republican power brokers actually prefer Ted Cruz to Donald Trump? The left wing website Yahoo News thinks so.
Could it really be that the country club, French republicans (hat tip - Mark Levin) line up behind the most hated Senator in world history? According to Matt Bai at Yahoo, the republicans may very well decide they prefer "the devil they know to the daredevil they don't."
Bai says, "in conversations with a half dozen of the leading Republican strategists and lobbyists this week, it became clear that a solid consensus is forming as to which guy they would rather see get the keys."
It's beginning to look like Bai may be right. Heck, even Lindsey Graham, the poster child of the jelly filled center of the party has warmed to Cruz - something I certainly would have never guessed. Graham went from likening the choice between Trump and Cruz as a one between being shot or poisoned, to him saying: "I can't believe I would say yes, but yes," to rallying around Cruz.
Lindsey is a capital "R" republican, meaning he will do anything necessary to promote party, even over country. As a quintessential insider, you know darn well he isn't trotting out there independently. He must have had the party's blessing before floating this Cruz trial balloon. The establishment isn't known for bold, definitive statements, except for those which announce their surrender to the democrats - like McConnell declaring there will never another government shutdown, thereby surrendering to Obama on the budget. Everything else has to be tested and focus grouped.
Bai suspects Trump knows this and it's the reason he has begun to change tactics, at least during the debates. He is trying his best to strike a more civil tone, something which, by the look of him during the last debate, appears to be physically painful. On stage he even made a point of saying how civil it was. The Donald of old (by old, I mean a few weeks ago) would have never said such a thing nor cared.
Personally, I think he knows full well, as virtually every poll confirms, that in a two man race between him and Cruz, he loses. It must be killing him not lash out more at Cruz. It is his nature to do so, as we've witnessed for months.
It's also why others and I conclude that the insults hurled at Marco Rubio are strategic - to goad him into remaining in the race when he clearly cannot win, thus taking votes from Cruz. Trump is playing on Rubio's ego, calculating, correctly so far, that Rubio will stubbornly react with an "I'll show you" attitude. Trump's clearer path to victory is for the other two, Rubio and Kasich to remain.
The establishment, Bai writes, see Trump "as erratic and untrustworthy, an ideological trespasser who would borrow the party but holds dear few of its conservative convictions. And they're profoundly troubled by an authoritarian streak..."
If I may laugh out loud for a moment. While I agree Trump is "erratic and untrustworthy," I disagree that the "party" has any "conservative convictions." The Republican party hasn't had a conservative thought for decades, which is exactly why Cruz is so despised - more so than any democrat.
I hope Bai is correct in surmising the Republican leadership will coalesce behind Cruz. If it helps him win the White House, I'm all for it. I'd love to see the spectacle. I'd love to see them all jump on the Cruz bandwagon and then attempt to influence and control him, only to be frustrated by his adherence to the Constitution. Just for the entertainment, I'd love to see it.
But they couldn't even control Cruz as a junior Senator. Which is why, I'll hold to the opinion I've had for a while now - that the establishment would be much better off with the "deal-maker" Trump, who, like the Republicans, will happily embrace any usurpation of the Constitution in order to "get things done."
Thankfully they never listen to us.
It’s Vichy Republicans, not French Republicans.....
Big difference.
Meh.
I really don’t care.
I’m at the point watching Kasich take Ohio that I am thinking bigger. Clinton is on to the GE, and we need to get there.
Trump will only run one term any way, he’s strong enough to take down Hillary, and Cruz can be head of the Senate and learn the leadership ropes and will be ready to run in 2020. In the interim, we can shore up the Freedom Caucus and get some candidates that are anti-GOPe in Congress.
I wake up every morning in a cold sweat worrying about what rich queers think.
I hope I'm wrong but its likely I'm not.
He would never let the establishment guide him?
If you can find a major party candidate without ties to Wall Street get back to me.
Ha! Thanks for the laugh.
Once in the white house being a good salesman will not be nearly enough. What will matter are bedrock principles, the defining character of every effective leader. Thats where the rubber meets the road and frankly, he hasn't said anything that gives me confidence that he has any and will know where to go from there. As a showman he'll go on caring about optics and will be totally dependent upon the system & the media in an attempt to get anything at all done and still remain a popular figure.
Just IMO. I realize many others disagree.
Cruz has taken the establishment initiation rites
GOPe is now in the Bargaining stage. “OK, I’ll settle for Cruz if we can only stop Trump!” Soon it’ll be obvious that they can’t stop Trump from getting a majority of delegates, and it will be Depression. By the time of convention they will be ready for Acceptance.
Were not going to have a purge just to hand it back to rino goper uniparty establishment people again.
“Trump, if he manages to win in the general, will be as pliant as a puppy once elected.”
Evidently you’ve never owned a Basset! :)
I sure would like to know what he and Mitch McConnell talked about tonight.
Ted has always been a Bush asset. He is a ‘conservative ringer’ for the establishment.
Yes, yes, so many say that now that Trump is the new hero.
But they including the gope are for Cruz because Cruz is not a conservative but just an actor a liar and a fraud.
Cruz and the Gope have been playing a game of good cop bad con on us. Cruz bots are too dumb to see this so they attack those like us that say the truth while America burns
I wonder what those would be.
I certainly have seen little to make me believe that the leadership of the Republican Party have any convictions at all let alone conservative ones.
The only conviction that I can see that they hold is the conviction to hold on to power at all cost, even if it means surrendering the convictions of the rank and file Republicans to the Democrats at every turn.
Too late.
It’s over, folks.
Trump won.
I’m over it.
Have a good evening.
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