This is all just fun and games at this point.
The GOP still controls the machinery of fundraising and determines where the big money gets spent. I’ll say it again - the only way Cruz, Paul, or anyone else outside the ruling class elite ranks stands a chance is to win on their own merit, and that means each and every one of us has to stop participating in the circular firing squad and seeking the perfect candidate, and instead support the Buckley Rule, e.g. the “most conservative candidate who can win.”
It’s going to be far easier to determine who that candidate is if we work hard in the primaries and coalesce behind a front-runner early than if we have a repeat of 2012. And as tempting as it is to talk about a third party, any objective analysis says it’s going to take multiple election cycles for a third party candidate to be able to win, and while that strength is being built, they will splinter the vote in favor of the Democrats.
The circular firing squad force is strong on FreeRepublic. Many posters here want a candidate who agrees 100% with them. They are to conservatism what Greenpeace is to environmentalism: They seek perfection.
That said, it is time to ditch the GOP elite and offer up a candidate with some moxie.
That’s not what the Buckley Rule says. If it were, he could not have supported either Barry Goldwater or himself when he ran for mayor. The test is “viability” which is a different thing from “electability.”
When you opt for “electability”, you usually lose.