I wonder if you know how many true conservatives will stay home this election cycle if Trump is the nominee. But no problem, I guess. There are so many liberal-leaning folks who can make up for those of us who refuse to vote progressive. At that point, we can finally put conservatism to rest. After all, if the folks at the “Premiere Conservative Site on the Net” can’t support the most conservative candidate, who could possibly be expected to in the future? I say, kill the conservative beast!
Sign, you don’t have to agree with my conclusions, I can live with that.... I am not saying for anyone to not support Cruz... when did I call for anyone to stop supporting him ever? I offered my analysis of the situation, and that analysis doesn’t jive with what you would like it to be, that doesn’t mean someone isn’t conservative.
The proposition that if just a hard core conservative be the nominee we’d win is a nice fallacy. It sounds goo Please tell me the last time what you consider a hard core conservative won the presidency? The closest thing in my lifetime was either Reagan or Nixon.... Every election cycle with the exceptions of Republicans running for a second term there have been more conservative candidates in the running during the primaries and they have all lost, let alone win a general election.
The reality about politics, and most of human interaction in general, is its not simply a matter of who can intellectually win the argument. If that’s all it took to get elected, you’d rarely see a liberal win an election, intellectually their stands far more often than not are easily beaten, but that doesn’t result in a conservative getting elected.
Even Reagan who was by far the last president you could really call a conservative, he didn’t simply win because he could articulate a conservative argument well, which he could, be wont because he made the people believe in themselves and America again... It was this emotional connection that not only helped carry him over Carter (who had troubles beyond that) but helped carry him to a re-election landslide rarely seen in modern politics.
IF you think Trump is going to cause a large sit out by the right, I want to see what data you are basing that on, because it sure isn’t reflected in any I have seen. Will there be some? Sure there will, there are those that sit out every election because they don’t like the candidate. This is true every election. Just look at the support here on free republic, many are willing to vote for Trump, for many even he’s their first choice, for others, they may not be their first, but they are willing to support him. There is no large contingent here remotely threatening to sit it out. In past elections there have been, Romney and McCain both had large swaths of folks who made it very clear daily they would not vote for either of them... not so much Trump, and this is on a conservative site.
Folks here are free to support whoever they wish, but the idea of if we just put up a conservative, we win... or the “if you build it they will come” argument is not backed by any tangible data. Secondly, the issue is like it or not, Cruz is a highly divisive figure, if you think those who depend on social security and medicare don’t know how close they came to their checks not showing up late last year during the shutdown, you are naive.
I like Cruz, I will happily support him if he’s the candidate, but I highly doubt he can win the general election. Equally I will support Trump if he is the candidate.
What I won’t support is a Rubio, Jeb or other clear GOPe person who will be little different than a Hillary adminstration other than the wrapping paper.. Same selling the US down the toilet... Up until a few weeks ago when Cruz finally woke up the realities of the H1B I’d put him right with those folks, because you cannot say you put America first, while you are supporting such corruption.
I’ve watched both parties sell this nation down the tubes for the past several decades, and I will not support anyone who I feel is just more of the same. That’s my personal feeling, and by and large this is why Trump is getting the support he is getting, because republicans have shown they can no more be trusted than democrats to put America first, they are both owned by the same puppetmasters, desiring to sell america down the toilet.
Time will tell how this all plays out, and what happens. For me hopefully it will be something that truly shakes up Washington, and I mean the behind the scenes washington, not the public consumption nonsense. If Hillary wins, nothing changes with that lot, if Rubio/Bush or someone like that wins, nothing changes with that lot.
If Cruz wins, little will change with that lot.
If Trump wins, especially while they are trying to undermine him at every level, that will force a fundamental change to the behind the scenes game, unprecidented in the last 100 years of politics.
Time will tell how this plays out.... but I still don’t see a path to victory for Cruz in the general, and time will tell if I am right or not.