You raise very good points, all of them valid.
The fact is, Trump’s appeal cuts across party lines, and disaffected Democrats the old ‘Reagan Democrats’ who have been laying low, nearly dormant for decades WOULD come out of the shadows to vote for Trump in the general election.
IF Trump were unable to win the nomination, and Cruz prevailed at the convention, if it was a fair and square win by Cruz, I believe Trump would stay with the GOP, urge his supporters to vote for Cruz, and that he would do all that he could to see Cruz elected.
Having said that, Democrats are in fact more terrified of the prospect of a Cruz presidency because they equate him with all sorts of liberal-RAT nightmares, ‘another Joe McCarthy’, ‘Reagan on steroids’, and so on. They would likely coalesce AGAINST Cruz for that very reason.
Assuming that Hiliarly is the ‘RAT nominee, could Cruz out debate her? Unquestionably. Would Cruz do that with a smile on his face? I am certain of it.
But could he DESTROY her, as Trump would do?
That remains to be seen. Trump would rightly call her every name in the book, shake his finger at her and proclaim that she has “blood on her hands”, he would blast and bellow and go for the jugular which quite frankly, is what it is going to take to rattle the Hildabeast and drive a political stake through the area where her heart is supposed to be.
To employ a boxing analogy, Cruz is not unlike ‘Gentleman Jim Corbett’, a true champion who is universally viewed as having transformed boxing into a ‘scientific’ competition.
Trump? He can box, but he is a brawler and a street fighter (WWE, *literally* lol) and that is what it is probably going to take to win next year.
As soon as he does that, the vagina card gets played and trump is done. She won her senate seat because Rick lazio handed her a freakin piece of paper during a debate....trump does ANY of what you say and the media will gut him like a fish and moderates the country over will swoon. She will have to be defeated with class and a smile and a surgeons scalpel not a meat cleaver.