To quote you again: “I am sure I see people who like Trump — but from afar. No one in my circle of family and friends like him. I can speak to that better than you can.”
So what about TPA / TPP? Cruz is in the pocket of big donors like a previous freeper said. Typical GOP scam... get the rubes to vote for you by giving red meat on social issues that will never get voted on while selling your soul to Wall Street, the Arab oil-lobby, big pharma, interantional banker, and global corporatists... Trump is the only free man running for president. Get new friends...
Are you saying only billionaires are fit for office? I think the founding fathers would cringe at that idea. People giving to the candidate they agree with is part of their participation. Would you prefer our tax dollars support campaigns like the Democrats want, or you just want to limit high office to billionaires who will fund their own campaigns?
I would rather have a candidate beholden to at least some of the people than one who is only out for himself. Corruption is not avoided just because you are only about yourself, your own power and money as well as that of your friends. In the end it is like the issue with guns. In the hands of a murderer, guns kills. In the hands of a corrupt politician, money buys influence. That is why we used to closely examine the candidates character and integrity. What happened to that?