I’ll grant you that Cruz has voted several times in ways I did not like (TPA and H1-Bs). So that is 2 strikes against him.
Now, how many strikes does Trump have? When he denigrated the TEA party? When he supported the assault weapons ban? When he supports ethanol subsidies? When he supported gay marriage? When he supported Planned Parenthood? When he criticized the deportation of illegals as “too harsh” (his own words)?
Why do Cruz’s past strikes count and Trump’s not?
“Why do Cruz’s past strikes count and Trump’s not?”
The immigration stances you assign to Trump were all held by Cruz up until very lately, and are on video. Ethanol subsidies will not destroy our way of life. Cruz says he will not fight gay marriage as president (hand it off to the states, which is a laugh). Trump said he supported Planned Parenthood to the extent the good they were supposed to be doing at the time. He, like most of us, had no idea what Planned Parenthood was engaged in.
Trump’s boldness on immigration is key. Without him, immigration would still be turned loose on the nation for purposes of complete transformation, by both Republicans and Democrats. All your find points of longing for pure conservatism, which I would agree with, will be moot in about ten years if it is not stopped.