I share and amplify your sentiments, Jeff, with a similar long view.
I find it disturbing that Cruz, with his conservative bonafides, is attacked ruthlessly here. Cruz has such solid credentials, and is so brilliant, such a great debater, and has such a solid grasp of the issues, I never would have guessed he would be derided to the degree seen here at FR. He’s the only known, true conservative in the race, and it’s been that way since the beginning of the race.
I’m not comfortable with all the craven attacks on Trump, either.
Trump is a wild card, the Joker in the deck. He has no voting record, not having been in politics. He’s supported Dems in the past, but he has the convenient excuse of having needed to spread his money around to both sides to grease the wheels of business. So he has a built-in excuse for his lack of consistency. And he never seems to have a detailed knowledge of the issues.
But I will give credit to Donald Trump for shaking up the entire paradigm of the presidential election cycle. Before, the media could find a tiny politically incorrect statement a Republican has made, then amplify it to embarrass the candidate, then force the other Repubs to go on-record to denounce the “gaffe” by their competitor, putting more distance and animosity between the candidates. All the while ignoring every Democrat’s flubs (how else could Joe Biden have survived?).
This time is different, thanks to Trump. The media is baffled by him, and so are all the prominent political pundits. Thanks to Trump, all the Republican candidates are willing to fight back — something Democrats never have to do, since they are never attacked by the sympathetic media. Republicans don’t have to be ashamed of conservatism, or put up with media abuse. Trump has changed the rules. He speaks spontaneously, and wins. He gets free media play in gross disproportion to his opponents. The conventional thinking is, after the Citizens United case only big money can win elections — but Jeb! and his superpac team spent over 2 thousand dollars per vote and lost. Meanwhile Trump gets free publicity and sweeps the elections, exactly the opposite of the outcome sought by the liberal media. He has confronted, violated, broken, and cast aside the conventional model of political campaigns.
We don’t have to worry about Trump choking in the debate with Hillary (if she survives her scandals that long), because he will attack. He won’t pull his punches. He won’t shy away from mention of Benghazi, or let Candy Crowley rush in to rescue her candidate (like she did for Obama). Her recent absurd quotes will haunt her (’we didn’t lose one person in Libya’). And she’d better not even THINK about bringing up the ‘war on women’. There are plenty of quotes and actions from her to destroy her credibility there.
Yes, I’m a Cruz supporter, and he still could get the nomination. But I think Trump COULD make a good president, and the wild card is an obviously better choice than ANY Democrat, including Hilary the corrupticrat or Bernie the commie.
So if Trump wins fairly, or if the GOPe tries to rob him, I will support him. He will be the most (likely) conservative candidate who can win.
I don't know anyone who is actually "in favor" of Trump; well, maybe HD27. Rather, it seems many Trump supporters might secretly believe he is actually a buffoon, but are primarily motivated by their hatred for the uni-party and what they have done to the country.
In this context, it doesn't really matter who the peoples' figurehead is, or what his background is, as long as that person actually represents the will of the people by getting illegal immigration under control, emasculates fed.gov, enacts taxation reforms, kills o'care, reduces the power of the banks, etc, etc, etc.
Trump supporters rightly see that this is it, the final fight for the republic. If either a GOPe/Dem candidate wins, Jim can turn off the electricity.
Both Trump and Cruz stand against the establishment syndicate that are interested in the advancement of their fortunes above all. We all stand against the Washington insiders who want to advance their interests against the common goals of the country and our citizens. Unfortunately, most are aligned against one of the selfish charltons, rather than against the overwhelming corruption among us.