GOP Platform: A Better Way

Prohibiting and promoting are equivalent in a legal sense. Saying ‘I don’t think something should be promoted’ is not the legal or logical equivalent of ‘I think that something should be prohibited’. So I don’t understand your rhetorical question back to Drew.

We both know it was not about conservatism it was about him not endorsing Trump.

It is unprecedented in the modern era for sure. But Cruz did it too late and in the wrong place. Why would anyone choose to throw their political hopes out the window? He may have figured that if Trump loses they (republicans) will rally to him, but he got that wrong. If Trump loses they will now, in part, blame Cruz. Then again as I said above it might be purely emotional because of the bitter campaign. Either way he screwed himself.

It wasn’t an indictment of “conservatism”, and I didn’t say It was - it’s an indictment of the strategy that says “if you put up the hard right true conservative for once, the GOP base will love it and turn out and support overwhelmingly when given a choice over a false conservative.”

Quite obviously not.

True as he was rebuffed in the primaries. But Cruz blew an important moment as he received a standing ovation upon his appearance. Imagining that the floor of the convention would give him a wonderful send off when he did not endorse their candidate was just dumb.

I’m not saying you said otherwise by the way.

Which is why I’ve bolted. The GoP is not remotely a conservative party. At best it plays lip service to my issues, but will quickly forget them for the promise of walls, new restrictions on the media, expanded torture, killing non-combatants, etc.

Now, I’m not going to claim to know the primary motivation of Cruz for taking the stage and not endorsing Trump, as opposed to him simply declining to speak. I can only say what I would’ve done. And that would’ve been exactly what he did. The attack on his wife and father should’ve ruled out Trump as a possible nominee. My gosh, the attack on Cruz Sr was crazy-town level. So, absolutely I would embarrass Trump. Pledges? How about vows? Like to one’s wife? How about familial duty that demands the defense of one’s own father? And, how about decency, from a man running for no less than the Presidency?

As for the base booing him, perhaps it’s for the best. The base of the party would likely give over their own wives to Trump if he asked, and insult their own fathers for any deviation from the dumb, unthinking, meaness that is Trumpmania. Maybe the base needed a final test. To see that it is indeed too far gone to be salvaged. We now cheer and support a nasty, vile, man with little thought for his opponents and their families and boo the man who felt like he needed to take a stand over the honor of his family. A political gamble? Could be that, too. Too. But after the birther stuff he faced, Lying Ted, the attack on his wife, and the insulation that his father may have had some hand in the JFK assassination…I don’t doubt for a minute that Cruz genuinely relished the opportunity to embarrass Trump and tweek the lap-dogs. And maybe, maybe he saw two outcomes. The base suddenly wakes up and says, wait how the hell are we supporting such a sleaze ball for our nominee? Or, to make one final demonstration as to just how all-in the party has gone for sleaze-ball. A curse on both your houses. If this is what you want, then I want no part of it.

“…Second, what the hell are people talking about? This is part of the corruption of Trump. He called Ted Cruz a liar every day and in every way for months (it used to be considered a breach in decorum to straight up call an opponent a liar, never mind use it as a nickname). The insults against his wife, the cavalier birtherism, the disgusting JFK-assassination theories about his dad: These things are known. And yet the big conversation of the day is Ted Cruz’s un-sportsmanlike behavior? For real? But forget Cruz for a moment. For over a year, Trump has degraded politics in some of the most vile ways. His respect for the Republican party as the home of conservatism is on par with Napoleon’s respect for churches when he converted them into stables. But that’s okay because he’s Trump. He’s a “winner.” And now that he’s the nominee, the Smart Set and the Mob is telling me that Cruz is the outrageous violator of norms and good manners. Let’s all look down our noses at the sore loser everybody, as we bend the knee and make every apology possible for the sorest, most ungracious winner in American history. When I watch Trump’s kitchen cabinet of yes men rise from their “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” prostrations just long enough to talk about Cruz’s self-interestedness, I have to laugh. Where’s your shinebox, Governor Christie? Ted Cruz has never been my favorite politician. And I am not so naïve that I don’t recognize the gamble Cruz is making. But if the choice is between forgiving Ted Cruz’s obvious political calculation to become the standard bearer of an authentic conservatism or Donald Trump’s lizard-brain narcissism where no principle or cause outranks his own glandular desire to be worshipped like a conqueror atop the carcass of conservatism, I choose Ted. If the choice is between, say, congratulating the Boy Scoutish obedience of Mike Pence as he sells off bits and pieces of his soul like jewels from a family heirloom just to survive another day or Ted Cruz, who took the tougher road and refused to join the mewling mobs of toadies, apologists, human weathervanes, difference-splitters, and vacillators, I choose Ted…”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/438159/i-choose-ted

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This hits the nail on the head.

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The error in there is that Ted is no conservative.

Not my concern or even the real point.

The point is all the lick-boots criticizing Cruz’s “unsportsman-like” non-endorsement. Unsportsmanlike? How the hell can one even begin to make that charge in light of who the GoP nominee is? Trump’s side of unsportsmanlike/lack-of-decorum scale would descend as if in free-fall…

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Yes, and he was (mortally) rebuffed last night - the Establishment was not in attendance, haven been thrown out on its ear, but every RNC delegate was, and they could have - in this singular moment - chosen “true conservatism” instead of pragmatism, as they have been waiting to do for so long but for that pesky Establishment (so we’ve been told all this time)…

…and given that moment, the delegates instead told Cruz to scram.

Maybe that theory will finally be put to rest.

Trump’s attack on Cruz’s wife was in retaliation to an attack on Trumps wife

What’s Cruz’s hardcore voter base? His Republican primary average was a whopping 33%.

I doubt more than 2-3% of this are Cruz or don’t vote types. The lack of endorsement won’t hurt Trump nor will it hurt Cruz in 2020 if Trump loses.

What do you guys think of Trumps children and their Speeches?

By a super pac for which nobody has ever offered evidence that Cruz had anything to do with (it would be illegal)…There is no evidence that Cruz had anything to do with it.

Your defense is actually worse for Trump as it just show he blindly lashes out like a pre-schooler.

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Don’t care. Having your family stump for you isn’t exactly convincing. But I did like the way Mrs. Trump had the audience cheering and Fox news fawning over parts of a Michelle Obama speech…

“I wrote it myself.”

Boy, that changed quick.

We’ve been over this, raj. Keep your hands over your ears.

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Maybe so. But how is the conversation not even taking into account the Trump campaign’s mismanagement of the event?

Seriously, Trump could have made this a near non-issue. The speech was worded carefully, they cpuld have spun it if they were interested at ALL in putting a good campaign on.

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And as far pledges go, when Cooper mentions that Cruz would have a hard time supporting (but not yet stating he absolutely couldn’t) someone who was attacking his wife…

Exactly. Separation of powers maintains freedom.

I know what the Republicans are saying in regards to their platform, but like I said in my first comment, I will believe it when I see it. When they actually stand up for what they profess and not just use concepts like liberty as a tool to win an election, I will applaud.

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