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Ted Cruz and the Trump Takeover
Townhall.com ^ | January 22, 2016 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 07/22/2016 6:12:24 AM PDT by Kaslin

The self-righteousness and smugness of Ted Cruz in refusing to endorse Donald Trump, then walking off stage in Cleveland, smirking amidst the boos, takes the mind back in time.

At the Cow Palace in San Francisco in July of 1964, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, having been defeated by Barry Goldwater, took the podium to introduce a platform plank denouncing "extremism."

Implication: Goldwater's campaign is saturated with extremists.

Purpose: Advertise Rocky's superior morality.

Smug and self-righteous, Rocky brayed at the curses and insults, "It's a free country, ladies and gentlemen."

Rocky was finished. He would never win the nomination.

Richard Nixon took another road, endorsed Goldwater, spoke for him in San Francisco, campaigned for him across America. And in 1968, with Goldwater's backing, Nixon would rout Govs. George Romney and Rockefeller, and win the presidency, twice.

Sometimes, loyalty pays off.

About Cruz, a prediction: He will not be the nominee in 2020. He will never be the nominee. If Trump wins, Cruz is cooked. If Trump loses, his people will not forget the Brutus who stuck the knife in his back.

To any who read Allen Drury's "Advise and Consent" or saw the movie, Ted Cruz is the Senator Fred Van Ackerman of his generation.

Yet, beyond the denunciations of Trump and disavowals of his candidacy, something larger is going on here.

The Goldwaterites were not only dethroning the East Coast liberal establishment of Rockefeller, but saying goodbye to the Republicanism of President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon.

Something new was being born, and births are not a pretty sight.

What was being born was a new Republican Party. It would be dominated, after Nixon, by conservatives, who would seek to dump the Accidental President, Gerald R. Ford, in 1976. They would recapture the party in 1980, and help elect and re-elect Ronald Reagan.

Vice President George H. W. Bush won in 1988 through the exploitation of cultural and social issues. His Democratic rival, Gov. Michael Dukakis, opposed the death penalty, opposed public school kids taking the Pledge of Allegiance, and had a progressive program to give weekend passes to convicted killers and rapists like Willie Horton.

Once this became known, thanks to Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater, the Little Duke was done. The Dukakis tank ride in that helmet, to show his aptitude to be commander-in-chief, probably did not help.

The crisis of today's Republican Party stems from a failure to recognize, after Reagan went home, and during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, that America now faced a new set of challenges.

By 1991, America's border was bleeding. Thousands were walking in from Mexico every weekend. The hundreds of thousands arriving legally, the vast majority of them Third World poor, began putting downward pressure on working-class wages. Soon, these immigrants would begin voting for the welfare state on which their families depended, and support the Party of Government.

By 1991, free trade had begun to send our factories and jobs overseas and de-industrialize America.

By 1991, an epoch in world history had ended. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the Cold War was suddenly over. America had prevailed.

"As our case is new," said Lincoln, "so we must think anew and act anew." Bush Republicans did not think anew or act anew.

They were like football coaches who still swore by the single-wing offense, after George Halas' Chicago Bears, the "Monsters of the Midway," used the T-formation to score 11 touchdowns and beat the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL championship game, 73-0.

What paralyzed the Republicans of a generation ago? What blinded them from seeing and blocked them from acting on the new realities?

Ideology, political correctness, a reflexive recoil against new thinking, and an innate inability to adapt.

The ideology was a belief in free trade that borders on the cultic, though free trade had been rejected by America's greatest leaders: Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

The political correctness stemmed from a fear of being called racist and xenophobic so paralyzing, so overpowering, that some Republicans would ship the entire Third World over here, rather than have it thought they would ever consider the race, ethnicity or religion of those repopulating America.

The inability to adapt was seen when our Cold War adversary extended a hand in friendship, and the War Party slapped it away. Rather than shed Cold War alliances and rebuild our country, we looked around for new commitments, new allies, new wars to fight to "end tyranny in our world."

These wars had less to do with threats to vital interests, than with providing now-obsolete Cold Warriors with arguments to maintain their claims on national resources and attention, not to mention their lifestyles and jobs.

With Trump's triumph, the day of reckoning has arrived.

The new GOP is not going to be party of open borders, free trade globalism or reflexive interventionism.

The weeping and gnashing of teeth are justified.

For these self-righteous folks are all getting eviction notices. They are being dispossessed of their home.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016rncconvention; buchanan; cruz; cruz2016; donaldtrump; election2016; tallguy; tedcruz; trump
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1 posted on 07/22/2016 6:12:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The self-righteousness and smugness of Ted Cruz in refusing to endorse Donald Trump, then walking off stage in Cleveland, smirking amidst the boos

Cruz is a smelly, stinking, runny pile of Mitt...

2 posted on 07/22/2016 6:18:26 AM PDT by kiryandil (Hillary Clinton is not sophisticated enough to understand the Bill of Rights, either.)
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To: Kaslin

Ted is dead.


3 posted on 07/22/2016 6:23:05 AM PDT by brownsfan (Behold, the power of government cheese.)
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To: Kaslin
About Cruz, a prediction: He will not be the nominee in 2020. He will never be the nominee

We know that, smart/smug Ted has yet to figure out this fact. Ted is the new Ron Paul.

4 posted on 07/22/2016 6:24:55 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Kaslin

Good essay.


5 posted on 07/22/2016 6:26:31 AM PDT by Flick Lives (TRIGGER WARNING - Posts may require application of sarcasm filter)
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To: brownsfan

He did it himself. The next morning he made himself look even worse, whining about Trump.


6 posted on 07/22/2016 6:28:28 AM PDT by Dante3
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To: Kaslin

Rocky paved the way for NY State to become eternally democrat.


7 posted on 07/22/2016 6:29:18 AM PDT by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 50 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: Kaslin

“What paralyzed the Republicans of a generation ago? What blinded them from seeing and blocked them from acting on the new realities?

“Ideology, political correctness, a reflexive recoil against new thinking, and an innate inability to adapt.

“The ideology was a belief in free trade that borders on the cultic, though free trade had been rejected by America’s greatest leaders: Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

“The political correctness stemmed from a fear of being called racist and xenophobic so paralyzing, so overpowering, that some Republicans would ship the entire Third World over here, rather than have it thought they would ever consider the race, ethnicity or religion of those repopulating America. “


8 posted on 07/22/2016 6:29:34 AM PDT by Pelham (Best.Election.Ever)
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To: Kaslin

Ted Cruz sucks.


9 posted on 07/22/2016 6:30:41 AM PDT by jimbo807
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To: Kaslin
"Sometimes, loyalty pays off. "


10 posted on 07/22/2016 6:31:49 AM PDT by Pelham (Best.Election.Ever)
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To: Kaslin
If Ronald Reagan pulled this stunt in 1976 with Jerry Ford, he would never have been president.

That was a bitter primary as well and in fact, Reagan was virtually TIED in delegates with Ford. In other words, Reagan had a much better case against Ford than Cruz ever did against Trump with regard to contesting the nomination.

When it became clear that Reagan simply did not have the delegates, he ended up giving a nice unifying speech at the convention and even went on the campaign trail to support the Ford ticket.

Reagan then ran with the full party backing four years later and went on to serve two terms.

11 posted on 07/22/2016 6:34:59 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Trump 22,512 Twitter Followers away from 10,000,000)
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To: Kaslin

The Cruz display at the convention was like watching the bizarre finale of Sunset Boulevard as Gloria Swanson makes her exit as people watch in amazed horror knowing they are watching “the end”.


12 posted on 07/22/2016 6:35:55 AM PDT by dforest (Ted took your money and is laughing all the way to Goldman Sachs)
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To: brownsfan

Ted is so dense, he is unqualified to be President.


13 posted on 07/22/2016 6:36:50 AM PDT by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
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To: Dante3
I can't shake the sneaking suspicion that Cruz and his stormtroopers had a lot of delegates technically committed to Trump but still scheming. Trump, even though working against the establishment, did them a favor. They despise Cruz, and now we all know why.

And Cruz bringing up the "insulting his wife and family" thing? Give me a break. Cruz said NOTHING condemning the disgusting release of Melania pictures, apparently by folks who supported Cruz. And he still hasn't explained the picture of what looks like his dad with Lee Harvey Oswald, before papa Cruz moved to Canada.

I suspect what we saw is how Trump takes care of those who continually strive to undermine him.

14 posted on 07/22/2016 6:37:35 AM PDT by grania
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To: Kaslin

I’ve been comparing Cruz to George Grizzard in Advise and Consent here for months! And finally, Pat Buchanan mentions it. If you can’t read the book, watch this brilliant Preminger movie. You won’t regret it!


15 posted on 07/22/2016 6:38:48 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: With my own people alone I should like to drive away the Muslims)
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To: Kaslin
To any who read Allen Drury's "Advise and Consent" or saw the movie, Ted Cruz is the Senator Fred Van Ackerman of his generation.

As a former Cruzer, I have been thinking this for the last three days, but never put it in a comment, neither in a vanity. Great minds think alike :-) and it will be Sen. Perry in 2018 who will help continue the Trump agenda in the last two years of his first term.

16 posted on 07/22/2016 6:39:34 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Kaslin
The new GOP is not going to be party of open borders, free trade globalism or reflexive interventionism.

The weeping and gnashing of teeth are justified.

For these self-righteous folks are all getting eviction notices. They are being dispossessed of their home.



AND NONE TOO SOON!

VOTE TRUMP!

17 posted on 07/22/2016 6:39:51 AM PDT by onyx (`YOU'RE POSTING HERE, SO DONATE MONTHLY! NOT NICE TO FREEPLOAD!)
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To: dforest

The contrast between constitutionally righteous Ted and Donald J Trump has never been starker. Trump nailed that speech last night and the election is in the bag, IMO.

The right man was chosen, Ted. Go away.


18 posted on 07/22/2016 6:40:48 AM PDT by jimbo807
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To: Cobra64

Watch out Canada. Rumor has it that he’s on his way back!!!


19 posted on 07/22/2016 6:41:07 AM PDT by Arrian (ost ost)
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To: Iron Munro

Yup.


20 posted on 07/22/2016 6:41:57 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: With my own people alone I should like to drive away the Muslims)
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