Trump or Cruz: Which Revolution Will it Be?

I often come away from the conservative/Christian conferences I’ve attended around the country with the feeling that we’re trying to drive the car by hitting the gas and the brakes at the exact same time.

Although I have met many wonderful people at those events, and received no shortage of inspiration from the speeches I have heard, there is also a shadow that looms over everything. This shadow taunts us with visions of an army, whose soldiers run away or whose weapons jam right at the very moment in the fight when resolve and execution matter most.

McCain. Romney. Boehner. McConnell. We may preach the antithesis of their failure theater at our gatherings, but they snuff out our song nonetheless with equivocation and platitudes. We may wave the flag for a new birth of freedom, but they break off the flag stick and stab us in the back with it.

Are we are tired of it? Yes. But how tired are we, really? Many in the conservative punditry class seem like they would give anything for Donald Trump to stop upsetting the applecart so they could simply go back to peacefully writing their nagging columns about what’s wrong with Democrats. All the while never really coming close to drawing the enemy’s blood or actually risking their lives, fortunes or sacred honors. My colleague here at CR, Daniel Horowitz, not-so-graciously refers to this far too prevalent wing of the conservative movement as the “thumb suckers brigade.”

We insist that isn’t us. That we are the tried and true foot soldiers of American Exceptionalism. That if only we had our chance to seize the battlefield’s high ground, we’d take it and never look back.

A field general with an organizational army of over 100,000 volunteers. A supply train of cash as rich as anyone could hope to amass. A consistent track record of putting principle over position. And the valor to be the first one to charge into battle, and take a bullet for the cause, is standing taller than we could have possibly hoped for when the 2016 GOP presidential field began auditioning last January.

His name is Ted Cruz, and while I have long been a supporter of his, I am also stunned by the simple arithmetic now undeniably calling his name forward.

The deepest presidential field in our lifetime, including the last two Iowa Caucus winners, figured to be a battle royal from the outset. So many respectable candidates would be vying for the same conservative base that even a narrow top three finish would be viewed as a huge success.

Yet with a dozen candidates still in the race, there are only two left who, barring disaster, seem to have a shot at securing 30 percent of the vote when the Iowa Caucus sorts things out roughly 60 days from now: Trump and Cruz.

If you are an actual conservative who has supported somebody other than Cruz up to this point, let me put in plainly: I couldn’t care less what your inner child thinks about that. In politics, it is the rare man who should be considered bigger than the movement. And if that does happen, such a man will have grown to that stature exactly because he is the most capable embodiment of what that movement stands for and hopes to achieve.

Everybody has had a chance at pulling the sword from the 2016 presidential stone. If Huckabee, Santorum, or Rubio (or several others) had built the campaign Cruz has, I would happily be on board. But they didn’t. Cruz did.

A population of die-hards who have attended more conservative book signings and rallies than they can count should no longer be starry-eyed about what is going on here. We can’t proceed as if we are little more than baseball card collectors or NASCAR fans obsessed with a single driver.

None of our gatherings have frankly been worth a warm pile of spit if we can’t coalesce now around a man who can grant American Exceptionalism the booster shot it desperately needs. So if you have a book shelf at home full of preachy tomes and autographed conservative memorabilia, but are still waffling about the path to victory in this race, you missed the whole point of our movement. If indeed a movement we really are, as opposed to an industry.

The 2008 and 2012 Iowa Caucus/GOP presidential primary involved a genuinely difficult decision for voters. That is not the case this time. Either gather around Cruz, on behalf of the values that won the American Revolution, or Trump’s “burn it down” French Revolution will likely win.

For this cycle is about revolution, which is why all the non-revolutionary candidates have been weighed, measured, and rejected by GOP primary voters. And this revolution will be televised, too. It’s just a matter of which revolution’s mission—American or French—will smile for the cameras.

As I wrote here earlier this week, Trump could be unstoppable if he wins Iowa. While his loyalists are people conservatives have often shared common cause with in recent months, and who are justifiably angry by the state of their country and their personal fortunes, let us not pretend we haven’t known all along how raw and unfocused the Trump road into the future will likely be.

And I say that as someone very appreciative of Trump undeniably destroying Jeb Bush and the GOP establishment’s stranglehold on the primary process. Our movement owes him a debt of gratitude for that. But let us also not pretend, on the other hand, that someone who held progressive positions on virtually every meaningful issue just a couple of years ago is really one of us.

If the conservative movement has been about anything other than glorified water cooler talk these many years since Ronald Reagan walked off into the sunset, there is a far better way for them to champion their cause. The pagan-progressive moment that is currently unravelling us has the most to fear from Cruz. If only we will acknowledge he has done everything we have asked for from a standard bearer. He has fought every fight we’ve ever asked someone to take on, and built a professional campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen from a conservative presidential contender.

He has earned our movement’s support. Now it is time for our movement to show it is one, after all, and put all our book sales and sold-out conferences where our mouths have been since the Reagan Revolution.

I believe that your hang-ups WRT Cruz stem from your lack of understanding of the real behind the scenes legislative process, and an obvious lack of understanding of what the particular bills accomplish.

Ah, the tried and true, “you don’t understand the legislative process”...how GOPe of you. What will it be next, low information voters don’t have to worry about this, we’ll take it from here? So, he was for it before he was against it? I seem to recall that somewhere before.

No, I understand perfectly...we have a political oligarchy that wants to desperately protect it’s power base and keep “the people” (the real power base) at arms length from all the sausage making because we just couldn’t possibly understand the nuances involved process - more likely would be disgusted at the process.

At least Trump doesn’t parse his words or equivocate...you know exactly what he’s thinking. Abrasive? You bet. Over the top at times? Definitely. But spot on.

Trump's Record on Health Care and Entitlements: (from the Conservative Review)

Like any good republican, Trump claims to oppose Obamacare, even supporting conservatives’ attempt to defund Obamacare in the fall of 2013. Trump, however, is on record supporting “universal healthcare,” advocating for American adoption of the Canadian healthcare system. This places Trump’s policy inline with the most liberal members of the Democrat Party. Trump has also opposed free-market reforms to Medicare, arguing that growing the economy will solve the problem. To his credit, Trump supports privatizing parts of Social Security, but opposed the recent House GOP budgets citing entitlement reform as the reason for his opposition.

Trump opposes Obamacare, saying, "I will fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that makes sense for people in business and not bankrupt the country." (USA Today)

Trump has advocated for universal healthcare in a system similar to Canada’s government-run healthcare system. “I’m a conservative on most issues but a liberal on health….We must take care of our own. We must have universal healthcare. Our objective [should be] to make reforms for the moment and, longer term, to find an equivalent of the single-payer plan that is affordable, well-administered, and provides freedom of choice.” (The America We Deserve)

Trump supports transitioning parts of Social Security to private accounts, saying, “Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds… Directing Social Security funds into personal accounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy. These investments would boost national investment, productivity, wages, and future economic growth.” (The America We Deserve)

Trump has opposed reforms to Social Security and Medicare, arguing that growing the economy will solve the entitlement program’s insolvency, but has not elaborated on his proposal. "I am going to save Social Security without any cuts. I know where to get the money from. Nobody else does." (Twitter)

Trump believes public assistance should be limited, and that religious institutions should carry the burden of caring for the poor and disadvantaged. (2012 Presidential Candidates)

Trump echoed Democrat talking points when referring to Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budgets, arguing that they were too radical. “I’m concerned about doing anything that's going to tinker too much with Medicare. I protect the senior citizens. Senior citizens are protected. They are lifeblood, as far as I’m concerned. I think Paul Ryan is too far out front with the issue. He ought to sit back and relax.” (Today)

Trump opposes reforming Medicare by transitioning to a voucher program, but he has failed to articulate how he would fix the unfunded program. “I don’t think the Republicans should be out on this ledge….I’m studying that situation very closely, and if and when I decide to run ... I’ll have a plan. The seniors have to be cherished. They have to be taken care of.” (Christian Science Monitor)

Trump supported the conservative effort to defund Obamacare, tweeting at Republican lawmakers that “Congress must defund ObamaCare. It is destroying Medicare and breaking promises to our Seniors, including veterans” (Twitter), and “NO GAMES! HOUSE @GOP MUST DEFUND OBAMACARE! IF THEY DON’T, THEN THEY OWN IT!” (Twitter)

In what sounded all too similar to Obamacare, Trump told 60 Minutes that he would replace Obamacare with a plan that "covers all Americans." That the vast majority of Americans would buy their insurance on an open market, and that the government would pay for those that couldn't afford it. (CBS News)

Trump backed off his call for raising the Social Security retirement age to 70. He told 60 minutes that he would instead save Social Security by having "other countries pay for it." (CBS News)

Trump supports work requirements for welfare recipients. (Time to Get Tough)

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