Yes, that’s why the GOPe is taking the threat of the shutdown over Planned Parenthood seriously and also why the conservatives are willing to have the fight. Cruz is a leader and they are following his lead.
The electorate is of course a factor because the GOPe knows they are behind the conservatives in this fight. But with Trump out of the picture, that electorate wouldn’t be going to Bush, it would be going to a non-establishment candidate. The electorate would be making their voices heard one way or the other.
For every tiny nitpick of a Cruz vote you can make, we can point to Trump’s long history of supporting liberal policies and funding Democrat candidates. Somehow I doubt you’d give Cruz a pass if he had donated money to Pelosi.
Trump gave money across the board, he was not and is not a politician. No, I don’t like it but I accept it is the price of doing business in today’s political environment. Would Trump have even been allowed to play if he did not play by the rules of the power brokers, I think not. He worked within the existing system, he did not make the rules. But he beat the hell out of them and became a billionaire. When was the last time conservatives had a win of any kind? All the government shutdowns and threats of shutdowns have produced nothing but more losses. Sure, this is due mostly to the gope leadership. But Cruz is part of that gope ledership as evidenced by his votes for TPA and the corker bill. Both of these issues are directly in contradiction to everything Cruz says he stands for. And yet when push came to shove, Cruz voted the way the gope told him to. These are not nitpickey little things, these have the real probability of destroying us as well as other countries. What will happen when he is the president and the gope leans on him?