In a Party Filled with Cowards, Cruz Stood Apart

He used his platform to express principles, not to fall in line.

Say what you will about Ted Cruz’s politics or personality, but it takes a special kind of chutzpah to stand up at a convention — in front of millions of viewers — and unfurl a comprehensive attack on the party’s nominee. It’s also unprecedented. On Wednesday night, Cruz gave a commanding and inclusive speech about conservative values. It was so good that the crowd forgot to boo until he was more than halfway finished.

“Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom . . . (so that) we will be able to say, ‘Freedom matters, and I was part of something beautiful.’”

All these words were broadsides against Donald Trump’s candidacy. By the end, the crowd tried to drown him out with boos and pro-Trump chants. Cruz’s wife had to be escorted out of the convention center because a mob of Trump fans was threatening her. A man in a donor suite had to be restrained when Cruz walked by. They didn’t want something beautiful at the Republican National Convention; they wanted something angry.

When Trump first ran for president, he claimed that the Republican party was nothing but a bunch of spineless weasels who didn’t have the mettle to fight. Trump then won the nomination, and most of the Republican establishment proved his contention true by backing a candidate whose worldview directly conflicted with their own stated beliefs.

Read the rest of this National review op-ed HERE.

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