Credit: Mike Segar, Reuters |
Cruz's prime-time, televised snub of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention was the moment when America's most extreme Republican became a heroic voice of conscience.
During the July 4 holiday weekend, my daughter texted me a selfie from the Connecticut coastline where she was visiting a friend’s family. At first, I could not fathom the image. Here was my 22-year-old, a Hillary Clinton supporter from a family of fervent Democrats, smiling with another vacationer on Fishers Island: The right-wing Republican senator and recently defeated candidate for the presidential nomination, Ted Cruz.
By now, three weeks later, I consider that snapshot a strange kind of presentiment for the entirely unexpected role Cruz has played in clarifying the stakes in this campaign and the starkly dangerous role Trump has in it. The provocateur behind a government shutdown in 2013, the advocate of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant positions nearly as extreme as Trump’s, a favorite of zealots in the Christian Right and the National Rifle Association, Cruz has stunned the American public by becoming the least likely hero.
His heroism is all the more confirmed by the hatred he has received from Trump’s convention clones, who booed the Texas senator off the stage, as well as more traditional conservatives who wanted him to obediently close ranks on the theory that Hillary Clinton is somehow a greater threat to the republic than the American version of Mussolini.
Cruz’s perfidy, of course, consisted of refusing to endorse Trump while addressing the Republican convention, contravening a written pledge all 17 Republican candidates had signed months ago. Rationally enough, amid a Republican race short on rationality from its frontrunner, Cruz contended that such a pledge was overridden by Trump’s scurrilous attacks on the senator’s wife (for her appearance) and father (for consorting with Lee Harvey Oswald in the JFK assassination).Read the rest of this op-ed HERE.
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4 comments:
Cruz left under a hail of boos. It appears he was the one punched. Walker and his other erstwhile allies deserted him. Virtually no one supported him. Like Newt said - it was 5000 to 1.
oh shut up cimbri,,,,TED CRUZ ROCKED....TRUMP SUCKS AND SO DOES HILLARY....BOTH BELONG IN PRISON...GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TED CRUZ
Before you go bragging cimbri think about what you just said. A man, espousing Freedom and love of country, that we should get out and vote, don't stay home, and to vote for those that you feel would best follow the constitution, by voting our conscience. These "incendiary" words were booed by a mob more cult like than anything else. Think about that, they were booing freedom. They booed the idea of "voting ones conscience." If that gives you no pause then nevermind, because it would seem you too are part of the cult. By booing him, the entire party exposed their rank underbelly of mob like mentality, I mean, if someone tells you to "vote your conscience" and you get angry because you KNOW he's not talking about your candidate, then maybe you need to rethink your candidate choice ...No, Cruz didn't just gut punch Donald Trump, he gut punched the ENTIRE party, and those of us that support him are now forever grateful, and utterly committed to him.
When a Christian conservative stands for right and morals, he usually has to stand alone in a crowd of Liberals and Progressives... But Ted Was not alone, God stood with him....
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