Principle vs. Expediency

The 2016 election offers our best opportunity since 1980 to put a real conservative back in the White House. Given the direction of our economy, the mess the present administration has made of our foreign policy, and the laughable slate of “Demarxist” candidates in the race, there’s no way a Democrat will be elected this year.

I am a Ted Cruz supporter but I intend to wholeheartedly support whomever the Republicans nominate. The stakes are too high to sit home and sulk on election day if my candidate isn’t the Republican nominee. That strategy got us Obama’s second term.

The way the race is unfolding, the choice boils down to either Cruz or Donald Trump. The rest of the Republican field is rapidly losing the interest of the electorate, so the nominee is going to be either of these two men.

Both Trump and Cruz would stop our slide into socialist mediocrity and get us back on a path to prosperity and strength. However, there are significant differences between them and these differences will have a big impact on how much progress we make in getting back our representative republic.

The next president will most likely have Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and the opportunity for real progress is great. Therefore, we don’t want to elect just a very good candidate. We want to elect the very best candidate, the one that can best restore our faith in government.

Many of my fellow Tea Party conservatives are fiercely behind Trump and I absolutely understand and appreciate his appeal. Nobody personifies better giving the Washington establishment and our enemies abroad the figurative “middle finger”. There is an anticipative satisfaction about getting back at those that “done us wrong” that is very seductive. However, is that what we would really be getting with “The Donald”?

As of late, I have been very disappointed and concerned with what I’m seeing out of the Trump campaign and it makes me question just what kind of president he would be. The attacks on Senator Cruz are pure Washington establishment in their technique and mean spirited in their intent. The accusations have become personal, harsh, and meant to distract the less informed voter. Taking issue with policy positions is fine but Trump has allowed himself to wade into the mire of personal innuendo. He boasts about his big national lead in the polls but his latest fusillade at Cruz indicates fear and doubt.

Trump has totally overplayed the attack on Cruz’ eligibility based on his Canadian birth. This will never be successfully challenged in court yet Trump keeps pounding the drum. For Cruz not to be eligible would mean that any child born to those in military service overseas would not be eligible. An employee of a large multi-national corporation working an ex-pat job in Malaysia could not have a child that would be eligible for president.

So what if there are challenges mounted in court against Cruz’ eligibility? Obama had many lawsuits challenging his citizenship and they went nowhere.

Trump attacks Cruz as being unlikeable. He states everybody hates Cruz, that he’s a bad guy. Well, just who is it that hates Cruz? Many in the Senate certainly. Here comes a freshman senator who staunchly honors the commitments he made to the people of Texas who put him in office, who challenges the cronyism that permeates Washington, and who stands on principle and the Constitution. Of course most of the Washington cartel hates him. That’s a great attribute!

What about Trump though. Is he so likeable? The line of people in Manhattan that hate Trump would wrap around the island three times. Ask that poor sound technician at a recent Trump rally if he likes the candidate. When the mike malfunctioned, Trump was bellowing for him to be fired. Think that guy finds Trump likeable?

Trump likes to pontificate about how fierce a leader he is and how he will bring Washington under control. Yet out of the other side of his mouth, he describes his leadership as bringing people together, cajoling them, and doing a deal. We’ve had nothing but deals out of the Republican led Congress and conservatives always get screwed.

My Tea Party brothers and sisters, this is not what we want. Cruz has shown himself to be a man of rock solid principle, willing to stand and fight alone if necessary for conservatism. Is that not what the Tea Party is about?

Why is the Washington establishment now gravitating to Trump? Why do they prefer Trump to Cruz? Could it be because Trump is much more like them? Maybe Trump is more likely to keep the deal making and cronyism alive and well in Washington. Why else would they coalesce around him?

Clearly, Trump is not man of conservative principles but of popular expediency. He is a man of New York and the media. His attempt to refute Cruz’ argument about his New York values with 9/11 did nothing to diminish the very point Cruz was making.

We Tea partiers are ideologues. We are purists like the establishment labels us. We see things in the bold colors Reagan spoke of not the pastels of Washington deal making. Trump would make a good president but we have the best conservative candidate in decades in Ted Cruz. He IS a product of the Tea Party. Let’s get behind him.