Ted Cruz explains his decision not to endorse The Donald.
A day after being booed off the Republican National Convention stage, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stubbornly defended his refusal to endorse Donald Trump, insisting he is not a “servile puppy dog” who would back anyone who personally attacks his family.
The blatant sign of GOP disunity angered some GOP delegates …
Well.
The question is, Is Cruz sincere? If he is, then I find myself unexpectedly wanting to applaud him. Family should stick together, and Trump’s beyond-the-pale suggestion that Rafael Cruz was somehow involved in President Kennedy’s assassination should be the stuff of an epic, generations-long family feud that dwarfs the Hatfields and McCoys — and shame on Cruz if he ever even obliquely suggests that Trump is a decent human being who deserves to be treated with respect. He is not a decent human being, and he deserves only loathing and contempt — and those who can’t see that deserve little better.
Nor am I surprised that the delegates are annoyed with Cruz. They are mostly evangelicals and, marketing lies about ‘family values’ to the contrary, evangelical Christians affirmatively, explicitly, disapprove of family loyalty. It’s a presumption upon the absolutely sovereignty of their white-trash sewer-god, who alone is worthy of your loyalty, et cetera, et cetera. Has Cruz turned his back on the pious persona that lies at the heart of his branding?
So: Is Cruz sincere? I doubt that very much. I doubt, even, that he can correctly spell ‘sincerity’ or ‘loyalty;’ certainly he has never exhibited those traits in the past, and there is not a scintilla of evidence that either has ever informed any decision that he has ever made in his life.
My best guess is that Cruz believes Trump is going to go down in an electoral fireball that recalls the Hindenberg, and he wants to be positioned to say “I told you so” in 2020.
So … no applause yet. But we will certainly have opportunity to reconsider in the next few months.