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Ted Cruz Booed for Saying All Candidates Matter

In the Imperfect Analogy Department, Ted Cruz enraged Trump Lives Matter delegates last night by insisting that All Candidates Matter.

Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz

In his speech to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ted Cruz said nothing “wrong,” at least from a Republican speechmaking perspective. His reference to LeBron James nicely connected local fandom to the larger message of scoring a comeback victory for America and perhaps even slyly self-deprecated the speaker’s own hoop-clueless gaffe back in April. His story of the tearful orphaned daughter of one of the five Dallas police officers slain in the state he represents fit perfectly with the fearmongering that has characterized nearly every performance at The Q this week. It also stoked the martyr complex of the Christian conservatives in the room—”He protected the very protesters who mocked him because he loved his country, and his fellow man. His work gave new meaning to that line from literature, ‘To die of love is to live by it.'” (That’s not plagiarism, but it’s a weak citation: the quote comes not from faceless “literature” but from Victor Hugo.) He invoked “evil” and “radical Islamic terrorism.” Cruz listed a series of firm Republcian policy positions—school choice, repeal Obamacare, unregulated Internet, freedom of conscience, right to bear arms, end of judicial activism, states’ rights. He attacked Hillary Clinton (with the crazy assertion that “Clinton believes that government should make virtually every choice in your life,” which even my ten-year-old responded to immediately with “That’s not true!” but which is fine for the target audience).

Cruz even said Donald Trump’s name… once… to congratulate him on winning the nomination.

But then he made this perfectly reasonable, principled statement, and the convention went nuts:

We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love. That is the standard we should expect from everybody. And, to those listening, please don’t stay home in November.

If you love our country, and love our children as much as you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom, and to be faithful to the constitution [Ted Cruz, speech to Republican National Convention, as transcribed by Roll Call, Cleveland, Ohio, 2016.07.20].

Boo! Boo! went many delegates. “Say it!” some cried, as a “stone-faced and clearly angry” Donald Trump watched and “egged on delegates by pumping his fist.”

Yet Ted Cruz, with that perpetual sleazy-smarmy look that will forever keep him from winning a Presidential election, sneered again at New York and said, “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.”

Wow! Even that sentence, word by word, a denotatively polite compliment, uttered by Cruz in this context becomes a transparent insult to the New York billionaire he refused to name in the last 97% of his speech.

Republican delegates now have an object lesson in why their roaring insistence that “All Lives Matter” is so insulting to Americans who are fighting institutional racism. Ted Cruz is absolutely right that “We’re fighting not for one particular candidate, or one campaign, but because each of wants to be able to tell our kids and grandkids, our own Caroline’s, that we did our best for their future and our country.” But in this context, those otherwise benign words attack the imperative of the moment, to rally behind the last man who can save Republicans from a second Clinton Presidency or a third term for Obama.

I don’t really believe Isaac Latterell and Mike Rounds will walk out of Cleveland with a greater understanding of the proper critique of the “All Lives Matter” retort. Cruz people and Trump people will keep squabbling and fighting for their own disjoint forms of fantastic extremism.

And we Democrats will win the White House can carry on keeping the country together.

67 Comments

  1. Rorschach 2016-07-21 08:06

    This is one unhappy, ununified convention for the GOP Party. Their alligators are biting themselves and each other in the ass. Some of their alligators have been rabid so long they’ve clearly lost their minds.

    Ted Cruz accomplished exactly what he set out to do and is surely happy with his own performance. He even warned Trump ahead of time.

  2. Troy Jones 2016-07-21 08:19

    Ted’s body language was strange. It was like the entire time he had two endings and was struggling on which one to give.

    Also, I think he took a very big gamble. If Trump implodes, he can stand up and say “I stood by my principles” thinking it propels him to the top in four years*. But, if Trump wins, Ted will not be reelected to the Senate and will be back benched like nobody before.

    *I think it is a bad strategy. Too many people will in the party will decide he is persona non grata and he will never recover. Personally, I think we have heard the last of Ted Cruz on a major stage and he will become just a lonely, angry old man (if he isn’t already).

  3. Dicta 2016-07-21 08:27

    This is clearly someone eyeing 2020 as he believes Trump won’t win. I think him refusing to get in line is going to bite him in the ass, though.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 08:39

    I’ll respond to Troy’s comment on Cruz’s body language while not endorsing Trump the same way I responded to commentary about Bernie Sanders’s language while endorsing Clinton: wasn’t that just Cruz’s usual body language? Where Sanders is always serious and gruff, isn’t Cruz always a bit strange, a bit ambivalent, a bit forced, not quite grabbing the audience with confidence?

    I do agree Cruz took a gamble, staking his 2020 claim in the nominee’s face. I agree the strategy is bad form: one can put on a good “party unity” show on the convention stage while laying all sorts of quiet groundwork in the background.

    But Cruz is far from the lone angry man in the GOP. They’ve seen their leading lights vanquished by a newcomer and outsider. The party leadership is making a game showing of unity behind the nominee they are stuck with. But when Trump loses the popular vote by ten points this fall, the GOP will drop him without hesitation. They will treat Trump far worse than Cruz did last night.

    I don’t think Cruz will suffer much more than he would have if he hadn’t made last night’s speech. He will be able to come to the GOP primary voters in 2020 and say “I told you so” with authority. Cruz’s problem is that he’s already unpleasant and unlikeable, even without last night’s speech. If he can’t bring voters along (and look at that body language, look at that face—how can he?), the GOP can easily use his snarkiness last night as one more excuse to box him out.

  5. mike from iowa 2016-07-21 08:39

    “Desperation is a stinky cologne.”
    from Super Troopers movie

  6. Dicta 2016-07-21 08:45

    “I don’t think Cruz will suffer much more than he would have if he hadn’t made last night’s speech. He will be able to come to the GOP primary voters in 2020 and say “I told you so” with authority.”

    His “I listen to the people, not the party” rings a hell of a lot more hollow when he grandstands on a guy who beat the hell out of him on the popular vote, though.

  7. mike from iowa 2016-07-21 08:57

    Msgr_Moment • 12 minutes ago
    These are truly the days of whine and neuroses.

    Someone sure “gets it”

  8. Steve Hickey 2016-07-21 09:02

    Didn’t your team boo God at their convention last election cycle?

    Maybe this was all orchestrated to better position Trump on the left of the republication party and make it easier for Dems and independents to vote for The Donald.

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 09:29

    Steve, your first sentence is a complete distraction. To compare Cruz to God is blasphemy, isn’t it? ;-)

    Cruz doesn’t play in that orchestra. Cruz is just mad:

    “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” Cruz said at a morning meeting where he faced sharp questions from the Texas delegation in Cleveland [Theodore Schleifer and Stephen Collinson, “Defiant Ted Cruz Stands by Refusing to Endorse Trump After Being Booed During Convention Speech,” CNN.com, 2016.07.21].

    …and on that family matter, I’m inclined to stand by Cruz. If someone attacks a man’s wife and his father, is that man not entitled to hold that grudge?

  10. Dicta 2016-07-21 09:31

    How do you format quotes in your comments, Cory?

  11. Rorschach 2016-07-21 09:54

    If Cruz had endorsed Trump after Trump attacked his wife’s looks, accused his father of being complicit in the murder of JFK, and labeled Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” – then Cruz wouldn’t be much of a man. I don’t care for Ted Cruz or his politics, but I can respect his refusal to endorse the guy who took scorched earth to a whole new level on him.

  12. Troy Jones 2016-07-21 09:54

    CH,

    I think Dicta has it exactly right. While Little Teddy wanted to host the “big party” this weekend, people chose another the alternative party. Ted was given an invitation to come and be an honored guest which he accepted. He then chose to insult the host. The pettiness is palpable.

    Jeb Bush stayed home.

  13. Rorschach 2016-07-21 10:14

    Cruz didn’t insult the host. He snubbed the honored guest. Everybody knew he didn’t care for the honored guest when he was invited. He made it known in advance that he would not honor the honored guest, and he was invited to come anyway just on the hope that he might have a change of heart. The GOP Party knew what it was getting with Cruz; he was open about that. The whining after the fact is kind of funny.

  14. Troy Jones 2016-07-21 10:32

    Ror,

    First, Trump is more than the honored guest and is at least the co-host. Cruz wouldn’t have been given a time slot without Trump’s approval.

    Second, I think it is better Trump gave him a time slot vs. making Cruz a martyr.

    Third, I’m pretty confident what occurred hurt Cruz significantly more than it hurt Trump. Granted, Hillary might be the big winner but, if past is prologue, somehow Trump will find a way to make it a positive.

  15. Darin Larson 2016-07-21 10:46

    I have to agree with Troy Jones, they did not want to make Cruz a martyr. What they did was give Cruz enough rope to hang himself. About half of his supporters are questioning the guy’s loyalty right now. He is locked out of the big donors suite. The rest of us were questioning his loyalty to anything above himself before last night and now he revealed himself to the nation as the nasty little man that he is.

    I’m pleased as punch right now as Cruz was my number two on the list of most dangerous Republican wackos. He was clearly the loser on this deal, but Trump was not the winner.

    The other story that pleases me greatly is the Kasich being offered the “most powerful VP slot in history” and turning it down. Now there is a guy positioning himself well for the 2020 election and standing by his principles.

  16. Rorschach 2016-07-21 10:52

    Cruz didn’t want Trump angling in for kiss.

  17. Dicta 2016-07-21 10:56

    Getting shut out by Sheldon Adelson is gonna hurt him long term. Also, I still can’t get over how much Cruz looks like Grandpa Munster. Like, eerily so.

  18. Rorschach 2016-07-21 11:20

    This Republican convention is certainly not working out the way the party hoped it would. They wanted a unifying event, and this convention is just the opposite. Their nominee is such a jerk, such a liar, that he has alienated a majority of the party regulars. The worker bees. The ideologues. The elected officials. The big donors. Even the folks at the convention who have convinced themselves they need to put on a good face for the good of the party are demonstrably lacking enthusiasm for the job at hand. It’s a sad time for the elephant.

  19. Bill Reynolds 2016-07-21 11:30

    One of the things that struck me is how Cruz apparently was vilified for using such language as “vote your conscience” a day after the local paper quoted a South Dakota delegate and flake of long standing referring to “those lunatics who think they can sway the election because they want to vote their conscience.” Is there some sort of new dog whistle that I’m deaf to? One that implies that voting one’s conscience, or having one, is something to be condemned?

  20. mike from iowa 2016-07-21 11:57

    Adelson to Cruz last night-

    I always said that that’d be it
    That I wouldn’t stick around
    If it ever came to this
    Yet here I am, so confused
    How am I supposed to leave
    When I can’t even move
    In the time it would’ve took to say
    ?Honey I’m home, how was your day’
    You dropped a bomb right where we live
    And expected me to just forgive?
    Well, that’s a mighty big word
    For such a small man
    And I’m not sure I can
    ?Cause I don’t even know now who I am
    And it’s too soon for me to say forgive.

    Many thanks to Rebecca Lynn Howard for my stealing her prescient song lyrics from the song “Forgive.”

  21. Don Coyote 2016-07-21 12:14

    @Bill Reynolds: “vote your conscience” was the rallying cry that the #nevertrump delegates were using when they challenged the convention rules to unbind the delegates. I suspect there might be more than a little buyer’s remorse with the nomination of Trump just like at the ’76 RNC that nominated Ford but really preferred Reagan. And contrary to what the media is stating, Reagan didn’t endorse Ford either unless you want to count Reagan’s equivocal statement “We must go forth from here united…” from his speech. Reagan refused to campaign for Ford even though he was asked.

  22. Don Coyote 2016-07-21 12:18

    Thank you Ted Cruz! Thank you for standing up for your family and for conservative principles. Now go buy yourself a bigger pair of pants to better fit your cajones.

    Cruz 2020!

  23. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-21 12:23

    So, what is big deal? Aren’t trump and republicans opposed to being political correct? Ted Cruz was simply following the party mantra and winged trump with his political correctness.
    This morning trump said he saw Cruz’s speech hours before it was to be delivered and it included ‘the pledge’ to endorse trump. Either trump is lying or he didn’t really know or care what Cruz had to say.

  24. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 12:29

    [Tech note for Dicta! The comment section allows the use of “blockquote” tags. For example, type this:

    <blockquote>Four score and seven years ago…[Abe Lincoln, <a href=”http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/ speeches/gettysburg.htm”>remarks</a>, Gettysburg, PA, 1863.11.19].</blockquote>

    …and you should get this:

    Four score and seven years ago…[Abe Lincoln, remarks, Gettysburg, PA, 1863.11.19].

    Hyperlink with “a href” tag is bonus. Enjoy!]

  25. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-21 12:31

    Coyote,
    Cruz’s reference to voting seemed to me that he was reminding delegates about the ‘vote your conscience’ rally at the opening of the convention.
    Cruz seemed to be itching to say #nevertrump, I wish he had.

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 12:43

    Bill, you emphasize a point that stands out to me, how a perfectly moral, commendable statement can be turned into fighting words. I will use this example in future English classes.

    Troy, I appreciate your fuller commentary on DWC, and I appreciate the notion of that one should disrespect the host/honoree of a big party to which one is invited.

    But playing with that metaphor, could I carve another position on which Cruz can justify his refusal to endorse? The party is Cruz’s. He helped elect George W. Bush. He’s served the GOP longer and more substantively than Trump. As an elected Republican Senator, Cruz has as much claim to be a host/honoree at the RNC as Ryan, McConnell, Daugaard, and Trump, because, as he said, the convention isn’t just about one candidate. Trump is crashing the party (at least two meanings); Cruz has a right to say so… and he didn’t even say it explicitly! He said it by the omission of one key phrase and by dedicating his remarks to other, denotatively honest and moral statements about what the Republican Party should be about.

    Again, the Cruz speech is a fascinating rhetorical exercise. It may also be a childish snitfit. Cruz might have said as much while doing less damage to his brand by doing the Thune-skip and holding his own campaign events. But, learning from Trump, Cruz is perhaps assuming that he gets more press by saying something than by saying nothing.

  27. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 12:47

    Roger, there’s another interesting rhetorical dimension to Cruz’s speech: was he demonstrating for the convention how political incorrectness would sound in their context? Or was he actually trying to make a politically correct speech by saying all the right words (congratulate Trump, vote for principle) while jabbing Trump entirely with the words he didn’t use? Was it Cruz just trying to prove that he’s far more clever, far more the wordsmith than Trump?

  28. Dicta 2016-07-21 13:13

    Thank year, dear Cory[Me, remarks, The Unbearable Lightness of Posting (on a political blog), 1863.11.19].

  29. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-21 13:20

    What is trump and the republican conventioneers so upset about, aren’t they the party opposed to the mantra of being political incorrect/correct? Wasn’t Ted Cruz doing just that?

  30. Rorschach 2016-07-21 13:50

    At the moment, “Vote your conscience” rubs Trump supporters at the convention the wrong way in the same manner that the term, “Choose Freedom” rubs pro-lifers the wrong way.

  31. Troy Jones 2016-07-21 14:21

    Don Coyote,

    I read Reagan’s words as a strong endorsement. First, the beginning of the speech was kind, gracious, and so personal all said DIRECT to President Ford. And in concluded with Reagan say again direct to the President: “We must go forth from here united, determined and what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory, Mr. President.”

    He might not have said “I hereby endorse Gerald R. Ford for President in this November 1976 election” but he made it clear he desired his victory.

    And the context was different. Reagan had just two days ago lost the nomination fight in one of the closest one ballot convention votes in history. I’m sure Reagan was still stung. Little Teddy has had over two months to get over it.

    I’ve got a feeling in the end the kick in the teeth to Pence (who endorsed Cruz in the key Indiana primary which was the last real chance to stop Trump and propel Cruz) will be the ultimate nail in the coffin to Ted Cruz. There isn’t a person in their right mind going to be willing to go out on a limb for Ted Cruz because he has proven capable of cutting not only the limb down but also the tree.

  32. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 14:31

    Jonah Goldberg of National Review writes that the indecorum Cruz may have exhibited in some observers’ eyes doesn’t amount to a hill of beans compared to Donald Trump’s degradation of politics and civil discourse.

    But if the choice is between forgiving Ted Cruz’s obvious political calculation to become the standard bearer of an authentic conservatism or Donald Trump’s lizard-brain narcissism where no principle or cause outranks his own glandular desire to be worshipped like a conqueror atop the carcass of conservatism, I choose Ted.

    If the choice is between, say, congratulating the Boy Scoutish obedience of Mike Pence as he sells off bits and pieces of his soul like jewels from a family heirloom just to survive another day or Ted Cruz, who took the tougher road and refused to join the mewling mobs of toadies, apologists, human weathervanes, difference-splitters, and vacillators, I choose Ted. If the choice is between suspending the rules of decorum, decency, and civility for Donald Trump as he casually badmouths his own country to the New York Times just as he secures the presidential nomination of the Republican party or accepting that we are in dark and uncharted waters and conscience must light the way, I choose Ted [Jonah Goldberg, “I Choose Ted,” National Review, 2016.07.21].

    Ted Cruz didn’t say one uncivil word last night. Imagine what we’d have heard if Donald Trump had been in that situation. I know saying “He’s better than Trump” sets the bar on the ground, and I have little interest in loving Cruz, but Goldberg helps make clear that, if we’re going to stone anyone for being impolite, we should save our rocks for tonight’s main speaker.

  33. mike from iowa 2016-07-21 15:25

    You guys talk about this as though it actually matters in today’s world. It don’t. Drumpf will be a lonely stain on a footnote to history that wasn’t.

  34. Douglas Wiken 2016-07-21 16:24

    Cruz is crazy. There is a reason he has no friends in the Senate. His speech has little to do with principle and integrity and everything to do with ego and vanity. If Trump did nothing else worthwhile, he knocked Cruz out of consideration.

  35. leslie 2016-07-21 16:55

    troy, that’s what we are hoping-that trump not only breaks the limb, but takes the whole tree down. nov 5th we’ll talk, unless u guys figure out how to steal another election.:)

  36. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 16:56

    Douglas, I can’t let him go that way. Cruz is catching hell because he pricked the conscience of the majority of Republicans who are ignoring their principles and voting against Hillary Clinton for a man who is rude, crude, and obnoxious (and I don’t think that’s a partisan evaluation). If you’re right that Cruz is out of consideration for any future nomination, that only heightens the strength of his message: he was willing to walk into the arena; speak words that, in any other situation, no Republican would have booed but which, in this situation were toxic; and drink the hemlock with a smile on his face. If you’re right, Doug, Cruz gave up everything to speak the truth about Donald Trump and about any Republican who would surrender his or her principles to vote for Trump.

    I think that’s why Cruz’s speech appeals to me. He marched in against the bully, he had hundreds of people jeering him, and he stuck with his message. It makes me queasy to admire Ted Cruz, but there was something in last night’s speech to admire.

    So, how do you all think Bernie Sanders’s speech next week will compare to Cruz’s?

  37. Darin Larson 2016-07-21 17:09

    Cory, take your closing-time-beer-goggles off. Ted Cruz did not try to do something noble last night. His speech and appearance were a purely selfish effort to claim first dibs on the next Republican presidential race. Cruz badly miscalculated how his message would be received as the closed door of the mega donor’s suite told him.

    Ted is all about Ted. He is perfectly willing to have Trump lose and in that scenario he envisions himself riding to the rescue in 2020. Cruz’s speech was naked ambition on display for the world to see. I think he better start thinking about how to defend his Senate seat in 2018 because there is going to be people coming out of the woodwork to run against him.

  38. owen reitzel 2016-07-21 19:04

    I’m going to have to stick up for Cruz on this. What Trump did to him during the campaign was BS and if Trump had said that about my wife and father I’d do the same thing. Now if it was just a difference of opinion on policy and Cruz did this then I’d have a problem with Cruz. Trump just reaped what he has sown.

    That being said I’d like to change the subject a bit Cory. In his speech Cruz said that it was the Republicans who get credit for the civil rights movement. I’ve heard this before and it’s not true.
    Liberal/moderate Democrats and Republicans (now known as RINOS) got the civil rights bill through. Conservative Republicans and Democrats were against it and those southern Democrats switched to the Republican. I’m tired of these right-wingers trying to rewrite history.

  39. Darin Larson 2016-07-21 19:43

    Owen, if Trump had said that about my wife and father I wouldn’t be at his coronation in the first place. Ted wasn’t there to take issue with Trump’s name-calling. Ted was there to remind everyone that he will be the conservative who will be there to pick up the pieces when Trump explodes. Instead, Ted miscalculated and is watching his own political career explode.

  40. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-21 19:56

    Cruz may not be liked very much in the senate, but he may have garnered some support from fellow senators.
    John Thune, John McCain and how many more republican senators have refused to attend the convention or to endorse Trump.
    Cruz may have endeared himself to those fellow senators for speaking his mind and maybe theirs.
    Cruz put a lot on the table last night, if his calculations are right and Trump loses there is no harm no foul. If Trump wins and republicans continue to run the senate he’ll relegated to water boy

  41. Darin Larson 2016-07-21 20:07

    Roger said “Cruz put a lot on the table last night, if his calculations are right and Trump loses there is no harm no foul.”

    I respectfully disagree. If Trump loses, especially if the election is close, Cruz will be blamed for not being a loyal officer on the battlefield against Hillary Clinton. You can be a lot of things in politics and get forgiven by fellow party members. Being disloyal on full display in front of the nation is not one of them.

  42. Roger Cornelius 2016-07-21 20:14

    In the final analysis on whether Trump wins or loses, Cruz’s role isn’t that critical except to Trump who will hold a grudge against him.
    By general election day, the Cruz issue will pretty much be forgotten.
    Who knows, as crazy as Cruz is he may still end up endorsing Trump

  43. grudznick 2016-07-21 20:32

    Mr. Cruz will be hard to forget. He’s a funny looking fellow.

  44. owen reitzel 2016-07-21 20:42

    You could be right Darin. Cruz is a different guy.
    But I’d go to the convention to screw with Trump if he has done that to me.

  45. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-07-21 20:53

    Darin, indeed, there is something to be said, when attacked by a bully, for not letting him goad you into taking further shots. I would like to set two alternative universes side by side—one where Cruz makes this speech, another where Cruz stays home and quietly plots a better 2020 campaign—and see in which universe Trump loses by the larger margin.

  46. Jenny 2016-07-21 21:57

    Cory, aren’t you listening to your man the Donald right now?
    He’s sounding like a democrat tonight. :0

  47. Jenny 2016-07-21 21:59

    What, the GOP candidate respectfully mentioning the LGBTQ community? The times they are a changin’….

  48. Darin Larson 2016-07-21 22:01

    Trump’s speech tonight should be called the “Parade of Horribles” or the “Ugly American.” In fact, the whole convention could go by the name “Parade of Horribles.”
    He seems to be blaming Hillary Clinton for everything under the sun including the war in Iraq.

    Still waiting for any specific policy proposal to back up any single thing that he says.

  49. daleb 2016-07-21 22:36

    Wow. I guess I shouldnt be surprised I find more civil debate here than among republicans even some grassroots conservatives over the cruz trump whatever ya wanna call it.

    Establishment GOP hate Cruz. They all make fun of him to his face, including our fine representatives in congress. While Cruz has had very limited success stopping legislation in the Senate, hes been very instrumental in stopping legislation in the House of Representatives. He’s done that by rallying newly elected republicans that are conservative and organizing them. Ive thought Trump is a plant from the very beginning, and the GOP blogisphere has put out from the very beginning of the primary that the GOP is ok losing this election. The polling in conservative leaning states isnt good for Tump. He polls about even with Romney and McCain among men. But when women and minorities are considered he is around -30 points compared to Romney and McCain. Those women and minorities are also polarized in their dislike of Trump making them likely to donate and work for Democrats. Romney and McCain both lost badly to Obama without the negatives women and minorities had last 2 presidential cycles.

    I think the GOP made some kind of deal to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. Part of the deal is having Hillary taking out Ted Cruz. They decided to include their good friend Trump. In exchange Cruz wont become the nominee, his popularity suffers, and he will be less effective in Congress now. GOP still keeps their committee positions and their power. What does trump get out of the deal? More access to projects like the Washington DC Post Office…

  50. Don Coyote 2016-07-22 00:05

    @owen reitzel: “Liberal/moderate Democrats and Republicans (now known as RINOS) got the civil rights bill through. Conservative Republicans and Democrats were against it and those southern Democrats switched to the Republican. I’m tired of these right-wingers trying to rewrite history.”

    Nope. Without Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen’s, IL (R), leadership the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was doomed by the Southern Democrat’s filibuster. Dirksen was hardly a RINO. He supported Senator Robert Taft, the head of conservative wing of the Republicans, over Dewey and Eisenhower for President. He was friends with Senator Joseph McCarthy and voted against his censure. He was a conservative on economic policy and one of leading hawks on the Vietnam War. Many conservative Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act including South Dakota’s own Karl Mundt. Proportionally, a higher percentage of Republicans voted for the Act than did the Democrats.

  51. Stace Nelson 2016-07-22 00:19

    You have to admit, some of this is hilarious. Those outraged that Sen Cruz did not utter the word “endorse” never spoke a peep about some of the ugly comments made during the primary and they are ridiculously silent about those who did not show up, did not make the same diplomatic non-endorsement.

    Outrage over Latterall’s staged gesture? But no outrage that the delegation leader was MIA?

    Outrage that a staunch conservative exercised his 1st Amendment right by not saying the word “endorse” but no outrage for those who vote more often with Democrats than with Republican principles? https://www.conservativereview.com/scorecard?MyMembers=false&state=SD&sort=Score&order=Descending&page=1&pageSize=50

    This election should have been a GOP president a slam dunk, that should have brought the party tightly together.

  52. Jon H 2016-07-22 00:21

    The Grateful Dead should have played for this convention–“Uh huha what a great trip it has been”!!!!

  53. Don Coyote 2016-07-22 00:26

    @Troy Jones: Reagan historian Craig Shirley says there never was a Regan endorsement of Ford.

    “Reagan historian Craig Shirley, who literally wrote the book on Reagan’s ’76 campaign, maintains that he never endorsed Ford. “He spoke of many things, about freedom and tyranny and the future. He did not speak of or even endorse the candidacy of Gerald R. Ford for president of the United States,” ”

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/you-know-who-else-didnt-endorse-the-republican-nominee-ronald-reagan/

  54. Jon H 2016-07-22 00:30

    I think I quoted Jerry Garcia wrong—sorry—“Uh huha what a STRANGE trip it’s been”!!! — Sorry Jerry–that’s better!

  55. Troy Jones 2016-07-22 07:09

    Stace,

    I’m not critical of those who didn’t go to the convention because I think that is the proper response vs. going and launching a future campaign when we are in the middle of this campaign. The fact remains Cruz (and a long list of people I preferred over Trump) got walloped fairly in the primary and caucuses.

    You are correct. What Isaac did was staged and it came off badly mostly because it was Isaac making his personal statement when he had accepted a position as delegate which required him to accept and support the choice of the GOP primary voters. If he couldn’t accept and support as per his duty out of personal conviction, the honorable thing was to stay home.

    I have no problem that Cruz exercised his First Amendment Right but the exercise of those rights isn’t without consequence. I found what he did rude and selfish.

    I agree this should have gone different but it didn’t. Trump won a majority against an extremely large field. I’m not dictator to pick the nominee so I can pout my choice didn’t win or I can make a mature choice based on the reality before me: Do I prefer Trump to Clinton or not?

  56. Darin Larson 2016-07-22 07:33

    Cory, you asked how will Bernie’s speech next week compare to Cruz’s. I think Bernie’s speech will not be about Bernie securing his place in line in case Hillary falters. That is one difference. I think Bernie’s speech will specifically endorse Hillary and the necessity of electing Hillary. That is another difference. Also, I hope that Bernie points out the absurdity of electing a 1%er like Trump, who has gained enormous wealth by buying politicians all over the country, to work for the common person.

  57. Steve Sibson 2016-07-22 07:49

    “I think Bernie’s speech will specifically endorse Hillary and the necessity of electing Hillary.”

    Kid of ironic for a socialist to endorse a crony capitalist for the economic elites.

  58. Darin Larson 2016-07-22 09:33

    Sibson, you have been noticeably quiet on attacking Trump in my estimation. Especially since he is the definition of a crony capitalist who has used the system to multiply his millions into billions. Just ask him. He said last night in a rare moment of candor that no one knows the system like him. He knows the system because he is the king of buying politicians.

    It is sad that you would not call out the crony capitalist, Donald J. Trump. Sad, sad, sad.

    Now, I have a theory with my amateur psychology degree (it is the same as the degrees Melonia Trump has) on why you have not gone after Trump. It is because you have been predicting the end times and you know Trump is the one man who can get us there.
    It is sad that you would wish for the end of the world as we know it just to fulfill your prophesy.

  59. Don Coyote 2016-07-22 10:42

    @owen: Ah an AddictingInfo.org link. I always use the websites of clickbait artists for all my history reading. Bwahahahaha! What a load of crap.

  60. owen 2016-07-22 10:56

    I’ll see if I can find a better source for you Don, but all you had to do was look at the audience and see how many African-Americans were there.
    Now watch the Democrat convention and look in the audience. Notice the difference.
    Whiuch party has made a difference?

  61. mike from iowa 2016-07-22 11:09

    Owen’s link is 100% true. regardless of what Coyote says.

    If memory serves, more Dems voted for the civil rights act than wingnuts who claim to have championed civil rights. And I’ll bet ole Loose Brained Jackass was twisting many an arm to line up sufficient votes.

  62. Douglas Wiken 2016-07-22 11:53

    Cruz is a politician with no redeeming virtues. He is a “Christian” version of radical Islamicists intent on turning democracies into Caliphates.

  63. Don Coyote 2016-07-22 12:22

    @mike on mars: Of course more Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act than Republicans but only because there were more of them. Percentage wise, a greater percentage of Republicans supported the Act than did Democrats. Here’s the final tally:
    House
    Democrats: 153/244 (63% aye)
    Republicans: 136/171 (80% aye)

    Senate
    Democrats: 46/67 (69% aye)
    Republicans: 27/33 (82% aye)

    But those numbers would have been for naught except for one man, one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate – Minority Leader Everett Dirksen who had expressed concerns over the constitutionality of the Act and risked a great deal of personal political capital within his party to invoke cloture on the Southern Democrat’s filibuster.

    “There are many reasons why cloture should be invoked and a good civil rights measure enacted. It is said that on the night he died, Victor Hugo wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment, ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’ The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.” – Everett Dirksen.

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