The only people thinking Cruz is establishment are Trump supporters, and many of those probably believe e-mails warning about Ted Cruz being a communist in secret (a Trump supporter told me this very thing).
Cruz is either so stubbornly Tea-party, Const. Conservative, that even his fellow republicans have a hard time liking him…Or, he’s insider/establishment. He can’t be both. Trump supporters were always going to think anyone-but-Trump was establishment. Out of the anyone-but-Trump options left to us, Cruz is the least likely to be seen as “establishment.”
And while I think Kasich is more conservative than given credit for, “establishment” would stick on him like white on rice. He’s already seen as such by a wider group than just the Trumpanites. Now to pass up Trump AND Cruz? I can’t help but believe there will be a mass exodus from the GoP.
A conservative who understands there is give and take in politics? That he has to govern for not only those of like mind, but also work with and govern those of different political views?
Or, is it yesterday’s liberal? Adopting the positions liberals have moved on from (to the next)…Again, and again, again.
I would prefer the first. I don’t need the moon promised to me when I know you won’t even come close to reaching it. But I for one will pass on the latter.
Cruz is no outsider…
…creating a false and fierce narrative and both fit neatly into his long-running feature, “Ted Cruz the outsider standing up against the Big Corporations and Big Government,” starring a Princeton and Harvard graduate, successful corporate lawyer, former GW Bush insider and husband to a Goldman banker. Some outsider. Cruz Is Not the Solution: Time to Draft a Moderate? | The Fiscal Times
He’s a self serving politician. This guy may belong on the team, however he has no business making the final decision about anything. We’ve just had 8 years of one term senator BS; I’d prefer we didn’t repeat that mistake.
Yep, foreign policy is one area I part ways with Cruz on. Cruz is VERY Hawkish. Kasich seems much more hesitant and thoughtful about the use of force, and how much force. But, again, I don’t how the GoP maneuvers around BOTH Trump and Cruz. It will be Trump or Cruz.
On national security issues, the electorate has a propensity to favor “strong” and wrong over “timid” and weak. It’s unfortunate for both moderate and internationalist Republicans and hard-power Democrats alike.
I’d disagree to the extent I don’t think the lines between the hated “establishment” and the outsiders is so clear. Often times, it’s disagreement over tactics, not actual ideology. There are plenty of right-wingers in Congress whose ideology is close to Cruz’s (when you honestly look at it), but they understand the stupidity of the kamikaze mission Cruz tried to get the Senate GOP to embark on and hate him for that.
As for Cruz, he’s no populist, and he is an insider when it benefits him and an outsider when it benefits him - that’s the measure of his political career. He can be both, in other words.
I take Cruz at his word, but I think a lot of his hawkishness is talk - he feels the need to overcompensate because he otherwise comes off as geeky and somewhat effete (which he kind of does) and needs to sound extra tough in rhetoric. But then again, maybe that overcompensation continues in action as well as word once on the Oval Office.
Either way, he’s not terribly impressive on foreign policy and his choices for advisors raises real concerns.
The problem I have is in even knowing what “establishment” means. Sometimes it seems to be used for ‘moderate.’ However, it seems to be mostly used to label Republicans who worked to actually pass, or at least shape, something. So yeah, I agree, establishment seems to cover even those who are as ideological conservative as Cruz, yet are more realistic as to what they can actually get done NOW.
Anyways, I just don’t see how the party gets around Trump and Cruz during a convention, for Kasich, and survives. Had Kasich been second in the delegate count going in, I could see it. I just don’t think the GoP can get away with knocking off BOTH delegate leaders.