And however imperfect he might be, Cruz would do more to advance the elite plan to remake the GOP for the 21st century than Trump would—especially if Cruz loses in November. His defeat could then be pinned on his being too conventionally right-wing, too Trump-like himself, and on Trump voters bolting the party. That would give the establishment all the more reason to call for a return to the policies associated with Rubio and the 2012 Republican “autopsy.” The failure of Cruz’s Reagan-vintage conservatism would clear the way for a new kind of right in 2020.
.. Trump is not only making promises to American workers that by opposing trade deals he’ll keep good jobs in this country, he’s also bidding for votes by refusing to make cuts to popular government programs. From Social Security to federal funding for Planned Parenthood, voters who want tax dollars to provide services are hearing a pitch from Trump. It’s clear enough where this leads: to a Republican Party that bids with the Democrats to offer voters the most benefits. And if the bidding starts among working-class whites, that doesn’t mean that’s where it will end. If the dream of elite Republicans is to win blacks and Hispanics by appealing to values, the Trump strategy may ultimately be to appeal to their economic interests in much the same way as Democrats have traditionally done.
.. In simple terms, the elite Republican plan is for the GOP to be a multi-ethnic party whose economics are those of the elite itself; the Trump plan is for the GOP to be a party that politically plays ethnic blocs against one another, then bids to bring them together in a winning coalition by offering economic benefits for each group.
.. In a healthy party these factions, Trump and anti-Trump, might learn from one another, the anti-Trump side coming to recognize how it has failed the white working class and the need to provide for it once more; the Trump side acknowledging the demographic realities of the 21st century and the toxicity of strident identity politics.
.. The irony of Cruz’s position is that the party’s future now hinges on how well he can do with an orthodox conservative message drawn from its past.
Cruz’s Preposterous Foreign Policy Team
Heilbrunn mentions that Gaffney has been waging a long-running smear campaign against Grover Norquist, but the more significant lie that Gaffney has been spreading for years is that U.S. foreign policy is being directed by the Muslim Brotherhood. That is just one of his many absurd claims over the years. This is the sort of unhinged, obvious nonsense that is usually not even worth addressing, but since one of the top two Republican candidates for president is listening to someone like this it worth calling attention to it. Cruz has proven once again that he has terrible foreign policy judgment, and he disqualifies himself by indulging the worst sort of conspiracy theorizing and alarmism.
Rubio’s Exit and the G.O.P.’s Spoiled Buffet
There are Republican traditionalists rooting for Trump over Cruz, and the thinking of some goes like this:
.. He’ll embarrass the party and roil the country but maybe not cost Republicans key congressional races. Besides which, he scrambles all rules and all precedents so thoroughly that you never know. Victory isn’tunthinkable, and better a Republican who’s allergic to caution, oblivious to actual information and altogether dangerous than a Democrat who’ll dole out all the plum administration jobs to her own party.
.. “Cruz is a disaster for the party,” one of them told me. “Trump is a disaster for the country.”
.. “If Cruz is the nominee, we get wiped out,” he added, with a resigned voice. “And we rebuild.” The party needs that anyway.
.. In fact, a few Republican traditionalists have insisted to me that a Cruz nomination and subsequent defeat would have a long-term upside. It would put to rest the stubborn argument, promoted by Cruz and others on the party’s far right, that the G.O.P. has lost presidential elections over recent decades because nominees like Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney weren’t conservative enough.
Of Course Ted Cruz Would Make a Better President Than Donald Trump
I don’t know how a President Trump would respond if one of the other coequal branches of government challenged his authority. Indeed, I am somewhat afraid that Trump would ignore or move against that other branch, whether it’s Congress or the Court. But I don’t have that worry with Cruz. He may be an ideologue, but he’s an ideological constitutionalist. Trump is neither an ideologue nor a constitutionalist. His only principle is winning. And he’s not talking about you winning. He’s talking about Trump winning. That’s all that matters to him.
.. Who does Trump idolize? Himself. And his neutral and sometimes flattering attitude toward authoritarian governments ought to make you think twice about seeing him in the Oval Office.