Life Among the "Servile" Puppies

"You would think it would occur to him, 'Every place I've ever been, everyone has hated me. My only shot is to tie my wagon to Donald Trump. Maybe I can be attorney general or solicitor general.'"

Ann Coulter

Calls Senator Ted Cruz "a little bitch"

#VoteYourConscience

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas

“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.”

Senator Ted Cruz

Telling Americans to vote their conscience seems like a fine enough ideal to encourage. In an ideal political world, if more people would just vote their conscience it would keep the system honest. But, in a system that encourages (concretizes?) two parties, voting in this country has tended to be about not letting the other guy get in.

That's certainly how the 2016 presidential election is shaping up, with more people hating the opposing candidate than loving their own.

Telling Republicans at their convention in Cleveland to vote their conscience means what? With the absence of an expected, hoped-for endorsement for their chosen nominee, much might be read into it—but what does it actually mean?

The speaker that followed Ted Cruz last night at the convention—the redoubtable veteran pol with the quicksilver mind, Newt Gingrich—spun it around quickly to mean vote for the nominee. Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, has said it meant vote for him.

Even Hillary Clinton has "trolled" the phrase for her own purposes. Does she know that if the Democrat "superdelegates" at the convention next week in Philadelphia heed the call they might not nominate her at all?

Senator Cruz has not said if he'll vote for the Republican nominee—just that he will not vote for Clinton. He would not seem to be steering Republicans to her.

Could it be about the "down-ballot" races, all the other Republicans that might be elected that day? The Senator says he's not asking anyone to write him in.

Trump supporters on whose ears such a call to conscience falls hard might ask themselves why. If they are voting their conscience already  they needn't be upset. If they aren't, well, maybe they needed to hear about it from Senator Cruz.

“I have to say it was somewhat dismaying that, apparently, some of Donald’s biggest partisans right down front, when they heard that people should vote for someone you can trust to defend our freedom and defend our conscience, defend the constitution, immediately they began booing. I’m gonna say that’s a little bit troubling what they’re saying.”

Senator Ted Cruz

Killing Bogeymen

From the Republican perspective, the two bogeymen in the 2016 presidential race are Donald Trump ("The Carnival-Barking Colossus") and Hillary Clinton ("The Bitch of Benghazi"). The best thing to do is to kill the bogeymen.

Deny Trump the Majority . .

Make sure he doesn't get to 1,237

The first objective of anyone on the Republican side who wants to save Republic and Party is to keep Donald Trump from getting the mathematical majority of delegates before the convention in Cleveland. The second objective is to beat him at the convention.

The big bogeyman fear? That if Trump loses the Republican nomination for president he will become a third-party candidate, and then—the other big bogeyman fear—Hillary wins.

Does Hillary Win in a Three-Party Race?

"Bitch of Benghazi"

There's much to this concern that Hillary Clinton wins in a three party race:

1. That's how we got the Clintons in the White House to begin with. Her husband, Bill, never got as much as half of the vote—helped each time by the presence of a third-party candidate. 
2. She's known to have a solid core of voters who would pull the lever for her even if she shot Bill on live television. That number might be 40+% (which would be enough to pull her husband's trick in 1992).

What if none of this comes to pass? She must first escape indictment for a number of crimes she apparently committed while Secretary of State. Perhaps more predictable, is her continued lackluster performance as a candidate. She just ain't got the pizzazz her husband had. In fact, she's a highly-flawed candidate without strong positions—or convictions, apparently.

She screams. She has major health problems. There's Benghazi and too many other failures and scandals (actual crimes) to count. Even her hubby, who's still around to mess things up, apparently thinks she's gone too far left (in trying to become Bernie-lite) to win in the general.

Is Trump Really a Third-Party Threat?

For Donald Trump to open up a third party third, he'd need to finance it—something he hasn't shown any great willingness to do. He's a businessman. He's probably not as rich as he pretends. He can't just pull the necessary billion dollars from his business "empire" and expect it to motor on smoothly. He almost certainly doesn't have that kind of money sitting around ready to be tapped.

Second, he'd have to build an effective third party almost from scratch. Pretending to be a Republican (and conservative one) and crashing the GOP tent suggests the third-party approach presented too many challenges.

Killy the Bogeymen . .

Republicans need to deal with each challenge as it presents itself, never fearing what might happen next. When the next challenge appears, it's time to man-up and kill the bogeymen.

The Smart Move: Saving Party and Republic in 2016

Carnival-Barking Colossus

Republican-side voters are faced with an interesting (read treacherous) choice in helping pick a president this year with their twin objectives: to save both Party and Republic.

The first option they are presented with is to nominate the gate-crashing populist who was a Democrat his entire life, supporting Democrat candidates and progressive policies—with no apparent care for preserving the Constitution—but who appears at times to be unstoppable in his race to Cleveland.

RESULT: LOSE THE PARTY, SAVE THE REPUBLIC

If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination against their wishes, and Hillary Clinton wins the Democrat nomination, they can vote for Hillary in the Fall.

Bitch of Benghazi

RESULT: SAVE THE PARTY, LOSE THE REPUBLIC

This desperate move to save the party—at least in it's pro-big government, big spending adjunct role as pretend opposition to the Democrats—would not matter with the loss of the republic. Those who are considering this option might need to wake up to this greater existentialist danger election of Hillary poses.

They could also create a third party, running a candidate for president they believe is committed to preserving the Constitution. For conservatives who wish to to save the Republic, saving the Republican party is not as important.

RESULT: LOSE THE PARTY, SAVE THE REPUBLIC

Or they could simply nominate the only constitutional conservative candidate in the race, no matter how odious he might now appear to the "establishment"—for standing against them on matters of principle in D.C. 

RESULT: SAVE THE PARTY, SAVE THE REPUBLIC

It's the smart move.

Slaying Dragons

Angels conquer the Wyvern

"One of the things I look forward to most of all is deposing Donald Trump."

Ted Cruz

As a lawyer and competing candidate for president, "deposing" might take on a double meaning—the giving/taking of evidence for the prospective civil case being discussed, and the removing of someone from a powerful position. 

Ted Cruz is all that currently stands between us and the media-made colossus of the Republican gate-crashing Donald Trump—already crowned our future president by pundits, press, and populace. Which might be all right, except that he's harried by the newly-anointed "Establishment candidate" Marco Rubio—who is also a nasty little vato.

The enormity of the challenge is biblical. The name "Theodore", from which "Ted" derives, means gift of God in Greek. "Cruz", meanwhile, means cross in Spanish.

America is certainly at a crossroad, and we might need a gift from God to save us.

"Sell Books"

"Maybe someone wants to sell books, maybe someone wants to be vice president, maybe someone wants to be in a cabinet position. But they sure as heck aren't going to be the nominee of this party. It's either going to be Donald Trump or Ted Cruz."

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

"No One Else to Blame"

“There will be no one else to blame. You can’t blame the progressives. You can’t blame the left. You can’t blame Hillary Clinton. You can’t blame anyone else but the Christians who are not living and voting their principles.”

Glenn Beck

"Look Forward to Most of All"

"One of the things I look forward to most of all is deposing Donald Trump. And for that particular endeavor I may not use outside counsel. I may take the deposition myself."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex)

"Vato"

CRUZ “Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind president Obama's illegal exclusive amnesty.”

RUBIO “First of all, I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish.”

CRUZ "Vato, si quieres dicelo ahora mismo, dicelo ahora en Español, si quieres.”

TRANSLATION “Dude/Man if you want to tell them now, tell them now in Spanish, if you want.”

Republican Presidential Debate

February 13, 2016