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April 25th, 2024

Insight

Time for Cruz to Drop Out for the Good of The Country

Bruce Bialosky

By Bruce Bialosky

Published Feb. 29, 2016

When this election started in what seems like a lifetime ago, I was contacted by the Bush people. After all, I had been a supporter of Bush 43 and one of his appointees. I expressed my concern that I thought it was bad for the country to have another election between a Clinton and a Bush. The world has changed dramatically since then to say the least. We now are facing a presidential election between a congenital liar and an egomaniacal opportunist. The person who can stop that is Ted Cruz by getting out of the race now.

A Ted Cruz supporter will immediately react and say why not have Rubio get out of the race. That is because Cruz just came in third in two states (South Carolina and Nevada) where he should have done much better based on the composition of the electorate. He is facing down the primaries in the South where he could lose every state except Texas and have nowhere to go. If he does that he will have brought Donald Trump that much closer to being the Republican nominee and make it that much less likely that Rubio can overtake Trump.

Cruz supporters are not very favorable to Marco Rubio. They believe he is not conservative enough. They are upset with Rubio’s attempt to settle our broken immigration system. That was certainly a mistake, and Rubio has admitted it. He now knows the two things that have to be done before anything else is secure our Southern border and establish a comprehensive system to track foreigners entering and over-staying their visas. Then the other aspects of the immigration system can be properly addressed.

As unsettled as Cruz and his supporters may be with Rubio, they are off the boards in their distaste for Trump. They may think Rubio is insufficiently conservative, but they know that Trump is barely a Republican and a wild card on most public policy issues. Cruz must shutter at the idea of Trump choosing the person to replace Cruz’s favorite Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Cruz must be quivering at the idea of a presidential debate between Clinton and Trump. The biggest activity that viewers will have is to keep a competitive count of how many times each candidate invokes the pronoun “I.” It is hard to envision two politicians on one stage that are more self-centered than Clinton and Trump. They rarely invoke the word we (You know “We the People’) in any commentaries they make. The only American politician that can compete with these two is our current president who thinks he owns the armed forces and the White House.

There are a couple things we know about Ted Cruz. He is a committed American. The idea of either Clinton or Trump becoming president must be totally abhorrent to him. Second, he is a conservative Republican. Envisioning either Clinton or Trump becoming president must drive him crazy. Neither is a conservative and, though Trump is running as a Republican, neither is a Republican. Cruz has to be fearing either of these people following in the footsteps of Obama.

Cruz needs to not only get out of the race; he must immediately endorse Marco Rubio. He should go out on the campaign trail and make sure that his legions of supporters vote for who would be the only remaining actual Republican in the race and the only one assured of winning in November against Hillary.

Yes, Trump can beat Clinton. I have said that for a long time. But he could just as easily lose. There are many Republicans who would never vote for Trump. Who among Cruz’s supporters and Republicans of all stripes would not despair at the idea of the Congenital Liar becoming president? Imagine a continuation of another four or eight years of the dismal Obama era which Clinton promises.

Cruz would be much better suited as Attorney General or even imagine Cruz filling the gigantic shoes of Scalia on the High Court. None of that would happen with the Congenital Liar in the White House.

This race is not over despite the talking heads alluding to that. It is not over even if Trump wins big on Tuesday. It is over when someone secures a majority of the delegates to the convention that will nominate the candidate for president.

The fate of the Republic is in your hands, Mr. Cruz. Do the right thing. Save your country.

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Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee.

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