Carpenter: Look at the Delegates: It’s a Cruz-Trump Race
By: Amanda Carpenter | March 02, 2016
The morning after Super Tuesday, one thing should be apparent to anyone who can count.
At this moment CNN projects that Donald Trump has won, throughout all the contests, 305 delegates. Ted Cruz has 205. Marco Rubio has 103. John Kasich and Ben Carson are barely asterisks in the race. In other words, it’s a Trump-Cruz race and as such, it’s time to reframe the narrative that has dominated the GOP primary.
The establishment is officially dead. Charitably, those forces have only won one—count it, one—state so far with Marco Rubio’s victory in Minnesota last night. But the ol’ Mondale firewall isn’t going to hold. It’s extremely unlikely Rubio will even be able to win his winner-take-all home state of Florida on March 15th. That’s not only disqualifying for a GOP presidential nominee; that may also disqualify him to be someone’s vice presidential pick if he can’t even deliver his home state.
Two “outsiders,” to dust off the overused term, now dominate the field. And although it can certainly be argued that Trump, with so many of his past and present liberal policy positions, could be labeled an “establishment” candidate, that framing masks the danger Trump’s candidacy poses.
Both candidates agree that Washington is broken, but their approaches to fixing it are quite different.
Every presidential race is a reaction to the one before it, and Trump and Cruz present two very different reactions to the presidency of Barack Obama, both in style and substance.
Trump answers President Obama’s pleas for a “new tone” and civility in politics by calling his opponents, reporters, critics, and really anyone who disagrees with him losers, liars, “chokers,” and bimbos while pretending he has a free pass to do so because he rejects “political correctness.”
Cruz has trained his fire on Washington and those in his own party who haven’t kept their promises; the only person he has accused of lying, deservedly so, is Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump orders that protesters at his rallies—whom he crudely and disgustingly identifies by the color of their skin—be hauled out; Cruz hands them a microphone and invites them to engage in a discussion about their differences.
On the substantive issues, when challenged with any difficult policy proposal, Trump has sided with bigger government every time. Trump was for the bailouts, for the stimulus, and wants the government to repeal Obamacare only to replace it with something bigger. To, in his words, “take care of everyone.”
Trump will largely try to fix the perceived errors of the Obama by working with Democrats to double down on big government solutions. Cruz would insist on a diametrically opposite approach, pushing to shrink the government’s role in the financial and healthcare systems.
Both candidates agree that Washington is broken, but their approaches to fixing it are quite different.
Trump brags that he is the world’s greatest deal maker and will work easily with Republicans and Democrats in Washington. Cruz points to his record of standing up to bad deals brokered by Republicans and Democrats in Washington and promises that, as president, he will continue to hold the line and force Congress to pass more responsible budgets and policies.
So what approach will the Republican Party take?
Although two weeks isn’t much time to change the course of an election, if anyone has given conservatives enough material to work with, it’s Trump.
Trump’s baffling inability or unwillingness to disavow the KKK on CNN’s State of the Union show last Sunday is, and should be, causing serious stomach sickness among those who would feel obligated to defend the GOP nominee in a general election.
Policy wise, the choice between Clinton and Trump is more government or more, more, more government.
Think about how long Cruz has been in the public eye, under the intense media spotlight. He has never come close to making such horrific statements, even while being pummeled with questions by Senator Dick Durbin after filibustering for 21 hours straight on the floor of the U.S. Senate. There’s no excuse, no excuse, for Trump’s interview on Sunday.
In Cruz, the GOP has a consistent conservative who has spent his life defending and promoting the values of the Constitution. He will respect the limits of executive power; Trump will continue to disrespect the Oval Office and divide America far beyond what President Obama even imagined, on both style and substance.
Hillary Clinton will, rightly, eat Trump alive in a general election over his comments about race and women. Meanwhile, Trump will depress GOP turnout as people become unwilling to support his indefensible statements and he abandons any last pretense that he’s a conservative in a general election.
Policy wise, the choice between Clinton and Trump is more government or more, more, more government. The only difference is whom they will target for IRS audits and other forms of government punishment. Either way, conservatives who oppose a President Clinton or President Trump are likely on the list.
The GOP must stop Trump to stop Hillary. There is no other option. And, Cruz, objectively looking at the delegate counts, is the best vehicle to do that.
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/03/look-at-the-delegates-its-a-cruz-trump-race#sthash.zGq5oRyt.dpuf |
