This past few weeks proved a frosty one for Ted Cruz in New York. Consider that a crowd of gala attendees actually turned their backs on Cruz as he was addressing a crowd. A sort of payback for a comment he made about “New York values.”
It’s no surprise then that Donald Trump is walloping Cruz in the polls. The Republican establishment is finally reaping what they’ve been sowing for the past few election cycles. I’ll never forget in 2012 when the Republicans were in their primary cycle and several of the candidates made remarks about “Chicago politics” and how that’s where President Obama came from and was therefore a product of the stereotypical Chicago process.
I was not necessarily mad at those remarks, but I couldn’t understand why anyone would make them. Hey, geniuses, even if you’re not going to win that state in a general election, it would probably make sense not to bash it before the primary cycle is over!
I’m sure to people who have never ventured out of their home state or can’t bring themselves to recognize that New York is one of the most central and important states in this union, the line about New Yorkers having no values must have played like gangbusters.
But, I think this comment perfectly represents the current divide that we have in American politics. Far right conservatives have a nasty habit of believing that America seems to only include most of the Midwest (Illinois excluded), the Deep South and any state proud enough to be a member of that fervently god-fearing region known as the Bible Belt.
But, states like New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, New Hampshire and California? Nah, forget those guys. They aren’t Americans. There are major cities in those areas. And you know what goes on in major cities? Diverse populations, higher tax rates and larger scale governments. Things that the far right can’t stand.
And yet, they’re so very misinformed. Consider Illinois. We are what is typically known as a blue state and yet…we have a Republican governor, the moronic Bruce Rauner, and one Republican senator, Mark Kirk – a champion for our country’s veterans.
One of the Republican parties loudest talking heads of recent years has come out of New York – Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is the hero mayor who helped lift the spirits of NYC and the country in the days following the 9/11 attacks. He then blew what should’ve been the easiest run for president in 2008 and now lives on Fox News making insulting comments about our current president.
But, hey, you can’t expect Cruz to have remembered Giuliani. That would’ve mean that he would have had to think about something that was outside of his comfort zone. And that’s not something Cruz – or any of his far right colleagues – would ever do.
Cruz likely didn’t think he would survive this far and that his New York remarks wouldn’t come back to haunt him and he’d get to smugly hold his nose in the air in some misinformed sense of superiority. I knew I thought he’d drop off early.
Yet, here he is. He’s the second most likely Republican candidate for the nomination and he’s likely going to suffer a huge blowback in New York because he had to go and shoot his mouth off. He had to go and widen the divide that is separating Americans from Americans.
I’d say that Cruz could learn something from the Democrats, but I’d generally say that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have made complete fools of themselves in New York, making key talking points about the subway. Because…. that’s something that New Yorkers do.
I got around to thinking this week and actually thought that now would be an interesting time for a Republican to either enter the race or to re-enter the race. Think about it: Cruz can’t touch Trump. Trump isn’t going to really be able to pull something off and get the necessary votes to cinch this thing up.
If I were Marco Rubio, I’d be all over this thing. Scavenge some votes in the upcoming states, just to generate enough support to get my name thrown out there in a serious context by the time the convention – which will be brokered – comes around.
Why else do you think John Kasich has been sticking around? He knows he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning any real delegate amount to propel him to being the party’s frontrunner. He’s just trying to keep his name in the pot so that when the convention happens the traditional Republicans will think: “Well Trump’s a goon, so we’re not voting for him. Cruz is a weird, pseudo-patriotic dope that hates half of the country, so we can’t vote for him. This Kasich guy: he doesn’t seem to be so bad….”
Now, let’s be clear: whomever the Republicans put forward is probably going to get whooped in the general election. The Republicans are in such disarray that I can’t foresee them fully committing to a candidate and really getting behind this person.
No matter who ends up getting the nomination, there will be sore feelings on one side of the party. If it’s Trump, the establishment is going to plotz. If they pick anyone else, the dopes in the party are going to raise heck and cause such a raucous that I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an abandonment of the selected candidate and a schism within the party.
Ugh. I’m so tired about writing about this. But the Crusade for Sanity wears on….
Brian Laughran
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