And it's all really unfortunate.
Last week I watched C-SPANs airing of the 1976 Republican Convention. It was refreshing to see Walter Cronkite alive again. And to watch real journalistic coverage of the full-blown chicanery of that heavily contested convention. But what really struck me was how then-Governor Ronald Reagan conducted himself when the votes didn't go his way. He didn't throw a temper tantrum, he didn't storm out and take his ball and go home, he didn't get up on the stage or go out in a dark alley in front of a microphone and undermine Gerald Ford. Instead he stood up as a loyal Republican, accepted defeat and endorsed Gerald Ford. In turn, President Ford magnanimously brought Ronald Reagan on stage who enthusiastically addressed the crowd encouraging them to go all out for Ford - for the good of the Party and for the good of the country. Quite a contrast from the self-serving, ever-shrinking character of Ted Cruz.
Without rehashing it all here, Speaker Paul Ryan, Governor Mike Pence and others have explained the problem and what's at stake - the Supreme Court, our faltering economy, a disastrous national security, Islamic invasion, deficit rising and on and on. It's clear that we have a binary choice between Crooked Hillary and Donald J. Trump. It's a choice between continuing down the road to ruin and the hope of a bright future.
Ted Cruz doesn't see it that way. All he sees is me, myself and I. The ultimate master of self-aggrandizement And just to think - some of you thought Donald Trump had the biggest ego. Well, we all had that one wrong.
What Ted Cruz does next is not known. It's all but certain that the Senate's loneliest Senator will be encouraged by the Republican elite to continue to act out and undermine the ticket. The Bushes, the Romneys, the Kasichs, the clowns at National Review and anyone else who has a beef with Donald Trump will continue working their scheme even if it means putting Hillary and Bill back in the White House. Lucky for us as powerful as they are, their behavior is checked by We The People. And there will be hell to pay when this is over and Trump is sitting in the Oval Office. For all his newfound discovery of our Old Tyme Religion I can't imagine that Forgive and Forget is one of his newly adopted virtues. Nor should it be. After all - he broke the pledge.
There will be no curtain call for Pompous Lyin' Ted. There will be no endearing eulogy. Nor will there be a legitimate Mark Antony standing to defend Cruz as "the noblest of them all." Instead Ted Cruz and his legacy will die on the trash heap of pretended conviction. And for all the wrong reasons his future will be no more.
It's time to put the naysaying power-grubbing elitists out to pasture and sunset the GOP of old once and for all. It's time to make America safe again, put America back to work again, make America first again, and make America great again. It's time to unify this Grand Old Party and stand behind and elect Republican Donald Trump and Mike Pence to the White House.
I AM,
THE KING