Ted Cruz hatchets Donald Trump but cuts his own throat/caption
The true test of a mans character is what he does when no one is watching." John Wooden UCLAs 10-time national champion basketball coach
The inverse axiom of this statementwhen everyone is watchingis equally valid. Given the global importance of First World America national political leadership is supposed to be led by adults willing to make the tough country-preserving calls. Why then do todays leaders (on both sides of the aisle) act as petulant ego-driven children?
In this case I refer to coy Ted Cruzs Trump non-endorsement convention speech. What columnist Charles Krauthammer succinctly likened to the longest political suicide note in U.S. History." If Mr. Cruz could not wholeheartedly support the peoples choice he had no business being on that RNC stage. Specifically even sore losers like Ohio governor John Kasich and the dynastic Bush Family (read: JEB) had the good sense to stay away. Yet not this mighty orator of conservative values this Texas senator who exposed himself to all the world as a two-faced Judas. As his personal 2020 presidential ambitions now favor a Hillary Clinton victory Mr. Cruz used the petty excuse of a personal grievance with Trump to put self-interest before the fate of a nation.
Ted Cruz nebulously advised the electorate to vote your conscience" in November. His feeble attempt to hamstring Mr. Trump has in actuality slit his own throat. In the likelihood Mr. Trump wins Mr. Cruz will be correctly marginalized as untrustworthy. On the other hand if the Republican nominee loses Mr. Cruz will rightfully be blamed. Either way the record-setting number of Trump voters will look elsewhere in the future.
Given his established non-team player reputation in the Senate Mr. Cruz is already viewed askance by fellow Republicans. After this latest self-serving stunt he will never be embraced by them. Further he will never be trusted by the Democrats either. Politically he is a man alone; an island unto himself. Although Ted Cruz stated publicly that he did not want the post he could have been a Supreme Court justice. He might even have eventually become commander-in-chief by following Ronald Reagans path (ultimately supporting incumbent Gerald Ford despite losing a contentious primary contest to him in 1976.) Due to his fatal flawhubrisnone of that can happen now. He has consigned himself as a footnote to history. Undone over a couple of terrible and untrue insults regarding his father and his wife. Welcome to politics 101 Teddy: put your big boy pants on and deal with it. Despite the outlier of corrupt Hillary Clintons meteoric rise those with authentic character put country first period.
To contrast Abraham Lincolns fortitude makes him first in the pantheon of many great U.S. presidents. Recall Spielbergs Lincoln" (2012) played sublimely by the 3-time Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Against the heart wrenching backdrop of immense personal tragedythe death of Lincolns beloved 11-year old son Willie (in 1862) and his grief-stricken inconsolable wife Marythe President successfully won the Civil War (the bloodiest American conflict threatening to tear the country in half). To add to his Herculean labors the 16th U.S. president finagled passage of the 13th Amendment over strong Democrat Party resistance which ended the scourge of slavery in America for all time.
Monuments honoring such men of character like Lincoln and Reaganthose willing to sacrifice and/or make hard choices to the greater benefit of the countrywill never be built to the likes of Ted Cruz. His misbehavior at the convention conclusively demonstrates that his lofty rhetoric is meaningless because it is not backed up by corresponding action.
In the final analysis for graciously permitting Ted Cruz a prime time speaking slot Donald Trump is the magnanimous one. That bigger person is likely White House bound. By not being similarly conciliatory the truth about the Texas senator is laid bare. He is a small person who threw away the possibility of lasting greatness (ironically for himself and the country) because it required honoring his public pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. A cautionary tale about not keeping ones word and the exorbitant cost of being thin-skinned (unlike Lincoln). For him all is lost over a grievance stuck in Cruzs craw during a now forgotten primary season.
David L. Hunter is an Associate Editor at Capitol Hill Outsider. Hes on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He is published in The Washington Post The Washington Times FrontPage Mag and extensively in Patriot Post Canada Free Press and American Thinker.