The Republican Party’s presidential nominating circus is about at its midway point and so far the only clear things are that a plurality (30-40%) of the “base” who vote in primaries and caucuses prefer Donald Trump and that everyone else can’t stand the guy. The GOP Establishment — whoever that is these days — is stumbling into line behind Ted Cruz, who’s such a terrible person that even his fellow Congress Critters hate him.
I personally believe Cruz is more dangerous than Trump could ever be. Trump is an opportunist with no political chops or interest who changes positions — to the extent that he even has any — at the drop of a PR advisor’s hat. Cruz is a dangerous fanatical idealogue who truly believes the racist, ignorant crap he spews forth as his stump[ed] speech. Trump’s ignorance is, at least theoretically, fixable. Cruz’ demagoguery isn’t. He actually believes that stuff! And he’s annoyingly smug and self-righteous about those indefensible beliefs.
As a progressive and long-time political kibitzer, I’m convinced it doesn’t ultimately matter who gets the GOP nod this year, he (or she?) is going to get creamed. But I’m also a firm believer in a multi-party system and I don’t want to see the Republican Party fall into ignominy and irrelevance. One-party rule, even if it’s a party I can agree with much of the time, isn’t a good plan for running a democracy’s political side.
So I’m rooting for a contested convention which nominates someone who isn’t sullied by the current filth the GOP has put on as a presidential selection process. I have no idea who that might be but I’m sure it will be someone with conservative cred, which is enough to sink them in the General without destroying the party in its entirety.