For grass-roots conservative Republicans -- mocked by the Beltway's imperial punditry and lied to again and again by the
They can watch the
Or they can wait for those same Republican establishment lords to drop to their knees and begin that slow crawl, over the broken political corpse of
Ahhh.
At times like this, I just want to enjoy a fine cigar, think of revenge as a dish best served cold and consider a great line from antiquity such as this one:
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
The
But Romney is no Ragnar Lodbrok, king of the Vikings. And he's no Sir Lancelot. Romney is the wimp who lost to President Obama. And even a horse named Milquetoast would buck Mitt off, then kick him.
If the establishment tries a convention power grab here's what would happen: Angry Trump voters and angry Cruz conservatives would grab their pitchforks, staves and torches and walk out, but only after burning the
So if the
New polls show Trump whomping Rubio in Marco's native
Either they help clear the field for Cruz or open their arms and embrace The Donald.
All that Kasich was doing in this campaign was running for vice president and whining. And Rubio? Calling yourself a conservative and foreign policy expert in TV commercials doesn't make it so.
Rubio's wild talk of enforcing a no-fly zone in
Rubio has political talent, he's got a great immigrant story. He's quick-witted. But he listened to the establishment siren song. And he tried to fight an alley fighter over the size of a man's hands.
Now Rubio is what's left after the toast is gone: dry crumbs waiting to be swept away.
"To me it's clear that Ted has made the best case thus far that he can be the alternative to Trump," Cruz hater
"The best thing I think could happen is for the party to unite before
Failed presidential candidate
After the 2016 election, as coalition pieces realign, conservatives might want to reconsider things. They might want to think less about "conservatism" as ideology and more about a return to what was once known as the conservative temperament. If they wish to conserve something, why not something concrete, such as the Constitution and its Bill of Rights?
But for this cycle, if Kasich and Rubio were gone, the anti-Trump vote would have a clear choice in Cruz. Some two-thirds of Republicans prefer a candidate other than Trump.
Would a rally around Cruz actually stop Trump now? Or is it too late? I don't know if anything can stop Trump now.
But waiting until the
The common wisdom, which is so often wrong, says Cruz is not a good candidate. He's strident, doesn't have great hair and he lacks charisma. But charisma doesn't make a leader. Backbone makes a leader. Charisma doesn't make a good president, as the past eight years have shown.
And Trump? The Republican establishment has gone out of its way to make him toxic. They've played every card against him. They say he could never defeat
Clinton is tired. And in this year of insurgency from left and right, she is the establishment's darling now. She's the most warlike. She's got
And yet she couldn't even beat
The issue here is
And Cruz? He burned his bridges with the Combine bosses on purpose, publicly, loudly, so there was no hope of return.
It's decision time.
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.