To the Cruz Supporters

 I have no idea what he is doing in this picture

I understand your position. I used to support Cruz. I know that the only thing you can do is attack Trump, because frankly, Cruz is indefensible. So much of what he has done as a matter of public (not private, public) record is at odds with who he sells himself to be. It's impossible to defend.
Attacking Trump on peripheral issues misses the point of what Trump is running for and why so many middle class support him. Trump is absolutely a single issue candidate. His issue is the degradation of America. His policies all point to reversing that through two ways: enhancing national security and economic security.

Frankly, he doesn't concern himself much with abortion or healthcare. If it doesn't have much to do with the economy or national security, he just doesn't care, and most of us don't care either. Abortion is a fight for another day. So is health care. First and foremost, we must stop the flood of illegal immigration. That is a national and economic security issue. We must also get away from the idea of "free trade" and renegotiate for fair trade deals.


This will bring jobs back. We must reduce regulations that choke our industries, and we must, absolutely, reduce corporate taxes. Ireland has lured many western businesses to it's Guinness-soaked shores exclusively because of it's low corporate taxes, While China, Mexico, and Southeast Asia have lured manufacturing due to almost non-existent regulations and low cost of labor, as well as currency manipulation which I have yet to hear Cruz even talk about. I doubt he even understands it. But he's a lawyer, what does he know about economics?

When it comes to issues like abortion, which I personally feel strongly about, it doesn't win elections when the biggest problem is that millions can't get a job anymore. It's the "economy stupid", which is a lesson that seems to be forgotten every election cycle. People want jobs. They don't care about moralist stances when they can't afford to live themselves.

Make no mistake, Trump is not the total package. He is a fiscal conservative, and I'd argue at least slightly social liberal. But what we need right now more than anything is a fiscal conservative. Social conservatism is all well and good when your country is doing well economically. W was a social conservative, but honestly he was a fiscal liberal. So was his father. We haven't had a fiscal conservative since Reagan. And we're in trouble for it.

Cruz, by his overwhelming support of the TPA (aka "Fast Track") and his own recorded words of the TPP (aka "NAFTA for the Pacific), is a fiscal globalist. That sort of free trade only enriches corporations. It drives jobs out of our country and imports cheap goods, which eventually nobody will be able to afford. It is trading wealth between us to those who are poor, so that eventually we will all be equally poor.

Flow of trade creates wealth, but unfair trade only redistributes wealth. I don't know why people don't understand this. If you do understand that, but still support Cruz, that makes no sense to me. Cruz is for the globalization of trade without restrictions. Well, he was until a couple days ago when he changed his mind supposedly.

Trade is something politicians have been able to manipulate mostly under the public radar, because most people don't understand it and what the effects of trade policy can be. Trump does understand it, and he brought it to the public consciousness. I know I am not the only one who has retreated back to the words of Adam Smith and Hayek and Friedman to see what they said about these things and came to the conclusion that Trump is absolutely correct.

We wouldn't even be talking about trade if it weren't for Trump, nor would we realize how important it is to our very livelihoods. So you can continue to attack Trump because you "just don't like him", but his economic and national security proposals are absolutely sound. If you can, and I know you can't, go ahead and attack those positions instead of the man himself or peripheral issues he doesn't really campaign on. Or defend Cruz.

I know, it's hard. Now you know what being a liberal is like. You can't defend yourself, so you just attack. I'm sorry you remain in that position. I switched, because I saw it was an indefensible position to be in. And I don't even like Trump. But if you actually consider what he says...no not the size of the wall, or the much Mexico is going to pay for it...but the principles of what he is saying, then you have to come to the conclusion that his whole "thing" is about protecting America from bad deals and from immigrants who want to hurt us.

There is one other thing you need to consider. Well two actually. Math and reality. Continuing to support Cruz, or just be anti-Trump, is all well and good, but if you believe that the establishment is a problem, then it no longer makes sense. Trump is the only anti-establishment candidate left with a feasible path to the requisite 1237 delegates. Cruz would basically need Trump and Kasich to bow out, so not really possible. If neither Trump nor Cruz gets that 1237, then you will have a brokered convention, in which the establishment will handpick some candidate. This will alienate the voters who voted for Trump and Cruz (a huge majority added together), and will ensure a Hillary (or Sanders if she goes to jail) victory.

Cruz still hasn't even passed the 8 state win requirement to qualify yet. Trump has over 20 states. Look at his policies and answer yourself honestly: "are these policies bad?". Forget what he said in whatever year past about abortion or healthcare. He's said the same thing about what he is actually running on since the 1980s. He isn't running on social issues. He is running on national and economic security. Nit picking Trump over peripheral issues is pointless.

You have to fix the foundations of a house before dressing up the windows.