Cruz Blames Trump For Leftist Violence Against Conservatives

This is a miscalculation of epic proportions:

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on Friday that Donald J. Trump bore responsibility for “creating an environment” that encourages violence at his events…

“But in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top,” Mr. Cruz continued. “And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.”

Mr. Cruz invoked the protests and violent police run-ins at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and predicted that future skirmishes were likely.

“When the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence, to punch people in the face, the predictable consequence of that is that it escalates,” Mr. Cruz said. “And today is unlikely to be the last such instance.”

This was the moment President Trump won the nomination.

All of Cruz’s support to date has been K-strategists who wanted to fight liberals. They supported Ted because they saw him as a principled conservative warrior who was fighting for their cause because he believed in it. Inherent in that mental model of Ted Cruz was that he hated liberals as much as we did, and was at war with them alongside us.

When he stood up to the establishment, we thought it was a principled stand against the appeasing cucks of the GOPe who wanted to support the left against conservatives. We thought he was taking the difficult path to the White House on principle, because like us, he believed in it. We thought he was a reliable ally against the left.

For him to blame Trump, and take the side of the liberals, is devastating to the K-strategists who supported him. In one move, he became an opportunist and a potential traitor, who would side with the left if it benefitted him. In one move, his principled stand for conservatism, against the establishment, became a craven ploy to exploit an easy path to the White House that he was happy to abandon now that he thought he saw an easier route through appealing for GOPe support.

Now, every move he makes to consolidate establishment support below him will be seen in this light. Before this, I though it slightly more likely he’d win this, because from here on out, once the establishment coalesced behind him, he would combine what gave Romney the nomination with a large chunk of the anti-establishment opposition to Romney. It seemed likely to me it would be enough to defeat Trump, even at this late a stage.

Now, he has thrown all of that away. If Trump exploits this and uses it to paint Ted as the newest pansy establishment clone looking to mollify the left to make friends in DC at our expense, he is done. This exact type of appeasing betrayal to excuse the left, is exactly what the anti-establishment has been conditioned to hate. I never really bought Lyin’ Ted, But now appeasing, leftist-mollifying, “Establishment Ted” is something I saw with my own eyes, and it makes everything Cruz does from this point forward suspect.

From the comments on Free Republic:

“I’m a Cruz supporter, but man am I disgusted by this response.”

“Cruz supporter here: Ted what will you say when they show up at one of your rallies? (First they came for…) I am very dissapointed in him for what appears to be rank opportunism.”

“I’m a Cruz supporter too, but this response is making him look real squishy. I WANT A TOUGH GUY in the white house who will crack liberal heads!”

“Shame about Ted; used to like him.”

“I WAS voting for Cruz in Ohio. But Ted has done opened his mouth and spewed leftist pap about the Chicago Trump rally and sided with the nutters. There is no way I will vote for him now.”

“My Florida vote just went from Cruz to Trump. Screw you, Ted Cruz.”

That last one was former SEAL and author Matt Bracken. I recognized all the posters – to this point they had been loyal Cruz supporters. Cruz’s facebook page is lighting up as well with disappointed supporters. I just don’t see how he comes back from this if Trump exploits it to steal his anti-establishment base out from under him.

As one poster at FR said, “Now he’s the walking Ted.”

It would also be sweet, sweet justice if it ended up being #blacklivesmatters which actually handed Trump the nomination.