With apologies to Talleyrand, to whom the quote is usually attributed.
With usual caveats appended when writing a diary of this sort (chickens, hatching, fat people, singing, etc) I thought it might be useful to look forward after the Rs receive their well-deserved comeuppance in November to see what 2020 might bring.
The first thing that springs to mind (and oh, what a joyous thought it is) is that the Rs will go back to the default position they have used after their defeats in 2008 and 2012. Basically, that they would have won if they had chosen a real conservative. The fact that their voter base insists on not choosing a real conservative is somehow lost in translation.
Meanwhile, some sane conservative thinkers (Bruce Bartlett foremost) insist that the only way for the Republicans to regain relevance as a national party, capable of winning the White House, is to receive such a thorough drubbing that their leadership has no choice but to reevaluate what it actually means to be a Republican. Fortunately for Democrats, the Rs show no sign of actually doing this. Evidence follows.
2008? McCain. Not a real conservative, because he sometimes had an independent thought or two ( a quality, sadly, that seems to have eroded).
2012? Romney. Not a real conservative. Because, you know, Romneycare.
2016? Trump. No one can rationally call him a conservative.
So, who will this real conservative be in 2020? You know his name as well as I do. It is the Great Canadian Hope. The Texan Teapot. Calgary Ted Cruz himself!
*collapses in insane giggles*
Yup. The man who three-fourths of the current leadership of the Republican Party would happily rake over hot coals is the odds-on favorite to be the Republican nominee against incumbent President Hillary Clinton in 2020.
Now, no one will say that Calgary Ted isn’t smart. He is. And no one will say he isn’t a disciplined candidate. He is. He actually understands what most Americans believe to be the true role of government.
He is simply diametrically opposed to that belief.
So, in 2020, he will run on an anti-government, pro-God, pro-gun, anti-gay, anti-Obamacare, anti-immigrant platform. And he will probably scrounge up enough votes to be the Republican nominee.
And Hillary will hammer him. Because Cruz’ platform might sell in Texas. But not most other places. And then, maybe, maybe, Republicans will regain their senses and we will get a two-party system which has two sane parties.
I’m not betting on it, though.
Because Ted Cruz is not a true conservative.
