There’s an old saying referenced at times when a person refuses to move based on principle:

“At what cost are you willing to win”?

cruz and heidiThe essential meaning behind the question is: how far are you willing to go -in the elimination of a coalition- in order to prove your own standing is most righteous? …and does the internal sense of victory overcome the desperate isolation at the end of your arguments?
Do the ‘ends‘ justify the ‘means‘?
Eventually the questions require pause, and eventually lead the recipient to ask themselves to reconsider their motives.  Are pride and/or ego the motivators driving the decision?  Most people are capable of such introspection; however, some people are not.
With Senator Ted Cruz now mathematically eliminated from winning victory by votes the essence of the original question now applies to the candidate himself, and also to the supporters who have worked earnestly to affirm the candidates ideological platform.

christie trumpTwo weeks after announcing his candidacy in July 2015 Donald Trump took the lead in all national polls.  In every poll taken in the nine months that followed, and as fifteen prior candidates have dropped out of the race, Donald Trump still leads the remaining two candidates by ever widening margins.
Despite the loud voices who do not support Trump, over 2.4 million more voters have supported Donald Trump than Senator Cruz.  Meanwhile the media and opposition have thrown the kitchen sink at him, he remains standing – because his supporters remain standing.
32 private jets belonging to dozens of millionaires and billionaires flew into Sea Island Georgia to meet with top RNC officials and GOPe leadership to strategize how to eliminate Donald Trump.  They spent hundreds of millions attacking him. Trump remains standing – because voters remain standing.
Every professional political entity behind Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and the DC republican establishment coalesced with Ted Cruz to defeat Donald Trump.  Billionaires have spent more attacking Trump in the past three months than they spent countering President Obama in the prior seven years.  Their efforts continue today.  Trump remains standing – because the voters behind him remain standing.
The Trump voters, as frustrating as it might be for the non-Trump voters to admit, are the majority coalition.
Now that Ted Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination by votes from the electorate – the only possible way for him to win is via delegate manipulation at a contested convention.
If they accomplish this goal; if by some chance they can keep Trump from 1,237 delegates, Senator Cruz will still enter the convention 400, 500, or even 600 delegates behind Donald Trump; and also behind by around 4 million votes – actual people.
The manipulation might be within the convention rules, but is Ted Cruz really willing to win by running against the will of the people just because it’s possible?
The autonomic response from the current Cruz Coalition is something about the history of this convention process in 1860, or even 1976.   However, something is different about this moment in time – it’s called the internet.
Unlike any other possible contested convention this time it will be visible.  Footage will fill immediate You Tube videos from hundreds of people with phones and cameras all showing the schemes and deals within moments of its occurrence.  Do you really think a viable and undamaged candidate can emerge from such sunlight with viability intact?
Can you even fathom the level of voter disenfranchisement that will be visibly broadcast to every person within reach of their phone, computer or TV screen?
Think about it for a little while.
Again:

….”At what personal cost, to your own character and reputation, are you willing to go in order to win”?

Would the people of Indiana, or West Virginia really want to be on that team?
My gut, just a mere political spidey sense from a person of no actual consequence, tells me that after April 26th (Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland) those questions of candidate pride and ego will overtake the current abstract national conversation of delegate counts.
In my own humble opinion, there will no longer be an option of whether candidate Cruz will accept or listen to that question.   It will be asked with exponential frequency by an American electorate who deserve the very best representation of their voice.
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