This is pure opinion....but opinion based on a half century of following politics. Senator Ted Cruz....and this is only the first example.....is basically finished as far as a serious conservative candidate for president. I backed him for a lot of years.....wrote a glowing post on his senate filibuster speech....and remember oh so well when Donald Trump entered the Cleveland arena early....on purpose....(as Cruz was giving the traditional runner-up speech)....to embarrass him. Cruz still says the same things....defends the same causes.....but has lost all of his stature....this because he succumbed to Donald Trump's madness.
Lindsey Graham is no longer the same. I could see him going back and forth....and back and forth....for a long time.....well he finally made a decision....and it was the wrong one.
Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan were at one time conservative heroes sort of....on the Freedom Caucus....especially when Trump threatened to primary the whole Freedom Caucus....the most solid members we had in the congress...and Trump threatened them.....because they would not just sign on to his fake Obamacare Repeal and Replace. What reason....other than a spiritual delusion....a biblical spiritual delusion....could have turned them into what they are today?
I guess that Kevin McCarthy was about to assume a strong role for us.....but that is all gone now with his 180 on the insurrection. Many other republicans just followed......blindly.....and now sound no better nor more ethical or more trustworthy than Schumer and company....just as Fox primetime cable and Internet are no better than CNN.
It was a Trump rally in Phoenix....2017....and Franklin Graham gave a beautiful and humbling prayer.....as I typed as fast as I could for a post....so thankful that these words of national repentance were being heard. Rev. Graham finished.....and the arena was silent as he walked off the stage. Vice President Pence was introduced as the next speaker....and before you could say likety-split....the crowd was chanting USA...USA...USA. I posted what happened under the title....If Only Our Pulpits Would Preach This....but wondered if Franklin Graham even discerned what transpired....as the word of God was given a few minutes at the mic....and then it was raucous time for the Stones again....and Macho Macho Man.....and Queen. In retrospect....I don't think he understood at all.
Hannity and Levin and the rest are all gone as to believability. I've been a talk show listener for that half century also.....and these guys certainly at one time were extremely valuable to us....Levin wrote great books....and Hannity worked tirelessly for our military and veterans....but that is all gone now....as there is not a word now that will be spoken in criticism of Trump....and not even a fair word offered to Biden.
Mike Pompeo has been the greatest disappointment. Mattis and Bannon and Priebus and Tillerson and Sessions and Barr and Kelly and Kellyanne...shall I go on for another forty or fifty people....they have all taken hits to their life's work simply by being around Donald Trump....for he is a destroyer.....destroying purposely those who do not bow down to him.....while others are destroyed simply by flying too close to his flame....and this is what the Republican Party is fighting to continue.....amazing.....utterly and fantastically.....amazing!
Have you ever noticed how many people around him have fallen in one way or another. It would be far easier to count those who are still standing. This group led by the Florida Governor are a new group....DeSantis took Rudy Giuliani's place.
I had....DeMint For President....on my hardhat for a long time. This is a man who was once the lone Senate vote in a 99 to 1 vote....because he believed that was the right thing to do! I never figured him to be one that would not see a bad situation....and speak out on it. Mike Pence is still there....having broken the yoke....and Senator Ben Sasse never put it on....and Cheney and Kinzinger have refused to be silenced.
