Only Trump and Cruz See Through the Smoke

There’s an interesting dynamic at play in the Republican race, and it’s starting to seem like Ted Cruz is the only one who sees it. He’s the only one of the Republican candidates who held his tongue this week when the rest of the field was denouncing Donald Trump.

This isn’t the first time that Cruz has let others do the criticizing. Some have said that Cruz is playing a game, trying to be the Next Best Thing when Trump finally goes too far. And there is probably some truth to that. He’s seen what happens to candidates who go after Trump.

But there’s something else. Cruz is insightful, and he may have figured out the puzzle that is Donald Trump. More precisely, he has seen what Trump has done with one shocking statement after another.

Donald Trump said Muslims should be temporarily barred from entering the country. Everyone went into a frenzy. You have Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and even Dick Cheney out there, and they sound indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Everyone is talking about what a horrible person Trump is…and meanwhile, Trump is talking about ISIS.

By using this technique over and over again, he has accomplished a remarkable thing. Americans who are looking for strength and leadership on the economy, on illegal immigration, on terrorism…they get it in Trump. And then they look around at the other candidates, and what do they see? They see Republicans who sound like Democrats.

Ted Cruz has caught on to this, and that may be why he’s chosen to keep his silence. He quietly disagreed with Trump’s proposal, and he moved on. He didn’t slam him as “repugnant.” He didn’t call him “unhinged.” You know why? Because he knows that Americans get enough of that from the liberal media. They can get that kind of talk from MSNBC. They can get it in press statements from the Obama White House.

The reason a guy like Donald Trump can dominate the Republican primaries is very simple. It’s because the Democrats have swung so far to the left that voters are desperate for someone who speaks the truth.

Just look at the past year. Obama’s amnesty. The Supreme Court decision on gay marriage and the ensuing imprisonment of Kim Davis. The Black Lives Matter movement and the concerted effort to dismantle the nation’s law enforcement. And to top it all off, three major Islamic terrorist attacks, the last of which hit us right where we live. That’s just in the past 12 months of this administration. And the media has championed all of it unabashedly. And now we’re supposed to listen to these same people when they tell us that Donald Trump is dangerous?

Ted Cruz sees what’s happening. He’s been in the Senate trenches, fighting the same weak Republican leadership that Trump has spiritedly denounced. When he talks, he doesn’t sound like Hillary Clinton. He doesn’t sound like the old guard. He understands how frustrated voters are with the venomous liberalism eating our country away.

When these Republicans go after Trump, they’re telling voters a story. A story that says that 2016 is just another election. Hopefully it will go our way but, ya know, if it doesn’t, that’s no biggie. Hillary will probably be just fine. Just, for the love of god, don’t put that guy Trump in there. Are you crazy?

That’s not the story voters are in the mood to hear. This is not just another election. This might be our last chance to turn this country and this culture around before it’s too late. And anyone who doesn’t see it that way might as well drop their campaigns and go to work for Hillary. Let Cruz and Trump duke it out for the nomination.