Democratic Primaries

You will note the man's chief reasons were that he supposed Trump's nomination would do great damage to the Republican cause. That was not an unreasonable thought at the time, and taking a longer view, may still pan out. He took the critter at his word on a few things, but that is pardonable, if foolish in hindsight. A good deal of the commentariat made that mistake, mostly one suspects through insularity and lack of familiarity with the darkest recesses of 'Death Wish II' urban conservatism. In normal circumstances Cruz might well have done more harm to the government. His judicial appointments and appointments to government positions would certainly have been as bad as Trump's. He might, having some experience of government, have run a more efficient shop, and most successes in balking or delaying Trump owe to his sloppiness and inefficiency as an executive. His ignorance and pride hamper him still. Cruz is neither ignorant nor sloppy. Absent the crisis nature has sprung upon us, it is not unreasonable even today to suppose Cruz, an intelligent and efficient radical christo-fascist, might well have done more long-term harm to the fabric of government, and greater long term damage to our society, than Trump has managed. No one usually bothers with any real assessment of a candidate's competence to deal with major crisis, the un-spoken assumption being that the standing machinery of government will take over and see to it proper action be taken to deal with the situation. We are doubly unfortunate to have this creature at the helm in this desperate situation, But a commentator can't be held responsible for not foreseeing the unforseeable. There is nothing in that so erroneous as take the man down to a cellar and bill his family for the bullet.

As a general thing, it does very little good to wave pages of quote and commentary at me. Certainly it is useless to brandish quotations stripped of context, not just the words that may be around them, but the times and palces in which they were written. Do not take my comments as a defense of Mr. Chait --- they are simply an exposure of the weakness of your own position regarding him.





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."




"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."