That old time conservative movement
by digby
The old guard (except Phyllis Schafly, oddly) are all in for Cruz. But they sound like something from another era. It's not that they don't have clout, they do. And I suspect they'll make their peace with Trump if he wins the election. But a good part of the right is no longer interested in listening to a bunch of gibberish about "capital gains taxes" and "entitlement reform." They want to Make America White Again. They heard the dogwhistles from these leaders all those years and the country just got browner and black people started gaining power and women got more uppity. Trump's talking about putting everything back the way it was by brute force --- walls, deportation, banning immigration, law and order.
It's not that the conservative movement doesn't want all that stuff too. But they worked so hard to try to create a coherent ideology to back up their primitive loathing that they can't stand to see it destroyed:
OPEN LETTER TO AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES and PATRIOTS:
Donald Trump’s growing delegate count should focus the mind of every conservative on exactly what a Trump nomination would mean to each of the three legs of Ronald Reagan’s conservative coalition, and to our new 21st Century conservative coalition partners of the Tea Party and liberty movements. A group of longtime conservative activists and leaders have come together to sign this most important letter, and ask you to join them on this urgent mission and vote for Ted Cruz.
On March 15, just a few days from now, the states of Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and the Territory of the Northern Mariana Islands will vote; their votes will allocate 367 delegates and could put Donald Trump – or principled limited government constitutional conservative Senator Ted Cruz – over half way to the 1,237 delegates required to win the Republican nomination for president.
The possibility of a Trump victory in the March 15 primaries should convince conservatives that unless we coalesce behind Ted Cruz, the conservative agenda will be stalled for at least another decade.
Cultural conservatives in particular should recognize that the nomination of Donald Trump would mean Republicans would field one of the most thoroughly secular candidates for President ever to represent either of America’s major political parties.
Trump is the poster boy for the kind of Big Business – Big Government cronyism that stacks the deck against new market entrants and uses pay-to-play politics to protect and give advantages to those who are prepared to buy influence with politicians – as Donald Trump has regularly bragged he does.
Likewise, Donald Trump’s views on national security and national defense should give pause to every conservative. While Trump’s testosterone-fueled rants to “knock the Hell out of ISIS” sound conservative to the establishment media, they bear little resemblance to Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” philosophy and policies.
Ted Cruz is everything we conservatives have been waiting for in a candidate for President. We urge you to pull out all the stops to inform your conservative friends, contacts in your network of associates, newsletters, press appearances, etc. about Donald Trump’s record and policies and to do everything possible to ensure that Senator Ted Cruz comes away with the most delegates from the March 15 Republican primaries and from this effort we build a solid and united conservative movement behind him going forward to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
We, the undersigned, with great respect for those with divergent views on the strengths of any one candidate, with an urgent sense of purpose for the future of our constitutional republic that may be permanently and irreparably harmed unless we act, and with thought and prayer for guidance from Almighty God, urge all conservatives to unite with us behind the only candidate for the Republican nomination who stands a chance of defeating Donald Trump -- and that candidate is Ted Cruz.
Here's just a sampling of the names:
Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Dr. James Dobson, Founder, Family Talk Radio
Rebecca Hagelin, Board of Directors, FamilyTalk; Secretary, Council for National Policy
Morton Blackwell, Chairman, Conservative Leadership PAC
Ken Cuccinelli, Former Virginia Attorney General
Jerry A. Johnson, Ph.D., President and CEO, National Religious Broadcasters
Frank Gaffney, President, the Center for Security Policy
Erick Erickson, Editor of The Resurgent
Sandy Rios, Director of Governmental Affairs for AFA
Barbara Ledeen, Jews for Cruz
Tim Macy, Chairman, Gun Owners of America
Brian S. Brown, President, National Organization for Marriage
Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness
Penny Nance, CEO and President, Concerned Women for America
Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, Chairman
Terry Schilling, Executive Director, American Principles Project
Dr. Rick Scarborough, President, Vision America Action
Kelly Shackelford, Esq. President/CEO, First Liberty Institute
These people are very upset that all their years of brainwashing didn't really take. It was always about the hate.
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