One Bright Point In South Carolina
Tomorrow, the South Carolina Republicans will likely give all or almost all of its delegates to a man that likes to approvingly relay apocryphal stories of torture and slaughter.
But there is a bright spot.
Ted Cruz got some bad publicity when his PAC sent out robocalls taking Donald Trump to task for supporting the removal of the Confederate Flag from the statehouse grounds:
Shaftan, who lives in North Carolina, said he “couldn’t believe” Trump took the position to remove the flag, contrasting it with Cruz who said at the time that the decision should be left up to those in the state.
“People feel very strongly about it here, especially Trump supporters,” Shaftan said. “That’s what surprised me — to see people who support the flag also supporting Trump. We’re trying to reach those folks who are having second doubts [about Trump].”
A few people on my Twitter feed expressed some surprise and disgust that even Cruz would stoop this low. Honestly, the bigger surprise for me is that it hasn’t been more of an issue. A very pleasant surprise, to be clear. But given that it’s a Republican Primary in South Carolina, this is relatively low-hanging fruit to prove their political incorrectitude. But until now, nobody did! And then:
The Cruz campaign, for its part, denounced the Confederate flag ad. “This is from someone not affiliated in any way with our campaign, and it is not something we condone,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told NPR before the LGBT rights ad came out.
If Ted Cruz of all people is not seeing a percentage in it, that’s progress. So, a minor bright spot going in to what is likely to be a bad day.
New York values and all that.
The literary side of me is kinda fascinated by this particular cycle because we’re almost getting pure avatars running for various parts of the Republican Constituency and it seems to be illustrating the real number of voters that make up these blocks. Cruz really is the Evangelical Avatar – he’s 100% on target with that demographic, but leaves quite a few SoCons out in the cold (a sizable minority, let’s say). Trump is the Regan Democrat Avatar… Rubio is the Neo-Con Avatar, JEB! is the Donor Avatar, and Rand Paul, well, he forgot his costume.Report
I have a very hard time buying the claim that a pro-Cruz PAC is going rogue on the Cruz campaign. I guess it’s some kind of progress that Cruz has to distance himself, but it’s a pretty thin silver lining.Report
Well, theoretically, they’re not supposed to be communicating at all. Which is sort of a nudge-wink thing, but given the speed with which Cruz distanced themselves from it, I actually suspect they didn’t know.Report
I’m with trizz on this. I think the logic – cynical to be sure – is that the ad is a win-win for Cruz: he gets the benefit of swinging Lost Causers against Trump while appearing to take the high road by denouncing the ad itself. Perfectly coordinated, perfectly consistent with the type of cynicism that’s coming to define his campaign.Report
It’s possible, and I’m inclined to think the worst about Cruz, but that’s just not the vibe I’m getting here. Especially given that it came with the whole LGBT staffer thing, which backfired more tangibly.
Either way, this did not become the central issue of the primary I was expecting it to be, and that makes me a hit happy.Report