Laura Ingraham
Of all the words of tongue and pen, perhaps the saddest are these: It might have been.
Talk radio host Laura Ingraham on Thursday mourned the brutal primary battle between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, wishing the two Republican front-runners had concentrated their fire on a common enemy.
“I had this idealistic vision, that Trump and Ted would work together until the establishment was truly killed off,” said Ingraham. “And so neither one would attack one another and it would be détente. It would be like China and the United States working together in the 1970s until the Soviet Union collapsed.”
Ingraham made the comments in an interview with Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Ted Cruz and a critical part of his senator son’s campaign efforts in evangelical-heavy Iowa.
“I’m not saying who’s the Soviet Union and who’s the United States in that comparison,” Ingraham joked. “I wanted them both to work together, but no one listens to me. I wanted the establishment to be killed off.”
Pastor Cruz laughed at Ingraham’s musings, but he must have known it was a pipe dream.
After months of relative amity between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, the two candidates have aggressively attacked each other in the lead-up to the critical Iowa caucuses. Recent polling shows Trump pulling ahead in the closing days, but Cruz reportedly has the advantage when it comes to organization.
A recent survey showed the Cruz campaign had contacted twice as many voters as Trump, a sign Cruz may be more successful at turning out his voters.
Ingraham observed Trump’s attacks on Ted Cruz’s eligibility due to his Canadian birth appear to be having an effect. In response, Rafael Cruz, author of “A Time for Action,” fired back against Trump.
“This whole thing is just a distraction to take people away from the issues,” he charged. “We need to talk to the issues that are important to America, like protecting the right to life, protecting traditional marriage, making sure America is secure from ISIS, from radical Islamic terrorism. We need to talk about how we get the economy working. We need to talk about destroying this horrible Iran nuclear deal. We don’t need to be going down sidelines. America is at stake.”
Despite the bitterness of the political struggle, Cruz and Trump together have pushed the debate in an unexpected direction during the campaign, especially regarding immigration. Ingraham observed that Cruz’s traditional conservatism has been combined with a move towards what she called a “populist economic agenda.”
“[Cruz is] questioning some of these policies, flooding the country with indigent people when we, apparently, are unable to take care of the people who are here, unable to provide jobs for the people who are here,” Ingraham said.
Trump, meanwhile, has been characterized as a champion of “populism” and “nationalism” by many commentators, an ideological tendency that Rush Limbaugh and others have charged is posing a challenge to traditional conservative ideology.
Ingraham, though skeptical of Trump’s boasts he could “get along” and cut deals with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, even speculated Trump might occasionally be able to find common ground with Democrats on issues such as trade.
However, she said Trump needs to do more than simply say he is able to reach across the aisle.
“I’d add a little bit and say, ‘My agenda’s for the people,’” said Ingraham. “‘This is a populist economic agenda and I’m going to bring more people along with me. Sometimes I’m not going to get everything I want but I’m going to do it all for the American worker.’”
But Rafael Cruz called for a firm adherence to conservative principle and suggested a conservative president could simply go around Congress by rallying popular support.
“You know, Laura, we have to stand on principle,” said the elder Cruz. “They say Ronald Reagan cut deals. Ronald Reagan didn’t cut deals. Ronald Reagan took the issue to the American people. You know, Tip O’Neill didn’t have a choice, because Ronald Reagan had a mandate from the American people.
“That’s what we need. We need a leader with a mandate from the American people. A leader with a clear vision and a passion to do what is right for America. And a leader that will just go above the politicians direct to the American people. A leader that realizes he works for ‘we [the] people.’ I think one of the things we need a lot in Washington is a servant-leadership style. A true leader must be a servant, and in the case of a president, a servant to all the people of America.”
Though Cruz is close in Iowa, he trails by significant margins in other states and in national polls against Trump. Ingraham bluntly asked Rafael Cruz why he thought his son’s campaign was struggling to respond to Trump’s attacks.
Rafael Cruz rejected the premise of the question.
“Polls differ so widely you have to question the validity of the polls, when one poll says that and the other says the opposite,” said Cruz. “And you look at the sample of these polls – they’re very, very small samples. But I’ll tell you what, I’m on the ground and the message is resonating on the ground.”
Rafael Cruz said he believes his son’s message is taking hold among the grassroots because he is not offering “talking points” but his true beliefs.
“These are things he believes,” Rafael said of his son’s speeches. “One of the things you get with Ted is he will always tell you the truth, and he will do exactly what he tells you he is going to do. With Ted, you know what you got. With many other politicians, you get a lot of rhetoric, and I’ll tell you what, we need to look at the record instead of listening to the rhetoric, because politicians will tell you what you want to hear.”
Still, Cruz has been forced on the defensive in recent days as Trump gained the endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr. Cruz also lost a critical opportunity to challenge Trump on his record when Trump announced he was skipping the Fox News debate. The onetime allies have been reduced to attacking each other on social media, with Trump pushing the charge Cruz is owned by his Wall Street donors and slyly suggesting Cruz should “embrace his roots” as a Canadian.
Rafael Cruz said his and his son’s response to the attacks is the opposite of what most people might expect. They are “energized” by the fight.
“Jesus said, ‘They persecuted me, they’re going to persecute you,’” the pastor said. “If you’re not making an impact, nobody’s going to say anything. Actually, you’ve got to take the attacks and say, well, I must be hitting a chord! We both take it as an encouragement.”
The interview:
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/ingraham-trumpcruz-should-unite-to-kill-establishment/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/ingraham-trumpcruz-should-unite-to-kill-establishment/
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