Recently, I came across a tweet from Bill Kristol commenting on some recent polling data favorable to Donald Trump.  Bill is one of the founders of not only the Weekly Standard magazine, but also the NeverTrump movement.  He wrote:

I've been looking at some polling crosstabs and I've got to say to my fellow white men over 55: you are a great disappointment to me.  On the other hand, it seems fitting and consistent with the American story that women, minorities and young people now step up to save the republic.

There are two major political parties in the United States.  The titular head of one is Donald Trump, who, per Bill Kristol, is an unstable reprobate.  Therefore, in the NeverTrump mentality, only the current iteration of the Democratic Party can "save the republic."  The nation must be rescued from the clutches of Trump and his allies in the present-day Republican Party.  These outrageous blights on the American character must be soundly defeated in the upcoming midterm election if there is any hope for the future.     

Bill and his fellow travelers such as Jennifer Rubin, David Frum, Max Boot, and George Will, among other NeverTrumps and their allies, are telling each other, and anyone who will listen, that Trump is not only far worse than the Democrats in Congress, but solely responsible for the combative state of American politics.

Trump's unexpected and overwhelming success as an amateur politician is a clear and present danger to the Professional Conservative Class, as he does not and will not listen to them.  This cabal is used to being feted by the mainstream media as setting the tone for the conservative movement, which more often than not includes being obsequious toward the dominant movers and shakers in Washington: the Democrats and the media. 

Therefore, the radicalization and absolutism of the Democratic Party that have been evolving over the past two decades are subsumed by the greater threat of Donald Trump.  To listen to the NeverTrump crowd, had he not won the presidency, the country would be far better off, civility would reign supreme, and Democrats and housebroken Republicans would hold hands as they cheerfully do the bidding of them who must be obeyed: the American Ruling Class. 

So, to Bill and his fellow denizens of the Professional Conservative Class: How much less chaotic would the state of politics be in the United States, and how differently would the Democrats and the America left behave if another Republican had won the presidency in 2016?

Since Ted Cruz, a professional politician and marginally more acceptable to the conservative intelligentsia, came in second in the Republican primaries, let us assume he won the nomination and unexpectedly defeated Hillary Clinton in November of 2016.

Ted Cruz represents an existential threat to the Democratic Party.  He is Cuban-American and thus would be the first Hispanic nominated to run for president by either major party.  The Democrats and the left view the 57 million Hispanic Americans and 38 million black Americans as the unquestioned property of Democratic Party, thus they are not allowed to wander off the plantation.  Any threat to that hegemony must be met, and has been met, with unrestrained ferocity. 

Therefore, the foundational strategy the Democrats and Hillary Clinton decided to deploy against Cruz, if he won the nomination, was to portray him as an out-of-control and dangerous extremist – so vile and fanatical that his own party could not stomach him – thus an out-of-touch and faux Hispanic. 

To augment this strategy, Cruz would have been vilified as a virulent Islamophobe, an anti-immigration bigot, a Bible-toting intolerant Christian Evangelical, someone in favor of draconian spending cuts, and a toady of the far-right...and he was born in Canada. 

Further, as this same cabal went to great lengths and expense to produce and use a phony dossier regarding Donald Trump, it would be safe to assume that they would have done the same with Ted Cruz, particularly in light of a fictitious story about a number of alleged extramarital affairs planted in the National Enquirer in March of 2016.  There would have been incessant leaks to the media that would have mirrored what they did to Trump.

The depth of the left's anxiety regarding Ted Cruz are revealed in some media headlines from this period: 

Is Ted Cruz More Radical than Donald Trump?  

Ted Cruz Not Donald Trump is the Scariest Candidate Standing

And in the Washington Post: Ted Cruz Is More Dangerous than Donald Trump.           

The media's obsession with Donald Trump's alleged sympathy for the Russians and Vladimir Putin picked up considerable momentum when he announced his foreign affairs advisory group, which included some who had ties to the Russians in the past.  The headlines in the press when Ted Cruz announced his foreign affairs advisory group also reaffirmed the media's caricature of him as a wild-eyed right-wing loon:

 If You Think Donald Trump is Scary, Get a Load of Ted Cruz's Foreign Policy Team

Which Foreign Policy is Scarier: Cruz's or Trump's

Meet the People Behind Ted Cruz's Terrifying Foreign Policy Plan

While the focus with Trump was on his supposed cozy relationship with Putin, with Ted Cruz, it was his alleged virulent Islamophobia.

It was an article of faith that Hillary was unbeatable.  The polls and the chattering class had both Trump and Cruz losing by equally overwhelming margins.  It was only a matter of being obligated to wait through the interminable weeks of late summer and early fall until the formality of allowing the masses to affirm Hillary's coronation on November 7, 2016. 

Would the grief-stricken and bewildered reaction to Hillary's loss on that fateful Tuesday night been dissimilar had it been Ted Cruz instead of Donald Trump?  Today's Democrats and the left view the federal government as their fiefdom.  The possibility of their candidate losing was inconceivable.  But losing to Ted Cruz, an upstart Hispanic extremist, would have been equally appalling as losing to a loud-mouthed reprobate from New York.

Incapable of accepting the will of the people, the left and its allies in the mainstream media would have launched a campaign to delegitimize the results of the election of Ted Cruz as they did with Trump.  However, as Cruz is of Hispanic origin, the necessity of delegitimizing and opposing him at every turn would have been doubly important.  The prospect of his presidency being successful, thereby wining a second term and possibly capturing the heart and soul of the Hispanic population for the Republican Party, would have been a horrifying development for the left.

The use of the Russian interference in the election scenario, which has so roiled the nation, could still have been front and enter with Ted Cruz in the White House.  While there would not have been the daily highlighting of the specious charge of Russian collusion and a special counsel appointed, this same cabal could easily have alleged that the Russians wanted Cruz to win.  By pointing to the Russian hacking of the computers of the DNC as well as the Hillary campaign, the Democrats and their allies in the media could effortlessly insinuate Russian interference with the voting process.  Their unhinged base would have swallowed that scenario hook, line, and sinker, as it has with Trump.

Both Cruz and Trump would have pursued nearly identical policies, such as Supreme Court and judicial appointments, steps to stem illegal immigration, the deportation of criminal illegal aliens, tax cuts, the slashing of federal regulations, and an America First foreign policy.  However, Cruz would have been more aggressive in pursuing spending cuts and pro-life legislation.  Therefore, he would have faced the same vile and vociferous reaction from the Democrats and the left as has Trump.

The election of Trump, therefore, was not the catalyst for the near lunatic behavior of many on the left and in the Democratic Party since that fateful night in November of 2016.  That behavior was just below the surface, ready to erupt, regardless of whether it was Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.   Yet Bill Kristol and his cohorts, in their vindictiveness, are telling all who will listen that this is the political party that can be trusted with the future of America.

As to the current makeup of the Republican Party, these Beltway Conservatives contend: because of Trump, the Republican Party is now infested with racists and nativists (read: Alt-Right).  Therefore, the party must be purified by losing elections to the Democrats. 

In a recent poll, less than 7% of Americans expressed varying levels of support for white supremacy.  Just 4% supported neo-Nazism.  On the other hand, 32% supported Black Lives Matter, and 8% supported Antifa, the militant arm of the left.  In recent nationally promoted demonstrations, the white supremacists have been unable to muster more than a hundred or so marchers, being greatly outnumbered by the Antifa crowd, who inevitably turn to violence.  Further, the Alt-Right movement has more in common with the left insofar as both promote big-government socialism but with a nationalist twist.  So a party that is made up of nearly 60-plus million Americans must be cleansed and the Democrats placed in power because a few white supremacists may or may not be registered Republicans.  Why is not the same argument made about the Democratic Party and Antifa?

I witnessed and experienced the virulence of racism firsthand while in the front lines of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  Despite his myriad faults, Donald Trump is not a racist, nor is the Republican Party home to racism.  I am also an undocumented refugee (and a naturalized citizen) who has no disagreement with Trump's immigration policies, including the enforcement of immigration laws and a wall at the southern border.  To proffer the argument that the party must be purified of mythical racism and xenophobia is beyond absurd and is wholly self-serving.

There is no question that Donald Trump can be bombastic, at times crude in his choice of words, and too quick to react to criticism.  However, the nation witnessed civility in the extreme during the presidency of George W. Bush, which begat Barack Obama and his merry band of neo-socialists for eight years.  By 2016, this was a nation wallowing in despondency and indifference. 

I would have preferred Ted Cruz over Donald Trump because of Trump's personal history and character.  However, that choice was not to be and, if one is honest with oneself, Trump has, thus far, been a successful president from a policy perspective – which is far more important than personality quirks and civility.  The time to vilify and attempt to defeat a one-term sitting Republican president is in the spring and summer of his fourth year in office, not in the fall of his second.

So, to Bill Kristol and the conservative intelligentsia dwelling in the bubble that is the Washington-New York axis: grow up and consider your country and fellow citizens before assuaging your battered egos while you gather among yourselves and your friends in the media, regaling each other with who is the smartest and most glib in the room.