Patio Man’s Revenge
Friday, April 29th, 2016Donald Trump got lucky-ish on the calendar. The New York primary was in just the right spot for him, to curb the slow momentum of Ted Cruz, and instead launch Trump on to the momentum to claim the big prizes for the next week’s primary matches.
If New York had been one primary on a larger primary night — one of more than one states, maybe Ted Cruz would have had a chance to do something. IE: By skipping New York entirely. But since New York was sitting there and he was involved in the fight, he had to put himself out there… somehow. And the problem was… there is nobody worse than Ted Cruz to do this. So Ted Cruz wanders around in the heaviest of Democratic districts in hopes that there might be an enclave of, say, Conservative Orthodox Jews to get him something from the troubles of landing in New York, and having his “New York Values” line thrown back at him by the city. But the die was cast.
Who knows? Maybe if the “Republican Establishment” choice (even by default) had been someone else, someone might have had a chance to crack New York, and curb the momentum from what had been petering out to a second round balloting to a first round Trump win. But the problem is… there is no worse pick for The Republican Establishment alternative.
On Wednesday, the former speaker gleefully unloaded on Senator Ted Cruz before a crowd at Stanford University, colorfully describing the Republican presidential contender from Texas as “Lucifer in the flesh.â€
“I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life,†said Mr. Boehner, who has made previous disparaging remarks about Mr. Cruz in both public and private, though without comparing him directly to Satan.
An affronted Mr. Cruz, fighting in Indiana to keep his presidential bid alive, responded that he barely knew Mr. Boehner.
“If I have said 50 words in my life to John Boehner, I’d be surprised, and every one of them has consisted of pleasantries,†Mr. Cruz told reporters, noting that he had never really worked with Mr. Boehner.
And so it goes to the hail mary in Indiana — which still probably won’t curb the first call win for Trump. Carly Fiorina is Cruz’s running mate. Which is all very… weird.
I’m getting “John Kasich — Stop Trump — Stop Hillary. OREGON VOTES” ads on the internet. Yeah. Sure. If you can, go do that. Ignore the crickets.
David Brooks doesn’t realize how ironic he is.
I was surprised by Trump’s success because I’ve slipped into a bad pattern, spending large chunks of my life in the bourgeois strata — in professional circles with people with similar status and demographics to my own. It takes an act of will to rip yourself out of that and go where you feel least comfortable. But this column is going to try to do that over the next months and years.
I knew I couldn’t be the only person to note this with a smack at my head.
This is a rather interesting admission from the author of Bobos in Paradise, the chronicler of life along the D.C. Metro’s Red Line, the bard of the “utopian conservatism” of Patio Men living the good life in the sprawling suburbs.
Well… the beat… goes on.
