You Know Who Else Didn’t Endorse the Republican Nominee? Ronald Reagan.
Ted Cruz is not the first Republican presidential candidate to give a primetime RNC address that did not endorse the winning candidate; no less than Republican icon Ronald Reagan did the same thing in 1976.
Let me preface this piece by saying that in general Im not a fan of the There Is Only One Republican Party And Reagan Is Its Prophet school of conservatism. For one thing, its not healthy for a party to live three decades in the past. For another, it gives an easy layup to Democrats when Reagan happened to disagree with the current Republican consensus. Reagan was a political genius, the architect of modern conservatism
and fallible.
But Ive noticed several Trump supporters are accusing Cruz of betraying Reagans legacy by not endorsing Trump. Im old enough to remember the events in 1964 and the events of 1976, and I think that he opted for 64 instead of 76, Trump campaign chairman Sam Clovis said on MSNBC Thursday. And I think what a lot of people dont realize, Ronald Reagan gave one of the most gracious speeches ever in a political environment where he came up and endorsed Gerald Ford.
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