How Ted Cruz lost long before Indiana - Brookings

In his speech after his defeat in Indiana, Cruz harkened back repeatedly to the last contested Republican convention. That took place 40 years ago. Ronald Reagan, darling of the conservative movement, fought for the nomination all the way to the convention. In the end he lost to incumbent President Gerald Ford. His withdrawal was gracious and classy and four years later he won the nomination and the general election.

No doubt Cruz was thinking something like that might happen to him too. There are serious doubts about Donald Trump’s ability to win a general election. And Cruz, as he almost tearfully quoted Reagan, was no doubt thinking that his future in 2020 could be like Reagan’s was in 1980.

But there are three problems with that hope.

First, as my colleague Bill Galston wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, it’s not at all clear that today’s Republican Party will be the party of Reagan. And it’s certainly not at all clear that the 2020 Republican Party will be the party of Cruz. In fact the big demographic changes sweeping the country mean that America in 2020 is certain to be a very different place than it was 40 years before. - Read More

How Ted Cruz lost long before Indiana

Closed borders will make Europe collapse -  More