• Maybe the Democrats should just go back to using fax machines.
• A lot of Republicans got very mad at Ted Cruz for pointedly declining to endorse Donald Trump at the Republican convention. There were three lines of criticism. 1) He was a “jerk,” says Peggy Noonan, who argues that you don’t go to a party and punch the host. But it’s not as though Cruz insulted Trump: He merely said people should vote their consciences. If Trump supporters consider that an insult, they should reconsider their consciences. Moreover, Trump had not insisted on an endorsement before letting him speak, so Cruz was coming to the “party” on terms they had agreed to. Trump’s people, however, orchestrated booing to the point that Cruz’s wife had to be escorted to safety. Perhaps Noonan can comment on whether these are acceptable manners in a party host. 2) He was condemned for breaking his pledge to support the nominee. It was a foolish pledge and he should not have made it, but it also disintegrated once Trump announced, in the primaries, that he would not abide by his own pledge to do the same. 3) He was attacked for helping Hillary Clinton win. His former supporter Kellyanne Conway, a pollster now working for Trump, told the New York Times that Cruz is not a patriot. But no candidate is entitled to any voter’s support; it’s up to the candidate to earn it. Agree or disagree with Cruz’s decision not to endorse, he is justified in having doubts about Trump’s fitness for office. Watching Trump react by repeating his demented attacks on Cruz’s father cannot have allayed them.
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