The True Conservative Choice is Ted Cruz, not Donald Trump, Part 1: Demonstrated Backbone

"This is Part 1 of what I expect to be a multi-part series on Cruz’s superiority to Trump. I’ll keep these posts relatively bite-sized (for me) because I am short on time and so are you. Today’s point: Cruz has something Trump doesn’t: demonstrated backbone within the political process.

The current success of Trump and Carson in the polls, to me, reflects a typical and understandable American sentiment: a hatred of political “insiders” and a desire to look outside that process for someone different. But why do Americans do that? It’s because it’s so rare for someone inside the political process to stay true to what they said they would do. So Americans naturally turn their gaze outside Washington.

But what is a better indicator of someone’s willingness to fight the establishment: mere outsider status, or a demonstrated track record of fighting the establishment as an elected official? Clearly the latter."

[Patterico]