He did lose his way for a while, particularly in the Tea Party hey days. He attempted to differentiate himself from Trump when he ran against him for president in a distasteful way. Now, however he has learned in a tough fashion just where his bread is buttered. I believe he is a staunch Trump supporter now. RINOism is a condition of convenience and I hope it does not befall him as it has some others.
As Tx solicitor his positions before SCOTUS were rock ribbed conservative constitutionalist. Nobody cares or watches the job of solicitor. So no opportunism or
convenience there. He has NEVER been a RINO in any form or fashion. He may not be a Trump populist but he is a constitutionalist conservative. Us Reaganites find enough in common with Trump to happily vote for him.
Ideologically Cruz was the most Reaganesque candidate of 2016.
I wrote him in for POTUS in 2016.
There are at least 4 types of pub.
Libertarian ala Massey and Paul, and to some extent Lee . Fiscal guys. Small gubment almost to anarchy.
Conservatives like Cruz. Lee also is partly in this camp. Reaganites like me. We are military hawks, fiscally conservative and most importantly socially conservative. Most pro-Israel of the party. Conservative evangelicals. We have been against woke from day one. We knew gay marriage was the nose in the tent for woke LGBTQ+ perversions. We drove the Roe repeal bus for 5 decades and were the deciding factor for Reagan and Trumps victories. If we sit home, pubs like McCain and Romney, lose.
RINOs like McConnell, Murkowski and Collins . Slow road to perdition with hints of conservative action sprinkled into mostly pro gubment action. A lot of globalist neocons are in this camp.
Populists like Trump. He might be the only one that is elected that is from the Buchanan wing. Unlike Buchanan Trump is not anti- Semitic. Obviously enough rank and file voters are populists to help him win the party's leadership and POTUS.
