I Was Wrong. And Ted Cruz Is Officially The Most Courageous Politician Ever.

A couple weeks ago I wrote that I expected Ted Cruz to eventually give Trump some kind of tepid, “he’s better than her” endorsement, similar to what Scott Walker and Marco Rubio have already done. The pressure would become so great, I predicted, and the stakes for Cruz’s political future so high, that either at the convention itself or soon after he would be forced to support the party nominee.

I forgot that you don’t force Ted Cruz to do anything. And I’m proud to be so wrong, and to be a member of the Party of Cruz.

Last night, in case you missed it, Cruz gave an impassioned primetime speech at the convention on freedom and the importance of the Constitution. An epic defense of conservative values, but what caught everyone’s attention—and started the Trumpkins booing—was toward the end, when Cruz told voters to “stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates…who you trust to defend our freedom, and to be faithful to the Constitution.”

The full video is below, including Donald Trump himself appearing in the audience at the end.

As you can tell, encouraging voters to “vote their conscience” didn’t sit well with Trump loyalists, who recognized the phrase as code for opposing Trump—similar to the proposed “conscience clause” rule change from earlier in the week, which would have unbound the delegates and on which Cruz had refused to comment.

Ted Cruz is incredibly brilliant, but anyone other than the most dim-witted of Trump cultists would have known going the full implication of using the dreaded c-word. He knew the reaction in the convention hall would be riotous, but he decided to make a stand. He knew that the delegates were deeply divided between Trump and Cruz loyalists, and that the crowd’s reaction would be equally divided, but he also knew that in such scenario the best course of action was to tell the truth, stand for principle, and leave everything on the field.

It’s worth watching again what Cruz said about Trump on the last day of his primary campaign.

And lest people think the pressure will cause him to crack, Cruz is doubling down today.

I said last week, regarding Mike Lee’s principled stand in favor of unbinding the delegates, that I had never been more proud of a politician. Ted Cruz’s speech last night doesn’t diminish Lee’s bravery in any way, but by going on stage before a crowd of Trump loyalists, refusing to kneel before the Dear Leader even in the face of jeers and boos, and instead taking a lone stand for principle, honesty, and self-respect, Cruz just did the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen in politics.