The End of Cruz and Kasich

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May 3rd, 2016: a pivotal point in the 2016 campaign for all parties. In the morning, the day was fresh with potential. The Indiana primary was beginning with the first voters trickling in. A win for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and she would continue to lead in front of democratic opposition, Senator Bernie Sanders. A win for Sanders would help him gain ground against Clinton. A win for Senator Ted Cruz and he would try to close the gap between him and his opposition Donald Trump, real-estate connoisseur. A win for Trump, well, would be a lose for most.

May 3rd, 2016: the evening was buzzing with anticipation. Breaking news: against all projected polls and odds, Sanders won the Indiana primary in an upset, and Cruz announced the end to his 2016 campaign.

May 4th, 2016: Kasich announces plans to drop out of the race. The sound of jaws dropping and gasps of exclamation are audible. Many did not support Cruz due to his conservative Tea Party policies, but he was proving to be the only viable opposition to Trump in the race for the Republican nomination. Evidently he was not.

I believe this is the wake-up call that the Republican party needs. Trump exhibits many policies that are authoritarian, racist and sexist. However, he is the sole Republican nominee now because so many Republicans are dissatisfied with how the Republican party has been evolving. Perhaps Trump is not a good politician, but he is a good strategist: he decided to run for president because he was able to take advantage of this dissatisfaction that Republican voters have with the GOP.

With the fall of Ted Cruz, this will hopefully be an end to Tea Party Republicanism, but the Republican party will need to revamp their platforms in order to gain back the support they lost, not because of Donald Trump, but because of their own platforms and mannerisms. The end of Cruz and Kasich did not lead to Trump obtaining the nomination; the vast majority of GOP discontent did.