All this unity is tearing us apart!

"Please, Ted! Just endorse Trump, already!"

"You cannot shake hands with a closed fist" --Ancient Eastern proverb.

Dear fellow Republicans: It's time to loosen our grip. By doing so we'll find ourselves with a stronger hold.

This writer was on KTBC-TV (Fox 7) and KVUE-TV (Channel 24) on Friday to discuss the RNC convention. Naturally, the matter of Ted Cruz' refusal to endorse Donald Trump came up, along with the noticeable boos and hisses from delegates.

By now, you've heard a myriad of thoughts on Sen. Cruz's now-infamous RNC convention speech. My perspective on this was that by nominating a man (Trump) with a history of liberal and conservative tendencies, and a background of endorsing Republicans and Democrats, it's going to take forgiveness to make our 2016 ticket work.

Enough forgiveness to give Peter Thiel a free pass on the convention stage, apparently. And the delegates were willing to give it.

The irony is that Cruz is receiving none of that slack when his loyalties come into question.

Cruz congratulated Trump during the speech, and the next day gave the Texas Delegation his reasons why he failed to deliver his tacit approval of the Trump-Pence ticket. This left many hungry for some resolution. "Are you for Trump or against him?" many asked.

This doesn't rule out any future endorsement from Cruz, but for now the two main camps of thought go like this:

1) "Cruz made a pledge to support the nominee, and he should keep it. Now let's push Cruz out of the party or find some other way to punish him for not getting behind Trump and therefore giving Hillary Clinton more ammo! If we don't ALL get behind Trump, we'll lose!"  

2) "Cruz made a pledge to support the nominee, but backed off on it because Trump insulted his family and has played fast and loose with certain party principles. Family values and our conservative principles are more important than pledge cards.

Here's mine: Are we really so fragile a party that we can't just let Cruz be a renegade?  Is our brand name so crystalline that Cruz's neglect can send the whole house of cards falling into Hillary's lap? Won't his own career suffer or succeed based on his actions, regardless of what we do to police him?

If we're going to be the endorsement police, then what of the Bush family, who have been strangely silent this whole time -- so much that this RNC convention marks the first in four decades that a Bush hasn't graced the stage.  Are we to start demanding the Bushes hand in their GOP cards? Surely not.

And what of any number of former Trump foes and their constituencies? You didn't see Rand Paul on the stage, either. And what of the several Senators missing?  String 'em up?

That we're in this quagmire to begin with is hard to believe considering how cozy Cruz and Trump were in the beginning of the race.  You see, early on, Ted and Donald took on "front-runners" Jeb Bush and Chris Christie the way Tom and Jerry teamed up to fight a pair of neighborhood bulldogs. For a short period, Cruz was following Trump on campaign stops in early primary states. You'd have thought they were in cahoots at first.

Given the frequent cooperation between the two campaigns, Rush Limbaugh seems to think this non-endorsement was all a calculated maneuver designed to a) bolster sympathy for Trump after his nomination among those originally in Cruz' camp, and b) solidify Cruz' reputation as a party outsider who is conservative before he is Republican. I don't disagree with that assessment.

All of the above points now into consideration, why all the whipping and flogging of any Republican who dares to step out of the party main current? Fear of being an pariah for the next eight years should Trump win if you don't say something against a high-profile defector like Cruz? Fear of any semblance of dissension causing the aforementioned crystal tower to come crashing down?

If a fear of disunity, that may explain some of the tactics reported in the RNC rules committee meetings and a refusal to let a MINORITY of #NeverTrump delegates have their say.

Our leaders are now demanding total and absolute unity which hearkens back to the party boss/party machine days you'd think we had gotten far away from. Papering-over the alleged fractures that exist in our Big Tent won't make us any more unified as a party, but only fester the wounds that cover our conservative base. Attempting to make the party look more "modern" won't bring us any closer to the grassroots than a Fifth Avenue high rise.

Still, there is a path to victory in November with Trump as the nominee. I believe that strongly, especially with all of Clinton's flaws and a corollary flogging taking place in the DNC over Bernie Sanders supporters (even though he has always been courteous and respectful with Clinton).

Trump certainly spoke our language Thursday night on 75-minutes-worth of issues near and dear to our voters, despite a small number of deviations from conservative orthodoxy. That's a good sign that we can all come together in the coming months to beat Clinton-Kaine and take back the White House and the Supreme Court.

But if the fist of power is clinched too tightly around our fellow Republicans -- even for the sake of not allowing anyone to leave -- those now on the outside will be the first to slip out. And right now, that appears to be movement conservatives who are the heart and soul of the GOP. Squeeze too tightly, and we'll see a repeat of 2008 and 2012.

Addendum:
If you don't believe me, let history speak to the follies of unity for the sake of unity.
Politico: How an Outsider President Killed a Party: The Whigs chose power over principles when they nominated Zachary Taylor in 1848. The party never recovered.

Soundtrack:

Why shouldn't a blog post have a soundtrack? 

Image credits:

Screengrabs from:
Twilight Zone: "The Midnight Sun"

The Tom and Jerry Show (episode unknown)