Your turn: These two Republicans are why we ended up with Donald Trump

Ted Cruz you probably remember because he is still a senator from Texas. You probably don’t even remember [John] Kasich’s first name, though he was well-known in 2016 from his radio program and his long service in the House of Representatives, then as governor of Ohio.

In a tight race for the republican nomination, each was slightly behind Donald Trump, and (arguably) had either dropped out and recommended that his followers support the other, that candidate would have faced Hillary Clinton.

Whether either one could have defeated her is unclear, but neither would have carried the baggage that Trump did. But neither could have slogged through the deep waters of unfair attacks as joyfully as Donald Trump did.

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Not that they were unaccustomed to vilification, as that is an experience that almost every republican candidate for high office must endure. (Democrats get some, too, but none have been accused of being supported by Russia.)

Trump was uniquely vulnerable to charges of sexual misconduct because of attention-grabbing quotes he made while a television personality. Has anyone actually seen the “pee-tape?”

Many of Trump’s enemies still believe it in, though it has long been demonstrated that the “Steele Dossier” was largely fictitious, made up from gossip and lurid imagination, then sold to the Clinton campaign

Trump was fortunate in having an opponent who was widely disliked, who ran a poor campaign, who became sick during the summer and seemed physically weak, and who had her own email scandal that the FBI director made worse by reopening the case in the last days of the campaign.

Biden may not be a stronger candidate, since his handling of the economy, the immigration crisis, and world crises have been less successful than the pre-Covid Trump; a majority of voters see him as old and physically declining.

But in politics long-range forecasting can be misleading.

There are still many who hate Cruz almost as much as they do Trump, but they can’t find a scandal greater than taking a daughter on a scheduled holiday trip to a Mexican beach when an ice storm hit Texas.

What he was supposed to do is beyond me. I do not remember that he had any experience as a lineman. Besides, he holds a federal office and can do little about state matters.

Kasich is now a news analyst for NBC, which might explain why so few people today know who he is.

2016 was over seven years ago and today, at 72, he falls into the category once known as “too old to run.” Cruz is now 62, but his outspoken views make him almost as hated by Texas Democrats as Trump (and even Trump does not like him).

Still, Texas Democrats are finding it hard to find reasons for their attitude other than that he has three podcasts a week on national subjects that have little to do with Texas. That means that they hate him because he wins arguments and wins elections.

Yes, we are in that kind of world now.

We are also in an election where two candidates presented themselves as an alternative to another Trump-Biden race.

Both DeSantis and Haley did better in polls matching them against Biden than Trump, but the only hope of a less divisive republican candidate was that one will drop out of the race.

That, with DeSantis withdrawing, that has now happened.

Most likely we will have 2016 all over again, but it is not a foregone conclusion.

William Urban is a retired Lee L. Morgan professor of history and international studies at Monmouth College.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: How Ted Cruz, John Kasich led to Donald Trump's presidency