What Cruz did at the convention was remarkable. Brave. To borrow some evangelical language, it was like Daniel walking among the lions. While most other Republicans either stayed away or surrendered to Caesar Trumpus, Cruz walked confidently into the convention hall and laid out the reasons why he couldn’t endorse. It was subtle, lawyerly and — yes, I’ll admit it — spoke to me personally.

Clinton is unacceptable to conservatives. But that doesn’t mean that the Republican ticket is automatically preferable. Cruz implied that it is possible — which conservatives read as preferable — to remain loyal to the GOP precisely by repudiating Trump. If Trump is not a true Republican, then saying so is probably the best thing a conservative can do for the future of his/her party — to say: “Because I love the Republican Party so much, I cannot support this current nominee.”

I call this Cruz’s greatest moment, not only because he said something I sympathize with, but because only Cruz could have said it and said it so well. Its power derived from his intellect and his association with ideological conservatism.