Ted Cruz placed third in the Nevada %^&*show caucuses last night, and his campaign’s first act was to send out a fundraiser email attacking Marco Rubio, who came in second. Not Donald Trump, who came in first, but Marco Rubio.

I have never once questioned the authenticity of Ted Cruz, nor have I questioned his devotion to The Cause we all fight for – namely, the advancement of conservatism and a devotion to the true meaning and interpretation of the Constitution as essentially the alpha and omega of government power. I have never questioned that Marco Rubio wants and fights for what is best for America and the American people. I have struggled to pick which one to support over the other, and while I lean toward Rubio, I would be more than happy to vote for either candidate, because I have always known them to be true fighters for what is right.

As of late, however, I have wondered whether becoming president is more important to either of them than the fight to do what is right. I have wavered in my belief that these two men would do us as a movement proud. They have chosen to attack each other while leaving the frontrunner, who is not conservative in any real or meaningful sense, largely to do as he pleases.

This is a problem as it continues to split the Republican voters who don’t support Donald Trump. Ben Carson and John Kasich are egomaniacs at this point who refuse to accept that they are not only not going to be president, but they will not be vice president, either. Cruz and Rubio are the only ones with any chance to challenge Donald Trump directly, yet both are more focused on tearing each other down than the frontrunner.

This isn’t a matter of political strategy. Political strategy dictates that Ted Cruz fights for second place in order to keep his supporters from going to Donald Trump, and letting all the other non-Trump support come to him at the end of this race. Political strategy dictates that you don’t hit Trump in order to keep his supporters from going to Cruz, thereby maintaining your second-place spot.

But, political strategy is pushing ideology to the back seat. The attacks Cruz and Rubio launch at each other aren’t substantive, ideological attacks on policy. They are the attacks you’d hear on a school playground, meant to tear each other down in the eyes of others.

To quote the police chief from the cartoon Freakazoid: Cut it out!

This race has become a race for the very identity of the conservative movement. It has become a race where we are trying to prevent the Republican nomination from being given to a Democrat, if not in identity, then in past performance at least. The movement, once united, now divides, and we as a country will suffer.