Why I Can't Hand Our Country Over to Hillary

This is it, 12 days now. This is where we potentially give it all back. Do we allow individual liberty to be marginalized? Does the fundamental transformation of America take hold irreversibly? Is this where the mainstream media's mind games, programming and brainwashing take their final, devastating effect?

The talking heads, network bosses and the biased editorial chiefs have effectively splintered the party that won by historical proportions just two years ago. Watching and enabling it to burn due to pride will be the great regret of this generation of conservatives.

Their children and grandchildren will suffer, but hey, pride or something.

Last summer, while I was simultaneously running my small business, raising my daughter as a single dad and trying to bring awareness of the abuses of Washington D.C., I decided that I was going to do everything I possibly could to get Ted Cruz elected President.

I emailed Sen. Cruz's campaign manager Jeff Roe several times for artwork to print up my own bumper stickers which he was nice enough to provide; and I was put in communication with several conservatives from New Jersey as I tried to build my own group of "renegade conservatives" for Cruz.

Along the way, my personal "Ted Cruz tour” took me first to Columbus, Ohio where I would encounter the senator for the first time in person. The photo of the encounter was featured in a Fox Latino piece on Americans For Prosperity's event declaring Ted Cruz the obvious favorite at the Defending the American Dream Summit.

I couldn't say much which is shocking to those who know me well.

He signed my book and shook every hand and took the time to make sure everyone was addressed.

I soon got an email from the campaign's Houston headquarters looking for volunteers to work on the ground at what was perhaps his finest hour on the campaign trail: Value Voter's Summit 2015. Cruz would win the straw poll 408 to 204 over Dr. Ben Carson.

Every sentence for his speech was met with a standing ovation (usually started by me).

Donald Trump was not a factor as the social conservatives were firmly in the Cruz camp during that period.

He was down in the polls but he was building momentum. I would eventually be named Warren County, N.J. chairman by Steve Lonegan and would work closely with him in New Hampshire, Nevada, and of course New Jersey.

There were highs, and of course lows, along the way.

The night Cruz won Iowa was one of the happiest nights of my life.

I watched proudly with my daughter as he gave his victory speech and have to admit that my eyes welled up. Conversely, the lows hit hard. The night of the Indiana primary I was on "Newsmax Prime" with JD Hayworth and Trump surrogate Roger Stone — who I had been very critical of on my own show — based on his threats against non-Trump delegates.

I was in the middle of hitting Trump on a myriad of issues when the cameras would eventually cut away to Cruz giving his concession speech.

I was the the textbook definition of the "#NeverTrump" movement.

I couldn't accept the idea that my candidate could possibly lose. Over a period of several weeks I changed my thinking as I realized a third consecutive term of failed leftist ideology was what I got so deeply involved in to stop in the first place.

So many conservatives have made the argument that somehow a Trump presidency would destroy the GOP. Well look at the party leadership and its results. The people willing to cling to the idea that this GOP is worth saving at the cost of sinking Trump should know better.

Progressivism permeates through both parties.

The "Cromnibus" of 2015 and the 2016 Paul Ryan "Omnibus" are proof of this.

This is Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's big government GOP.

Our country and the Constitution are worth preserving and I am not willing to hand that over to Hillary Clinton.

Vote for Donald J. Trump to make America great again.

Julio Rivera is an entrepreneur, small business consultant and political activist. He contributes to RightWingNews.com and NewsNinja2012.com, and had previously covered boxing and baseball for the now defunct "The Urban News" in his native Paterson, N.J. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.