The GOP debates were a complete mess, starting with the fact that they weren’t debates How could they possibly be debates with more people on stage than in the audience? A debate is where a moderator asks a question of someone and that person gives his or her opinion and is then ¨debated” by another person. That’s not even close to what happened on that stage. First off, the moderators asked all the candidates the same question. What’s your weak spot? Who the hell wants to answer a question like that? It’s like when did you stop beating your wife? Also, if you ask everyone the same question and it doesn’t have anything to do with policy, you get speeches not debate.
John Kasich attacked the question and made perfect sense. Ted Cruz in his best moment of the debate backed him. Then Trump couldn’t figure out an answer and started with the personal attacks. Then Carson rose to defend his ludicrous tax idea and just fell flat. Cruz couldn’t stand his silence and cut in with his tax plan, which he says is very Reaganesque. That’s what we want, more Reagan economics. The rich aren’t rich enough. Then Marco Rubio tried to explain why he wants a better job when he hasn’t even finished the one he’s being paid for now. It was all stilted and almost none of it made sense, even when they weren’t lying.
In watching these debates one thing became more and more evident. There are those among the candidates who have ideas and concepts for how to govern and there are those who just want to make noise. Like them or not and this column doesn’t like many of them, Kasich, Paul and to some extent Cruz have thoughts on different problems with our government and how to solve them.
Jeb Bush strangely, has become a whining klutz with almost nothing to add to the discussion. Donald Trump has only one idea. Vote for me and I’ll solve all your problems because I’m me. Everybody is saying that Trump is getting too much free publicity simply because he is outspoken. The reality is that he hasn’t gotten enough. With all the followers he has generated across the country he is completely in the dumpster in New York, where the population has been dealing with and learning to hate him for decades. Once the rest of the country really gets to know him they will understand what an arrogant, self-serving, loudmouth he really is and they too will hate him.
Carly Fiorina knows only how to attack Clinton and lie about her business background. Ben Carson’s thoughts seem to have nothing to do with logical policy. Chris Christie talks tough but he talks mostly about how he was a prosecutor and tries to make us forget how many problems he has allowed to fester while governor of New Jersey,
When real problems were discussed, problems like taxes, education, business regulation or any of our entitlement programs almost all the debaters immediately went to state control rather than federal control. Why, because if states can take over the elements of government they can be more easily controlled by the corporate community, who the GOP represents.
If the states control things like our education or environmental areas there will be huge inequalities between the different states. That’s okay as long as we are dealing with insignificant problems but if you get into real problems like racial or gender inequality, health control or education, you can almost guarantee unfair treatment for someone when it’s handled by the states. The only reason that we don’t have slavery in the southern states today is because the north beat their brains out in the Civil War. Do we want to have to go through that again?
Then a few nights later the Democrats went at it in their Southern Forum. What a difference. The whole show was so superior that one has to ask why they have failed so miserably in the South? It seems that it is because they have not had their most important, most universal message spread across that area of the country the way it should have been. They have allowed the other Party to spread a false message of bigotry and evangelist hatred and that is the only message that the people of the area hear. Even with the huge ghettos of the urban Northeast , Midwest and California there are more people below the poverty line in the south than anywhere in the country and the Democrats haven’t got their message of economic revival to them. This is something they must do if they are to elect governors and legislators in the south.
The Democratic Forum killed. If you don’t think so you weren’t paying attention. I say this because what the Dems accomplished was to give voters some insight into who the candidates were, what they believed in and what they wanted to accomplish and isn’t that, when all is said and done, what these occasions are really for?
Rachel Maddow, the hostess did just what she was supposed to do, she asked questions that needed answers, that revealed the positions of the candidates. She did not ask gotcha questions and the candidates spent their answers on what they wanted to do not how their opponents were assholes. What I want to know from these forums is what will you do for me and for this country if you are elected. There are plenty of opponents that will tell me what these candidates have done wrong in the past. That’s not the purpose of these forums. These forums are for information and enlightenment.
That is what was wrong with what the Republicans incorrectly called debates. No one at those catfights had the time to lay out a full and intelligent program., They spent most of their time refuting spiteful attacks by those on and off stage who also didn’t have the time to explain what they would do if elected. The Republican debates were more properly forums but the GOP didn’t seem to be informed enough to understand the difference. Yes, the Democrats were not engaged in aggressive arguments but much more important they were enormously informative on both the personal and policy fronts. That’s is the purpose of these things. If that is not accomplished they have failed miserably, just as the Republicans have on each and every occasion.