They certainly tried. The “Debate Show” was an obvious Get-Trump setup, from the leadoff question asking the candidates if they would pledge to support the GOP nominee and pledge not to run as a third-party candidate, to the scripted post-debate post-mortem using a pollster and commentators to paint a picture of “collapsing” Trump support. Was that bullshit? The Drudge Poll strongly suggests it is.
Trump came across as a confident and forceful debater. Walker and Paul sounded squeaky by comparison, although Paul scored the best one-liner (that wasn’t a cheap shot) by telling former prosecutor Christie to “get a warrant” before snooping in Americans’ personal records, and vowing to defend the Bill of Rights. (Take that, fatso!)
There were enough dollops of ignorance, silliness, and demagoguery to stamp this event as a certified Republican blab fest. The silliest remark of the evening came when Carson said he’d replace the tax system with tithing. Walker earned second place in the category by arguing he would “put more crippling sanctions in place, and convince our allies to do the same” to make Tehran renegotiate. (In reality, none of the other countries who participated in sanctions would do so again, Tehran wouldn’t negotiate again, and President Walker would be left with no inspections, no impediments, and no options except letting Iran build a bomb or going to war.
Carson had the worst position by saying, in response to a question about waterboarding, that “what we do to get the information we need is our business.” In other words, he would authorize torture and keep it secret. No, it doesn’t work that way, the whole world makes torture its business; and torturing people lowers and demeans our nation. Bad answer.
Walker was dishonest by claiming he “turned around” Wisconsin’s economy. According to Politifact, Wisconsin is “below average” in both job and wage growth.
This being a Republican gathering, several candidates piled the demagoguery on several major issues.
1. Iran, of course — Republicans claim Kerry and Obama negotiated a toothless accord that greenlights Tehran to acquire a bomb. None of the other nations that participated in the sanctions and negotiations see it that way, but they weren’t on the debate stage to contradict the Republican bullshit. Cruz and Huckabee have demagogued this issue a bit harder than the others, conjuring up visions of Israel’s annihilation. They’ve never heard of deterrence. Using a nuclear weapon against another nuclear power is suicide, and 70 years of history since the bomb’s invention tells us nobody is stupid and reckless enough to do that.
2. Sanctuary Cities — This movement grew out of compassion for Latin American victims of murder and mayhem in their home countries. Many of those seeking sanctuary are children. Slamming the door on these refugees because one immigrant committed a heinous murder of an innocent American in a sanctuary city is typical of the brainless, unthinking, knee-jerk Republican way of doing things. Equally heinous murders are committed by American citizens every day. Such crimes are a fact of life, a part of the human condition, and after 100,000 years of human experience we’ve only figured out how to punish such acts, but not how to prevent them. Passing laws against sanctuary cities won’t prevent murders. Does it really matter whether the killers are immigrant or our own citizens? Don’t take it out on the innocent refugees, assholes. But of course they will, because they’re Republicans.
3. Planned Parenthood — Several of these candidates made it clear they would defund the 98% of non-abortion health services this organization provides to mostly poor women out of spite over the other 2%, which won’t stop abortions but only shift them to other providers. Once again, mindless Republican jackassery against the innocent and helpless, in order to fulfill the Republicans’ need to be jackasses.
4. Religious Liberty — Like confiscating guns, this is totally a straw man, because no one argues that government should make churches or religious groups recognize gay marriages. Republicans continue to conflate religious wedding sacraments with the legal contract of marriage. Only the latter is required to confer the tax, inheritance, health, and other benefits that government recognition of a marriage confers, and which is what most gay couples mostly want. Public policy and the Supreme Court ruling are concerned only with who can enter into legal contracts of marriage, and have nothing to say about those people who also see in marriage a religious commitment with duties defined by their church. The Supreme Court decision doesn’t require anyone to change their religious beliefs or any church to change its practices. Let’s not mince words here; this is about bigotry, because no one is making them marry a person of the same sex, this is other people’s marriages they’re complaining about. And, not putting too fine a point on it, while today’s conservatives decry same-sex marriages, it was just a couple generations ago that conservatives were passing laws that threw people in prison for interracial marrying, which leaves no doubt as to what their real agenda is: Forcing strangers conform to their religious beliefs and points of view. That’s just one short step away from the religious warfare that drove our forebears to this continent in the first place.
Although laws prohibiting businesses from discriminating against gay people are a different issue, resistance to these laws falls under the rubric of “religious liberty,” and while this issue wasn’t specifically mentioned in tonight’s debate, such resistance is implied by use of the phrase. The short answer is you can worship the Devil if you want, but the First Amendment doesn’t preclude society from regulating social behavior that affects others.
On a related note, Huckabee has said this before, but it was just as disturbing when he repeated it tonight, that he considers Supreme Court rulings non-binding on the executive branch. That argument ceased to be correct in 1803, and disobeying a court order would violate the president’s oath of office. Huckabee’s concept of a theocratic government also are disturbing and violate the separation of church and state principle.
Now back to Trump. Some people like his straight-talking style, plus he’s one hell of a salesman. But is there anything more to him than bombast? What would President Trump have to do to deliver on his promises? To stop Russia and China from hacking the Pentagon, he’ll have to spend billions upgrading our military’s IT systems. To stop illegal immigration with a wall on our southern border, billions more, for a Maginot Line. Walls, fences, and moats don’t stop people; they only slow them down, and sometimes they don’t even do that.
Trump has proven adept at tapping into public frustration. But there’s no reason to believe his ability to dominate a debate stage with his oversize personality would translate into ability to govern. I predict our next president won’t be Donald Trump, not because Fox used this debate to try to knock him out of the race, but because America’s voters will choose a professional politician for a job that requires one. Trump’s appeal will fade when the shine wears off, and when it does, most likely Jeb Bush will emerge as the candidate who is most electable in this pack.