Danation: Notes From the Final Republican Presidential Debate
Photo by Donkey Hotey via flickr.com/photos
As my favorite political blogger, Charlie Pierce, would say, last night was the 10,575,629th, and last, debate of this primary season. There were no fireworks or confetti cannons to celebrate the event, though for those of us who have followed this damnable process since its outset, there very well should have been. It has been, to repurpose an oft-used Iraq War descriptor, a long slog. Even armchair punditry has become a horrible reality in the new, drawn-out campaign season that took shape in 2008 but has reached a sort of marathon perfection this year. How long can it all go on? What’s happening here? Can these people really be saying what I think they’re saying?
All these questions kept returning to my head as I watched last night’s debate. Especially the last one. Some of the rhetoric, especially that which got the greatest applause, seemed to be crafted for a particular subset of Republican voters that, while significant in primaries, represents a small minority of the American populace, one whose Neanderthal worldview will not capture a great deal of votes outside its own, weird bloc come November.
A lot of the particularly noteworthy stuff has been largely overlooked here on the morning after. Take Newt Gingrich, who referred to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the country’s “dictator.” No doubt Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would take some issue with that, were he the type to watch American presidential primary debates, or take anything Newt Gingrich says seriously, something even people as warped as the ayatollah are loathe to do — which should tell you something about Gingrich’s supporters. Speaking of taking what others have to say seriously, not long after erroneously referring to Ahmadinejad as Iran’s dictator, Gingrich said that Iran’s president was a man who disbelieved in the Holocaust and promised to wipe Israel off the map. He followed this with, “I’m inclined to believe dictators.”
So, Speaker Gingrich, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says there was no Holocaust, you believe him?
More important than the verbal slip-ups, though, was the wanton belligerence, with Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney all essentially swearing to do to Iran what Ahmadinejad promised to do to Israel. Rep. Ron Paul served, as he sometimes does, as the lifeline leading back up the rabbit hole and into reality. His explanation that there was no evidence that Iran was actually building a nuclear weapon was greeted with thunderous boos from the typically amped up audience. (Side note: In their defense, the audience didn’t, say, boo an active-duty soldier or applaud the early demise of someone with no health coverage.)
In his own “Hey, wouldn’t yet another war in the Middle East be a fine idea?” moment, Romney noted that he would take military action against Iran if they got the bomb, and doubled-down on this by adding that, because of this threat, they won’t get one. But, if Obama is re-elected, an Iranian nuclear weapon can’t be far behind. It was reminiscent of one of the foulest moments of the 2004 campaign season, when Vice President Dick Cheney said that if Sen. John Kerry were elected president the chance was good that “we’ll get hit again.”
But, fear works. Keeping the masses cowed and afraid is a long-standing conservative election tactic, whether it be fear of hippies, liberals, commies, terrorists, welfare queens, border-crossing Mexicans, blacks wanting to vote, women wanting to vote, or whatever the bogeyman du jour may be.
In his anti-war defense, Paul took aim at the Bush doctrine of preventive war, noting that “preventive war is aggressive war.” He did not go on to the logical conclusion, which is that aggressive war is a crime against humanity, and the worst one at that. At the war crimes trial in Nuremberg after World War II, the prosecution noted that a war of aggression “is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” So, Dr. Paul, when can we expect you to support dragging former President Bush in chains to The Hague?
At least when it comes to women serving in the military, the rat pack seems to have ameliorated its somewhat 19th century views. Even Newt Gingrich allowed that women could serve on the front lines, and back when he was Speaker he said, “If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections.”
Huh.
Well, that’s the last of it anyway. The last debate before this Tuesday, when Arizona and Michigan vote. Arizona still seems like solid Romney territory, though Michigan, where Romney’s father served as governor, looks like a dead-heat between Romney and Santorum, with Gingrich waiting in the wings for Super Tuesday, March 6, when Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and several other places where his race-baiting campaign can depend on getting a few votes, all step into the voting booth. By March 8 or 9, we ought to be down to three candidates. Or maybe not. Gingrich’s titanic ego may not let him leave the race, and Santorum’s so used to a shoestring budget and so convinced he’s doing God’s work that he can carry on till the convention. Either way, it should be a hell of a ride to Tampa.
Hoping these guys all split the next few primaries so they can schedule more debates after super tuesday. In addition to the moments you point out, I also loved the bridge-to-nowhere’s triumphant return, the toughest talk I have heard about Syria (which may be legit), and Santorum admitting he was wrong on No Child Left Behind, but promising us he can change. I just love these debates and am sorry to see them go.
I left the US in 2001 to live in Asia. Every time I return to America, I see the USA getting worse. I am angry, shocked, surprised, saddened, disappointed, and disgusted by the changes I see.
When I leave from a sparkling new modern Asian airport like Hong Kong, Seoul, or Shanghai and land at a run down American airport like LAX that has faded signs, broken water fountains, and a decor that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1984, I feel like I have arrived in a 3rd world country.
I see Americans getting fatter.
I see more laws in the USA that outlaw everything from baggy pants to sex tourism to artificial turf to feeding the homeless to banning fast food restaurants.
I see the end of freedom in the US. Americans can now be added to no fly lists. The US Constitution has been overruled by the Patriot Act that has legalized wiretaps without a warrant and allows the government to deport and strip any American of his or her citizenship. Does that sound American to you?
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2011/jun/02/news/la-pn-patriot-act-alarm-20110602
The prison at Guantanamo has been opened to detain and torture suspected terrorists indefinitely without trial.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/06/25/human_rights_chief_appeals_to_us_on_guantanamo_inmates/
The US now has a secret panel “kill list” of Americans who are targeted to be assassinated without a trial.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-cia-killlist-idUSTRE79475C20111005
President Obama recently signed the National Defense Authorization Act that allows the indefinite detention of any American or foreigner accused of terrorism without trial by the US military on US or foreign soil.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/02/president-obama-signed-the-national-defense-authorization-act-now-what/
I see a higher unemployment rate and more welfare. I see jobs have been offshored to cheaper countries, more jobs lost to technology, and the US flooded with illegal immigrants that take American jobs, don’t pay taxes, and drain government resources.
I see indebted Americans who bought more than they could afford and a broke US government that has lowered taxes, but increased spending on unnecessary wars.
Looking at the history of Rome, Nazi Germany, and the United States, I see some disturbing parallels:
1. While becoming a superpower, Rome abandoned the very values with which it had won its supremacy.
2. Roman rulers used “self-defense” pretexts to invade other countries, with hawks criticizing doves for not being patriotic.
3. War benefited the Roman elite before the masses.
4. Wars were sold as about liberty and justice defeating tyranny.
5. The aggressor nation stated conditions to avoid war that are impossible for the opponent to comply with.
6. Powerful Romans hated to make concessions. They would have rather fought to the death instead of giving in to the the demands of citizens. The elite felt that they earned it, even though they used corruption to amass their wealth.
7. Romans became weak and lazy because the masses were given free bread and circuses.
8. The people seen as “barbarians” gradually wore down the empire, causing it to spend itself into bankruptcy.
In Nazi Germany, the Reichstag burned in 1933. In the USA, the World Trade center was attacked in 2001.
Nazi Germany passed the Enabling Act that gave Hitler dictatorial powers. The US now has the Patriot Act.
Nazi Germany opened Jewish concentration camps. The US has opened the Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland. The US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.
Americans should not just be concerned by the recent changes in the US, they should be outraged. We need to get our country back.
I suggest that we start moving the US in a better direction by doing the following:
1. Americans would be more healthier and better looking if they just started eating less and exercising more.
2. The US really needs to end the very scary and obvious movement that is banning freedom, increasing nanny state laws, and expanding the creation of a military socialist dictatorship. Even if politicians says they won’t use unconstitutional laws on the books now, doesn’t mean that later officials won’t. Americans that stay silent while illegal laws are enacted should not depend entirely on the Supreme Court to protect their rights because courts once protected slavery, segregation, and concentration camps as well. The time to protest unconstitutional laws is before they are enacted. Americans cannot naively believe a dictator like Hitler or Stalin will never seize power in the US.
If America has no freedom, criticizing countries like China or North Korea is hypocritical.
Everyone opposes terrorism, but if you want to prevent terrorism, give suspected terrorists a trial, improve airline security, and don’t give out visas easily. Terrorism should not be an excuse to declare war against Americans. Not only are many of the growing flood of regulations wrong, they are also unnecessary. One only needs to look at the pro-democracy protests in the Middle East to see Arabs prefer following a democratic model instead of Osama bin Laden terrorism.
3. Americans should call for a much smaller government with less welfare, a greatly reduced military budget, a tax hike on the richest, higher visa fees for foreigners, increasing sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco, reducing the wages of government workers, ending government farm and airline subsidies, and eliminating less important programs like Amtrak, PBS, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We should stop extending unemployment benefits and require unemployed Americans to take jobs in farming, meatpacking plants, construction, landscaping, and hotels. Business people should not be punished while lazy people are encouraged to depend on government welfare. Welfare makes people lazy and no country would be foolish enough to attack the US even with a smaller military. We need to get the American house in order before we try to control the world.
4. Americans need to start moving overseas to teach English and export US products. Whining about jobs being outsourced because foreign workers are willing to work cheaper is not very practical. Americans would be shocked how poor product quality and shopping selection is in 3rd world countries compared to the US. Would you rather have an American car or a Chinese one?
5. One of the few areas the US government needs to increase spending is enforcing immigration laws and protecting the border from illegal immigrants. Limited legal immigration is not bad, but allowing illegal immigrants to live in the US encourages disrespect for the law. Illegal immigrants should not be allowed to have driver licenses, pay in-state tuition, or receive government benefits. The lives of illegals should not be made easier or be rewarded for breaking the law. Illegals should be deported and employers should be required to use E-Verify. If 13 million Americans are out of work, 12 million illegal immigrants should not be taking up the jobs.
6. Americans need to start living within their means and stop taking on credit card debt, auto loans, mortgages, and student loans. What you want and what you need are two different things.
7. Americans should vote for any presidential candidate other than Obama. Obama is a pessimistic pro-government, anti-business, anti-freedom, pro-illegal immigration, and pro-war politician who is continuing most of the worst policies of George W. Bush that will bankrupt the US without improving much at all.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-we-still-face-some-tough-times/1
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/03/26/congress_completes_overhaul_of_health_care/
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/jan/28/nation/na-obama-capitol-hill28
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-acts-ease-burden-student-loans-001017820.html
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/09/GOP-Obama-regs-are-killing-jobs-548766/1
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/05/news/la-pn-obama-immigration-regulation-20120105
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946990,00.html
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/10/obama-dispatches-100-troops-to-uganda/1
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-21-1Alibya21_CV_N.htm
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11/fed-debt-hits-15-trillion-gop-blasts-obama/1
8. Despite the very real problems facing the US, Americans also need to remain confident. The USA is by far the richest and most powerful country in the world. Who invented the assembly line, telephones, movies, light bulbs, airplanes, air conditioning, elevators, skyscrapers, television, the atomic bomb, the pill, calculators, microwaves, lasers, the Internet, mobile phones, the space shuttle, and landed on the moon? What country wins the most medals at the Olympics despite having only 5% of the world population? If the United States is dying, why do so many people want to immigrate there?
While I must admit that I once did not oppose some of the policies like the Iraq war, less banking regulation, and tax cuts that lead to part of our current troubles, I now fear that more terrorism laws, bigger government, coddling illegal immigrants, and increased debt are not the solutions to our problems. I was quiet once about concerns I saw in the past and I regret it. Now I think people should not keep silent while watching a potential train wreck.
The problems facing the USA require urgent action. I love the United States and I do not want the strongest, richest, and most free country in the world to fall. Talk about the changes happening to the US with your friends and family, vote, donate to the ACLU, contact the media, and write to your elected officials. Thousands of Americans did not die fighting for freedom and democracy in wars to have liberty denied in the USA. Do not let their sacrifice go to waste.
America won’t be a beacon to the world if freedom is banned and the US goes bankrupt. Stand up, fight for your rights and values, and protect our country now!
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
http://www.aclu.org/
http://www.nannystate.com/
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Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The best government is that which governs least.
Be the change you wish to see.