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The Debate We Were Supposed to Have
The 2016 election was the grand battle conservatives had been hoping for since Ronald Reagan left the Oval Office. The roster of candidates was to be a who’s-who of smart, proven, center-right leadership.
Scott Walker would show how his gutsy union changes transformed a blue state, while Bobby Jindal shared how his school choice revolution changed Louisiana. Rick Perry could press his breathtaking jobs record and tell us how to “make Washington inconsequential in our lives.”
From the Senate, Tea Party constitutionalist Ted Cruz would bring the intellect, while Florida’s Marco Rubio brought the heart. Add Rand Paul to energize the growing conservatarian wing, and the trio would appeal to the young, minorities, and independents.
Moderate Chris Christie would reach out to northeastern voters once considered out of reach for the GOP while Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson added an outsiders’ perspective from the worlds of technology and medicine.
No more settling for uninspiring match-ups like Mitt Romney vs. Herman Cain, John McCain vs. Mike Huckabee, or Dubya vs. Alan Keyes. 2016 was going to be about Big Ideas on turning around a debt-ridden, war-weary, stagnant superpower. A policy wonk’s dream.
Even better, Republicans could finally laugh at the Democratic primary featuring a corrupt Clinton, a socialist Sanders, and a Bidenesque Biden. Imagine the contrast of tired old Democrats yelling about microaggressions and wiped email servers, as fresh, dynamic Republicans addressed high-level social and economic policy.
It would be obvious to the electorate that Republicans were the only party with the vision, with the heart, and with the intelligence to lead the nation.
Instead, here are the political headlines of Summer 2015:
- Trump on McCain: “I like people who weren’t captured”
- Trump on Megyn Kelly: “There was blood coming out of her… wherever.”
- Trump: Rick Perry “should be forced to take an IQ test” before debate
- Trump is going to war with Scott Walker after being called “DumbDumb” by one of his supporters
- Trump on Fiorina: “Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”
- Trump on Heidi Klum: “She’s no longer a 10.”
These are the lofty policy debates dominating the presidential election of a 21st century superpower. We aren’t discussing America’s $18.4 trillion national debt and our insolvent social programs. The stagnant economy and an expansionist China, Russia, and Islamic State. Burning cities at home and burning countries abroad.
Instead we’re trading GIFs of a reality show star on “The Tonight Show,” giggling about menstruation, and wondering if the most impressive GOP field in a generation are a bunch of “dummies” or if they’re a bunch of “losers.”
These are serious times. We are not a serious people.
Published in General
“If you’re keeping score, in the past month Trump has bitch-slapped the entire Republican Party, redefined our expectations of politics, focused the national discussion on immigration, proposed the only new idea for handling ISIS, and taken functional control of FOX News, and I don’t think he put much effort into it. Imagine what he could do if he gave up golf.”
–Scott Adams
(To be clear – as the foregoing could be interpreted different ways – Adams is not a fan.)
If the current field can’t handle Trump, how would its survivor handle the media/Democrat industrial complex?
Some are simply reveling in Trump’s smack-down of Bush/GOP establishment. Many of them will come around when it’s time to cast a ballot. The rest aren’t conservatives.
True. But in a sense, Trump is the media/Democrat complex.
We are seeing the media choose our candidates. Hillary would have flared out long ago if the media wasn’t covering for her. Likewise, Trump would be a footnote if the media wasn’t constantly focusing on him.
The media, not the people, choose our candidates. And you can say “that’s the people’s fault,” but I can’t really blame the fish for taking the bait.
I thought Carly’s rebuttal video had some flair.
Correct as always, but if the rest of the candidates think dealing with Trump is a pain wait until they are on stage with Hillary and the entire media behind her.
Trump can be knocked over.
Wow, very well said. You are absolutely spot on.
We really should not have a bunch of Democratic Party apparatchiks with press cards running our political system.
That thought makes my head hurt. As Drew said, Herself would have flared out without the media.
I’d love to see Carly take her on one-on-one.
No “but.” That’s exactly my point. We saw how Obama was carried home by a complicit media, and Grandma Hillary will get the same treatment (even if she can’t carry it off as well). Smart candidates should look at Trump as yet another celebrity Democrat, adjust accordingly, and be grateful for the practice.
And re: your point about the people falling for it: the public schools are working as designed.
A good candidate who isn’t afraid to mock them and their candidates can win. Heck, Romney was even landing telling blows until he was unprepared for the Crowley intervention.
This is why Trump is such good practice: he’s a bully, but a clever one. You’ll have to hit hard, but in the right spot: his puffed-up pride.
A man with no shame is hard to hit in the pride.
I think he needs to be hit hard from the right on policy and see his polls drop.
Saddest reality: that “We” in the final sentence is us. Self-described conservatives. Maybe some national organization dedicated to civil conversation on the right could invite the gentlemen and lady who have demonstrated an interest in civil conversation to a debate and exclude any candidate who shows no interest in civility or conservatism?
That would be a serious move.
Might put that organization on the mental map of more than 10,000 civil conservatives.
This the last time I am saying this. Copied-pasted
If you want to beat trump here is what you have to do.
1.) Stop acting like a pathway to citizenship/guest worker is going to happen.
2) Start acting like you can deport illegal immigrants. Nobody likes a loser. When you say “WAHHHH!!!! The task is to hard” you just made yourself a non-entity. You have explicitly stated UP FRONT that you are incompetent and incapable of the job.
3.) Stop acting like useless but true information is important People are running for president not the analyst working for the president. You have to understand that in the world of politics you are fetishists, perverts if you will. Mostly its not important, except to perverts. Never forget that you are a niche within a niche.
4.) Worry about the things that are likely to change, that people worry about. Abortion isn’t going to change much. Gun control is dead. Gay marriage is for all intents and purposes the status quo for at least the next 30 years.
5.) Shun Reformicons. Nobody cares about the half-thoughts of quarter-wits with pretensions of profundity. Stoners lying a field are less ridiculous. Stupid people who think they are clever are bad, even when they are republicans. Newt Gingrich had this right in the last election. Right wing social engineering is just as bad as left wing social engineering. Stop. Just Stop.
Good day.
Some minor exceptions at #4 WRT federalism, otherwise I endorse this strategy.
But to complete your logic: will Trump actually win the election (primary or general)?
The last two decades are replete with conservative firebrand candidates who hit it off big with the base – and lost. Think Buchanan, Bachmann, and even Perot.
Lots of signs suggest that Trump is not going to win, including the fact that many people who are touting him now say they won’t actually vote for him come ballot time. So the question becomes: what good will Trump’s talking (and being talked about) bring when he loses?
Rhetorical question: doesn’t this imply that democracy is doomed to fail?
Serious question: is the practice of selecting the party nominee by popular vote – which is not required by law – really such a good idea?
Non-rhetorical answer: I am beginning to believe so. I read Federalist 9 and 10 and thing “oh God, we’ve achieved what Madison was trying to prevent -and we’re going to suffer the same distractions and vibrations as the other petty republics.”
Well, I’m also beginning to have good things to say about a monarch, but so long as we’re going to keep the President, I think Sean Trende has made a good argument for the President being selected by delegates at a convention where the delegates are not sworn in advance. But I also hold no illusions that after the first time -if that -the delegates would not act as if they were sworn anyway.
For “the Donald” everything is as easy as just hiring the right people, then everything goes fantastic, for him anyway.
Just finished watching Dancing with the Stars, and had a thought, “if Donald Trump competed, who would he hire to dance for him?” Flipped over to Chopped on the Food Network and thought “if Donald Trump were to compete, who would he hire to cook for him?” Chef Ramsey came to mind there.
If only it would actually happen. When I’ve hit his supporters with conservative positions Trump opposes they suddenly oppose them too. It’s a real cult mentality I’m seeing in my limited sample.
Much of the blame for Trump belongs with Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Sarah Palin
Glenn Beck is the only one willing to go against his fans and point out what a con man Trump is.
I hope your sample is just irregular.
I laugh at times listening to Trump, but I think what he doing to the Republican party simply for his own self aggrandizement is very sad.
I agree. I’m sick of demagogic talk show hosts.
It was bound to happen when Civics was removed from the mandatory curriculum. Our government was designed to be controlled by the citizens, not the people they elect and the bureaucracy. When citizens abdicate their responsibility, this is the result.
Here is a thoughtful recommendation for a new nomination process by Jay Cost and Jeffrey Anderson in National Affairs.
It makes good sense as a conspiracy, doesn’t it? If you’re a Dem operative with a byline, how best can you fight a really great field of Republican candidates? Hard to come up with a better angle than round-the-clock coverage of a buffoon.
Man, if you told me four years ago that Glenn Beck would be the voice of reason in that group, I’d have laughed in your face. To be fair, I’d have thought none of them were sane, but Beck was such a loon. I’m not a fan, but I respect that he reconsidered his approach.
Unfortunately, the pre-ordained outcome of this debate was to have been a Jeb-Rubio ticket. And I think part of Trump’s popularity is simple recognition that supporting a truly conservative candidate was an exercise in futility. The GOP is Jack Black’s rasta stoner character in “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.” Donald Trump is the deranged murderer. Guess who the audience is rooting for.
I have high hopes for the inclusion of Fiorina in the debate. As long as CNN doesn’t turn this into the Trump show, the level of discourse should be quite high (perhaps the presence of Hewitt can contribute to that likelihood) .
Further on Fiorina, I will make an a priori statement (8:22 AM, 16-SEP-2015) that her poll numbers will significantly rise after tonight. She is an extremely impressive person and candidate. She just needs to have a platform to be heard. She will have that tonight and there is no reason to believe that there will not be another very large viewing audience to witness her impressiveness. In an era of popularity of “outsiders”, she is one whose plausibility blows the others (on both sides) out of the water.
I fully expect CNN will turn this into the Trump show. They saw the ratings for the first debate, and quickly grabbed the tissue to wipe the drool from their chin.
What’s stupid, in my opinion, is other candidates stating before the debate how they will be going after Trump. Don’t tell us, just do it.