Same As It Ever Was…Kinda; GOP Debates in Alabama

What if you took the vigor of Vivek Ramaswamy, the comfortable direct approach of Chris Christie, the clear administrative skill of Ron DeSantis, and the, um, whatever of Nikki Haley and smooshed them into one Republican candidate?

Now that would not only be a great candidate, but a great president.

The problem for Christie, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley is that 60% of the Republican Party are already sure that that candidate exists and that his name is Donald Trump.

The fourth GOP presidential debate, for the most part, featured much of the same from earlier debates – not all the same, but it did follow a few familiar patterns.

First, no discussion of the censorship* issue, an astonishing lapse considering the importance (and topicality) of the issue.  Of course, if is one of a conspiratorial mindset, there’s a reason for that that could be best represented by a snake eating its own tail.  Either way, yet again a sorely missed opportunity.

Second, a mention of the pandemic response for the first time but no real direct question about it.  While I was not around to see it, I can safely assume that in the congressional elections of 1946 the press and the candidates at least mentioned World War II now and again – not talking specifically and at length about the pandemic as baffling as if they hadn’t (though, see above).

To their credit, both DeSantis and Ramaswamy did talk about it, shoehorning it on a question about health care.  Ramaswamy said the pandemic response showed the core importance of free speech and what happens when it is curtailed, while DeSantis – known for his rather good record on keeping the state of Florida as open as possible – promised a “reckoning” for the myriad bad actors of the past three years.

“I’m going to go in there CDC, NIH, FDA and we’re going to clean house. There’s going to be a reckoning because right now nobody’s been held accountable for any of the damage, and they’re going to try to do it again,” DeSantis said.  “When I’m president, this will never happen to our country ever again.”

Third, the familiar sight of Ramaswamy calling Haley corrupt appeared, though this time he added a handheld sign saying “Haley = Corrupt.”

On a more serious note – one that DeSantis jumped in on as well (Christie, as usual, yelled at Ramaswamy for being mean) – Ramaswamy tied Haley to Wall Street and its support of ESG investment characteristics (to sum up, ESG is like a credit score for wokeness – higher is “better,” just ask Sri Lanka).

Larry Fink – one of the wokest and most powerful men on Wall Street – and Reid Hoffman – one of the wokest streaming service (Netflix) owners – have both recently started to pump money into Haley’s campaign.  Add in the Koch (not “brothers” anymore since one passed away) money machine and her troubling statements about social media government involvement – and Haley was rightly criticized for her being the most “status quo statist” Republican in the race (Asa Hutchison’s gone, right?)

Christie stuck to his Trump guns, calling him unfit for office and most likely the only Republican candidate who will not be legally allowed to even vote next November because he will be a felon by then.  He added, ruefully, that Trump has gone from saying he was the “voice” of the people in 2016 to now saying he will be the “retribution” of the people in 2024.

On immigration, DeSantis stood by his plan to militarize the border, adding that even legal immigration needs greater scrutiny by pointing to the on-going cultural whipsaws Europe has been plagued with since it decided to import labor in vast quantities from nations that may not have Europe’s best interests at heart.

The deep state and the destruction of the public’s trust in once-vaunted government agencies like the FBI did get a little more – not enough, though –  attention this time around.  Christie’s answer was to appoint an actual competent honest Attorney General.  Haley said DeSantis and Ramaswamy were critical of her “statist” zillionaire donors – twice – because they were “jealous” but little else on the issue except note she will not be beholden to any of her donors or the corporations she worked for in the past few years that have driven her net worth from about $100,000 to about $8 million.

Ramaswamy, again, emphasized the need to protect free speech, that “fascist neo-cons” like Haley “will send your kid to die so she can buy a bigger house,” and added that the ”deep state,” not Joe Biden or Donald Trump, is the “real enemy.”

DeSantis did not get quite so gruesomely personal, but said the agencies of the national security state need to be cleaned out, that elections need to be secure, and that if he were president he would have fired “(FBI Director) Christopher Wray and (NIAID Director) Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Unlike in past debates, the transgender issue was specifically discussed Wednesday night.  Christie said the state should stay out of the matter and that it’s an issue of parents’ rights.

DeSantis was having none of that, saying that parents do not have the right to commit child abuse by (supporting?) their mutilation and allowing the “incalculable damage” of hormone therapy.

Haley side-stepped the issue and Ramaswamy said “transgenderism is mental health disorder” and should be treated as such (he was instantaneously “fact checked” into the progressive boards on that.)

There was also much standard wailing and gnashing of teeth and “that’s a lie(s)” and other typical debate antic tactics tossed about, but the debate did end on an interesting and deeply embarrassing and troubling note.

Not for the candidates, though.  Each was asked which former president they would most aspire to be like – Christie said Ronald Reagan, Haley said Washington and Lincoln, and Ramaswamy went with Thomas Jefferson who invented the swivel chair while writing the Declaration of Independence (that’s actually true.)

But DeSantis went with Calvin Coolidge for “understanding the proper role of government under the constitution.”

Fortunately – if tediously – I was monitoring live update feeds from other “news” organizations while watching the debate.  After DeSantis referenced Coolidge, a New York Times political reporter wrote “Currently Googling the Coolidge administration” while a Washington Post “journalist” wrote the following:

“In the newsroom, we are still googling Calvin Coolidge, DeSantis’s presidential inspiration. Wikipedia says: “Elected in his own right in 1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname ‘Silent Cal.’”

God help us all.

Asterisk – Speaking of “conspiratorial mindset, I happened to watch the debate on Rumble and the moment COVID was mentioned, the feed went out for a few minutes, coming back a bit before the final statements.  And it’s still not on Rumble’s debate replay.