Posted on 08/08/2015 2:02:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The race to the right has never been this swift.
In his closing statement in last night’s GOP debate, frontrunner Donald Trump made a terrifying assurance: “We have to end Obamacare, and we have to make our country great again, and I will do that.”
In Trump’s idea of a great country, big business rules the health system, buys elections and receives massive tax breaks. Replacing Obamacare with a privatized healthcare system would be President Trump's first step to a totally privatized America.
Almost every candidate promised to repeal Obamacare in last night’s debate—the first of 12 to be held over the coming months. And this was perhaps the mildest of their pledges. With guarantees of dismantling Social Security and Medicare, expanding the military and cracking down on women’s rights, the Republican presidential candidates seem to be striving to outdo each other in how far right they can go.
Leading the primary race—and the race to the right—is Donald Trump. Though some argue he suffered from being overly bombastic last night, his high poll numbers appear to be holding steady. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, also a frontrunner, emerged as an alarming combination of well-spoken and extreme, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio remained calm and collected as he promised his own brand of 21st century conservatism. Among those leading the polls, only Jeb Bush maintained any semblance of centrism, and even he took a hard turn to the right.
The first truly chilling moment came when Scott Walker received his first question. It’s often easy for In These Times readers to forget that Scott Walker has all kinds of terrible qualities in addition to his harsh union-busting policies and anti-democratic tendencies. Walker’s first answer exposed his extreme anti-abortion views: He wants to ban them even in cases of rape, incest or to save a woman’s life.
In polls of likely Republican voters, Walker consistently ranks in the top three of the 17 GOP primary candidates and has recently experienced a surge. He is shaping up to be a real contender for the Republican candidacy, and this should petrify the Left.
After the first round of questions, the debate moved to the topic of undocumented immigrants—or “illegals,” as every candidate and moderator insisted on calling them. When Trump earned a chance to speak, he bragged, “If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be talking about illegal immigration.”
Trump isn’t completely wrong. His surge in the polls and his insistent hammering on the topic brought it to the forefront of other candidates’ talking points—though it certainly was a subject of interest beforehand. For the most part, everyone makes the same three arguments: Undocumented immigrants are bad, we need to get them out, and we need to stop them coming back.
By declaring that most Mexicans migrants are rapists in his announcement speech—a point that is not only absurd and horrifically offensive, but also misleading in a number of ways—Trump tapped into racist vein of the Republican electorate. And now the rest of the candidates want the same gush of support.
Even candidates who once supported some level of commonsense immigration reform now viciously oppose it. Marco Rubio has backtracked from working on reform legislation to demanding a barrier across the US-Mexico border first. Scott Walker has flip-flopped, saying in 2013 that he favors a path to citizenship, then declaring in March of this year, “I don’t believe in amnesty.”
Challenged on this discrepancy during the debate, Walker affirmed his hardline stance, “There is international criminal organizations penetrating our southern-based borders, and we need to do something about it. Secure the border, enforce the law, no amnesty.”
Rubio went all-in on border security, saying, “I also believe we need a fence. The problem is if El Chapo builds a tunnel under the fence, we have to be able to deal with that, too. And that's why you need an e-verify system and you need an entry-exit tracking system and all sorts of other things to prevent illegal immigration.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stepped into the limelight during a question on ISIS, the military and foreign policy. Moderator Megyn Kelly brought up a September 2014 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in which Cruz asked Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey how the military could eradicate ISIS in 90 days. Dempsey responded, “Truly there is no military solution to ISIL” (another term for ISIS), and “they will only be defeated or destroyed once they are rejected by the population in which they hide.” Cruz then accused him of pushing Medicaid for the Iraqis.
Kelly asked Cruz how he would “destroy ISIS in 90 days.” Cruz said that the idea that “we need to change the conditions on the ground so that young men are not in poverty and susceptible to radicalization”—a paraphrase of Dempsey—“is nonsense.” He argued, “It's the same answer the State Department gave that we need to give them jobs. What we need is a commander in chief that makes clear, if you join ISIS, if you wage jihad on America, then you are signing your death warrant.”
In other words, the Texas candidate promised a no-mercy military solution to a problem that the country’s top general said cannot be solved militarily. By ignoring America’s role in the creation of ISIS—and more generally in destabilizing the entire region—Cruz transferred blame for the terrorist organization squarely onto the populations it is directly oppressing.
Another theme of the debate was on the perceived divisiveness of movements against discrimination and oppression. The candidates—all Christian men, and nine out of ten of whom are white—denounced movements like Black Lives Matter and efforts to fight Islamophobia and sexism as creating racial, gender and religious divides. Of course, the truth is that these divides have always existed, but the Republicans are just now being forced to notice them.
As the debate progressed through more subjects—from big government to healthcare to the Iran deal to military expansion—and finally concluded in the question, “Any word from God?”, one thing became clear: America is witnessing a race to the right. John Kasich was the only person who dared to suggest expanding benefits—something that conservative idol Ronald Reagan did with Medicaid three times—and earned the title of Most Liberal Candidate when he proposed that gay people might be people, too.
This rightward rush is the norm for Republican primaries, of course, but the extent these candidates are willing to go—promising to repeal Obamacare, the Iran Deal and hundreds of executive orders on Day One in office; threatening war with Iran; sealing off the southern border; vowing (without a single dissenter) to ban abortions under all circumstances—is farther than anything we’ve seen before.
The only - and only needed - reason it will NOT terrify the left.
Massive illegal integration, followed by massive amnesty (come on, you know Dorkbama the Muslim will pull it off and the ball-less GOP will do nothing to stop it).
Final result...doesn’t matter what we want, the rats have purchased a permanent majority - using YOUR tax dollars and THEIR GOP help.
Live it, love it, eat it, but that’s what’s going to happen
Until we grow multiple pairs and start thinking about CW-II
I already know how and what the left thinks.
The debate never gave 24 million the chance to see what conservatives think
Dismantle Social Security and Medicare? This “intern” has been smoking those funny cigs. Patent BS.
>>first step to a totally privatized America
Oh, the horrors!
Slightly off topic but just saw a movie called “Ricki and the Flash” in which Rikki is a sympathetic character-——who doesn’t like Obama and voted for George W twice.
Unusual for Hollwood. Maybe someone is seeing the light.
(Rikki played by Meryl Streep)
.
Imagine a country where better businesses keep replacing obsolete ones...
In this Com-intern's idea of a great country, a single strongman rules every system and receives all the tax revenue to distribute as he sees fit.
Replacing Obamacare with a privatized healthcare system would be President Trump's first step to a totally privatized America.
If "private ownership" is what the next generation believes it the greatest threat to America, then I don't even know how to try anymore. You cannot have a discussion with someone who believes in the different civilizational construct; there are no common concepts that can be agreed upon.
America is separated on irreconcilable issues regarding the nature of man, God, property, and purpose of government. There will soon be more people in opposition to the founding principles than who uphold them. At some point, it has to go hot.
>>Imagine a country where better businesses keep replacing obsolete ones...
That would be great, except that for the last 30 years, “better” means “bigger” and that’s what led to “too big to fail”. Companies should innovate to be better and not just acquire.
We're graduating a lot of lesbian and activist high school girls that get to college and learn they can REALLY swing some clubs on males and get away with it
Sort'a like when we were kids .. "He LOOKED at me"
"I'LL LOOK AT YOU IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP AND BEHAVE !!!"
And D TRUMP continues to chisel away at the collected and collective PC gunk that has accumulated over the years ...
And I, for one, am LOVIN' IT !!
If enough men get back in charge .... NOT to do away with women, but to get back their rightful control .... the rules of engagement in colleges might allow flirting again and .... (GASP) girls might re-begin to go for their MRS degree
So calling criminals what they are is racist? Stopped there.
Anxiously waiting.
Marc Dildo is a summer editorial intern ...
” Maybe someone is seeing the light” I would love to hope that is true, but I am a cynic. Most probably Hollywood will take the money conservative movie goers fork over and donate it to Hillary, Planned Parenthood or both.
If it really was, it's just one more reason for God to destroy this country that spits in His face.
I’d vote for the dismantlement of both Medicare AND Social Security. Stop taxing me like a slave, and I can take care of my parents’ needs. As it is, I can barely take care of my own.
In many ways, it’s past time.
Any one of the GOP candidates (even Bush and Paul and Kasich) would make a better President than Hillary. It remains to be seen if the RATS can drag their dead horse over the finish line. They’ll have the eager assistance of the media, and they always, always, cheat. Still, they have a steep hill (pun intended) to climb.
I disagree. John Ellis Bush is Hillary, for all intents and purposes. Please don’t dredge up the 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012 arguments up again. No sale.
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