Fear & loathing at the GOP debates: Behold the the autocratic, xenophobic, war-hungry spectacle...

[DonViejo]

Fear & loathing at the GOP debates: Behold the the autocratic, xenophobic, war-hungry spectacle of the modern Republican Party

If there's one lesson to take away from last night's festivities, it's that the GOP primary is going to be bonkers

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

When I woke up yesterday morning I was excited and energized by the prospect of watching the first Republican primary debate. As I wrote here, they’re usually a fun cause for some celebration among political junkies of all stripes, particularly those who fall on the left side of the dial. These particular promised to be especially entertaining, due to the large number of debaters as well as the fact that it was going to feature a Reality TV Star in his first major appearance on the debate stage. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a hangover of epic proportions and the feeling that I’d been abducted by aliens and taken to a foreign planet. Let’s just say that spending three hours with Republican politicians and Fox News pundits and anchors wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it would be.

Let’s recap.

We started off the first debate in a jovial mood, laughing and joking about the “Kids Table Debate” and commenting on the very weird fact that they held the thing in the empty auditorium before the main event. It was quite clear that Roger Ailes and Fox put all of 5 minutes into planning that debate, obviously hoping they could make it so embarrassing that the lower tier would drop out and save everyone from the humiliation in the future.

Virtually everyone watching agreed that it turned out to be Carly Fiorina’s afternoon. She sounded prepared and crisp, although she didn’t really say much of anything, which is often the hallmark of a winner as far as the TV pundits are concerned. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry weirdly seemed to call the 40th president Ronald Raven, but other than that he got through it without forgetting anything important. Former Senator Rick Santorum recycled his 2012 debate appearances, and current Senator Lindsay Graham pretty much did what he does every Sunday on the pundit shows: He screamed hysterically about how we’re all going to die. Former Governor George Pataki talked about some stuff he did in New York once, and there was some guy on stage named Gilmore nobody had ever heard of. All of them made it quite clear that if they become president we will be going to war immediately.

The candidate who made the biggest impression, although hardly a good one, was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who boldly announced that he would immediately break the law upon assuming office:

“Planned Parenthood had better hope that Hillary Clinton wins this election, because I guarantee you that under President Jindal, January 2017, the Department of Justice and the IRS and everybody else that we can send from the federal government will be going into Planned Parenthood.”

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http://www.salon.com/2015/08/07/fear_loathing_at_the_gop_debates_behold_the_the_autocratic_xenophobic_war_hungry_spectacle_of_the_modern_republican_party/

[pampango]

1. "These Republicans are running on fear and anger and nothing more. Even

their various ways of saying “let’s make America great again” are demoralizing. It’s understandable. They know they are unlikely to win the presidency as long as their angry, fearful, conservative white base insists on insulting everyone who doesn’t look like them but they have no choice but to roll with it."