Well, I've got to give credit to the GOP and the Fox Business Network for this: last night they got this proud progressive involved in Republican presidential politics.
OK, briefly involved -- for as long as the debate went on.
And my involvement consisted of me loudly yelling at our television when I heard one of the candidates say something especially stupid or wrong. Which was frequent.
PolitiFact has put together a partial truthfulness scorecard of what was said by Trump, Carson, Rubio, et. al.
They didn't fare well on the truth scale. Nobody got better than a "Half True." Florina got a richly deserved "Pants on Fire" for saying Obamacare isn't helping anyone.
So I felt perfectly justified yelling out corrections to the B.S. being spread over the airwaves last night. If I hadn't done that, my head would have exploded from a build-up of right-wing political crap entering my fact-loving liberal brain.
For example...
That's absurd, you freaking idiots! when every candidate (I'm pretty sure) rejected the idea of raising the minimum wage, with Trump even claiming that wages are too high now, causing jobs to be lost to other countries. I guess we're supposed to pay our workers whatever they'd get in China. Which is less than $5,000 a year.
Impossible, you fools! erupted from me when almost all the candidates blabbed on about their plan to have a low (10-15%) flat tax on billionaires and fast food restaurant workers alike. Somehow lowering tax revenues by trillions of dollars was supposed to lead to a balanced budget through the fantasy of "dynamic scoring," where reducing taxes mythically leads to more government revenue.
No way, you imbeciles! roared out of my lips when several GOP presidential hopefuls vowed to kick millions of undocumented workers out of this country, claiming they are lowering wages and harming our economy. Actually they help the economy, especially in the agricultural sector, which couldn't function without these workers.
Lies, lies, lies! was my loud response to the repeated claims that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with... something or other. Yeah, right, like things were so great before Obamacare, when insurance companies could deny applicants with preexisting conditions and the "high risk pools" Fiorina praised were doing next to nothing to provide quality comprehensive health care to people without insurance. Going back to those not-good-days would be a disaster for this country.
Florina richly deserved her Pants on Fire for saying that Obamacare isn't helping anybody.
But so did all of the Republican candidates at some point last night. It's ridiculous that this is the best the GOP can come up with. None of these guys or gals struck me as competent to be president.
This is the first time I've felt that way.
For example, I had a lot of criticisms about Mitt Romney and John McCain. However, I could envision them doing a half-decent job as president. Meaning, I could see them implementing conservative ideas that I disagreed with in a way that might harm our country, yet wasn't completely bat-shit crazy.
Jeb Bush and John Kasich were the only candidates on the stage last night who seemed at all reasonable. And right now they are trailing in the polls behind the Bat-Shit Crazy Contingent.
Looks like I'll be doing more yelling at the TV during the upcoming Republican presidential debates.
How did you fare during the Democratic "debates"?
Posted by: Dan Gellner | November 18, 2015 at 12:41 PM