A yellow dog Democrat looks at the Republican field.
I am a yellow dog Democrat. That means I will vote for a Democrat even if a yellow dog is made the Democratic candidate. I have never voted for a Republican as President in my life though I did once vote for Nelson Rockefeller for Governor of New York because he was in favor of developing the Albany Mall and other projects and not because he was an internationalist nbecause he took it to mean in those Cold War times that we build family bomb shelters, which swas to prepare for a war that would destroy civilization. I also voted for Rudolph Gulliani twice because he would transform New York City education by replacing the Board of Education with a Department of Education but that reform even though once implemented it never changed education in New York City so that the disparities between white students and students of color would be lessened. So I bring myself to the Republican candidates for President in the first debate with a different standard than to ask whether any should be President. My views on domestic and foreign policy are pretty much in accord with the Democrats. I will decide, however, which of the Republicans I would rest easy should unfortunately a Republican get elected. I know any Republican will lower taxes on the rich and cut entitlements and limit voting rights but which of them will not undermine the Constitution and democracy as would be clearly the case if Trump were elected again. The two parties are checks and balances on one another but an irresponsible candidate or President can upset the applecart and leave the nation in shambles rather than responsible Presidents moving the meter a bit to the right or the left. I can be mistaken in my judgment. I thought Reagan would be an irresponsible President but he wasn’t because he left the government to the hands of a very able cabinet. I also thought that George W. Bush would be responsible but he trusted to Dick Chaney who, for reasons still not clear, the Vice President galloped off for a war in Iraq on the basis of a lie, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But the principle remains: who will be a responsible President?
To get to the point, the Milwaukee debate the other night provided what I needed to know. Asa Huchinson seemed knowledgeable about border issues, pointing out that Vincente Fox was more cooperative with the United States than is the present Mexican President.He was dealing with facts rather than bumper stickers. Nikki Haley seemed a bit conversant on foreign policy and wants a compromise national abortion policy which I think rightly is a political rather than a philosophical decision, while Mike Pence’s view on abortion is overtly Christian based. Chris Christie thinks he can negotiate with Democrats because he did that in New Jersey, though I think not a good governor because he opposed the cross Hudson tunnel, but to be commended for realizing that the Trump issue is the most important one, not to be treated as an event from the past but as a threat to the Constitution and so worked through in the courts, even if Fox News prefers to think of the Trump issue as an irritant that has to be noticed but not confronted. The rest of the field are just platitudes and slogans that provide no explanations, only vague assertions like whether the society has faltered, as R says, or just the government has, which is what Pence thinks, a hopeless, irresolvable and perhaps meaningless dilemma. Words without references.
Actually, it is pointless to try, as the New York Times correspondents tried, to rank the candidates on which ones did better than the others. The format prevented any sustained exchanges and no one had deathless zingers like Trump’s attacks on Mario and Jeb. Too many people were on the stage all trying for a soundbite and nothing else. Moreover, the tone was set by Fox News which started off the debate with the “fact” that the Biden economy was in shambles and mainly offered evidence by asking Republican voters whether they thought the economy was in shambles and not surprisingly that some said it was. MSNBC in their rejoinder to the debate noted that the Trump issue was indeed treated as just a nuisance and that the Republicans were filled with gloom and doom, when the wisdom of politics us that Americans like a happy warrior, such as FDR or Ronald Reagan, rather than a gloomy standard bearer. I hope so. Smile through immigration, the economy and just about everything else. That is the best American ethic. Trump was the one who thought fear stands as a goad to action rather than policy a way out of fear. So the debate was eminently forgettable even if it showed my own preferences because I am not a Republican primary voter. Let's move on to yesterday, the Trump arraignment in Georgia, where the grist of the judicial system grind exceedingly slow but to a set of purposes.
The Milwaukee debate followed the Republican Party line on the economy, crime, abortion and much else, Nikki Halley criticizing Vivek Ramaswamy for not being sufficiently strong on Israel. All that are needed are the slogans without explanation. It isn’t that Democrats don’t do the same thing. Republicans castigate Kamala Harris for saying that the Desantis Florida curriculum treats slavery as a good thing because some slaves learned trades when, in fact, most slaves were not on a plantation but were owned by urban people who rented out their few slaves as workers and retained some of their wages as a goad for working hard and eventually earning manumission. Just a party of a complex system that was fundamentally contrary to modern moral principles. But the democrats want to discredit the Republicans and say they are racist and the Republicans say the Democrats are being unfair., just a slogan not a full account. During the debate, Republicans also said distorted things about Democrats. Desantis wants to quash the teachers unions, treating them as the main culprits for poor and declining education, an organizational change essential and sufficient, even though federal and state governments of both parties have failed to improve educational performance. Asa Hutchinson had the nerve to admire how much computer education was added to Arkansas high schools without noting that Arkansas is forty ninth among the states in educational achievement. So much blather pushed into its two hour debate.
In fact, interview with the debate contenders prior to the debate have made much more clearly that Ron Desantis and Ramaswamy are not to be trusted as President while the other candidates can more or less avoid major disasters even if not well equipped to be President because they will turn to people who know better on how to manage a crisis. with the possible exception of the Governor of North Dakota who says he likes small town people who help one another out, and so is set against the large majority of the population who live in urban areas. Castigating the cities is a Republican meme even if the crime statistics say the opposite of what the Republicans say is true.
Ron Desantis has already in word and deed shown himself to be reckless in his approach to governance. His stunt of sending illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard without telling the authorities there that they would have to receive them shows callousness as well as irresponsibility in that a conscientious bureaucrat has to anticipate the consequences of an action taken and arrange to deal with them. Presidents have untold numbers of people to look after details in planning but it will not happen if there is no will to make that happen. Similarly, the Desantis attack on schools and books in the name of wokeness also seems a political stunt, he unaware or unwilling to admit that a bit of Black and same sex heroism is part of the evolution of every group culture even if I find it excessive to replace AP american history with AP african american history on my traditional educational ground that education is to learn about other people than oneselves.
Ramaswamy is an uncertain trumpet. He has never held high elective or appointive office, rare among Presidents. Chester Alan Arthur was elevated because a president was assassinated and had previously been collector of customs for New York City, hardly an august title. Trump had lost millions he inherited as his claim to fame prior to self promotion as a celebrity. Even Jimmy Carter had been a one term Governor of Georgia and he seemed overwhelmed by the office however mightily he worked to fill it. Eisenhower had negotiated with world leaders and run two major military campaigns in North Africa and Europe even if never in elected office before becoming President. All Ramaswamy can claim is a past as an entrepreneur and his thinness comes through in his specious and conspiratorial arguments. He said in an interview some days before the debate that China doesn’t have the second amendment but Taiwan should so citizens can arm themselves, that is one way to face China, which is saber rattling at a boogeyman. He says that this is only one of the things that should be done to counter China but he forgets that Great Britain also has no second amendment and still remains a democracy that was ready to face a Nazi invasion. Ramaswamy also said that there are things to find out about 9/11 because we know as has been known for a long time that the Bush administration aided the Saudis after the attack but that is no evidence that 9/11 was an inside job though R follows the idea of conspiratorial thinkers that smoke reveals fire. R.s program to cut government drastically would gut not just entitlements but also defense and most of the cabinet offices and most Republicans wouldn’t care to do that even if they want to close the department of education and some other departments. Reckless and thoughtless even if glib. Ramaswamy is an outlier. I would think that the fire eaters would fall by the wayside but that didn’t happen with Trump, to our lasting sorrow.