By Joe Carbonari
The trouble with the Republican Party right now is that they are a cluster. They have allowed credibility to be ascribed to individuals who play to our less better selves and whose ideas are not thought through. A number of them have no business being presidential candidates.
It is not just the questionable thinking of the people seeking election. Consider the people supporting and around them. Do we really want to have it be Donald Trump and his “people” versus Putin and his? Ben Carson and his delegation in Tehran? No thanks.
Republican Party leadership is in a squabble with the several individual campaigns over who determines the number and nature of the debates. All the candidates need more time and softer questions. Debate structure is important. Many candidates are getting desperate. It is to be expected. Decorum will be observed in the breach. All the candidates need attention. Some deserve it.
Marco Rubio and John Kasich come to mind. Kasich could strengthen Rubio. It will be interesting to watch.
So, the debate was indecorous and embarrassing. Some hard questions got asked in unfortunate ways. It has ever been so. They are hard questions to ask and they are hard to answer. They reveal. They cause discomfort. Some are fatal. They are, however, to be valued and to be expected. Whining would be in poor taste.
By Tim Baldwin
Presidential debates may be entertaining but they have little to do with job qualifications or real issues. Presidential candidates pay political advisors much to advise them how to talk to general public. Their goal is to say the most things that will increase their popularity and momentum. Political campaigning is an adventure in sociology and psychology.
But there is another layer to the campaign onion: i.e. the major media networks can manipulate public perception and candidacy qualifications. As for the debates, the questions asked come from the powers-that-be in global media conglomerates. They are not without their own agenda. Ted Cruz made note of this, in so many words, during one of his responses. The RNC is so disgusted by these questions that it is suspending its partnership with NBC for a February 26 debate in Houston.
The suppression or manipulation of ideas is perhaps the greatest enemy of liberty, free society and good government. The late philosopher, John Stuart Mill, said concerning liberty, “[no government should] prescribe opinions to them, and determine what doctrines or what arguments they shall be allowed to hear.” A similar danger can happen when people make their decisions based on what global corporations want the people to think about in a given election.
To put the right leaders in office, citizens should look beyond major media agenda and investigate independently into what matters most.