Republican Debate Nov 10,2015

One expects imbecilities and outright lies from politicians running for office, but not so much undisguised meanness and desire to hurt people. Many of the conservatives we saw seemed moved by nothing as much as hatred.  Women, young people, blacks, immigrants, gays, liberals, teachers -- the list could go on for pages.  The impression I had was that there was a wish to see the lives of millions and millions of their fellow citizens made miserable.
--Charles Simic on the Republican debates, The New York Review of Books.

Last night's debate was a combination of voodoo economics, Clinton and Obama bashing, and saber rattling.  In other words, more of the same.

Chris Christie gave up defending his record to claim repeatedly that he was the only one who could beat Clinton.

Carly Fiorina kept constantly saying "take our government back!" by returning to free market healthcare.

Ben Carson seemed half-asleep most of the time and said he did not mind being vetted, but please vet everyone else, too.

Trump said "let's make America great again" by deporting all illegal immigrants.

Rick Santorum almost made sense when he suggested better jobs for those not going to college, but did not want to raise the minimum wage; none of the other candidates wanted to raise it either.

Bobby Jindal said he was the only one who can stop, and even reverse, our current path to socialism.

Mike Huckabee wants to do away with the income tax altogether and replace it with a sales tax, or what he called a "fair tax."

Marco Rubio wants more welders and "less" philosophers (presumably he meant "fewer", though like many of the candidates he had some trouble with syntax).  Rubio also said that in 35 of 50 states childcare costs more than college, something he wants to change by giving more tax credits to families.  The idea of subsidized daycare I'm sure never occurred to him.

John Kasich wants everyone to live up to their "God-given" potential and was the only participant to use the argumentum ad auctoritatem, i.e, Michael Novak.

Ted Cruz wants to raise the retirement age, without mentioning that this could be harmful to blue-collar workers.

Jeb Bush seemed flustered throughout and was concerned about the Russian presence in Syria.  He wants to have a "free fly zone," though he was no better at explaining what that was and how it worked than were some of the other candidates in explaining Dodd-Frank, inveighed against almost as much as Obamacare.

Rand Paul did make a good point that if you want to increase the military, as everyone does but him, you will need a way to pay for it.

Few of the candidates responded directly to the questions, preferring to talk about cronyism in Washington and severe unemployment.  Once again no one asked about unions or talked about them, even though the decline of unions correlates directly with the increase in inequality.