The only difference in the Republic debate this time was the moving of Carly Fiorina to the undercard, with Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. This allowed the seven men in the main bout to get back to the "mine is bigger than yours" bragging: I will spend more on bombs and kill more opponents than you will. Once again none of the participants and moderators mentioned unions, everyone saying that if we stopped handcuffing businesses with regulations they could grow unimpeded and, somehow, that would bring back the American dream and the affluent middle class! I will give Rick Santorum some populist credit as someone who is trying to appeal to the "74% of those ages 25-66 who do not have college degrees" and emphasizing the importance of "rebuilding the family" but everyone else wants to do away with Obamacare and beef up the military, as if that would solve any problems either at home or abroad. And how is de-funding Planned Parenthood going to help anyone? No one had any solutions or even suggestions how to make healthcare more available to everyone or how to make college more affordable. High school was not always free to everyone either.
I did find it amusing, in a mordant way, for Cruz to attack Trump for having "New York values," which he defined as "pro-abortion, pro-gay-marriage, socially liberal and obsessed with money and the media." Cruz must be aware that most Americans are in favor of a woman's right to choose and letting people marry someone of the same sex. As he appeals more and more to evangelicals he appeals less and less to everyone else. Chris Christie does not seem to realize that Presidents are limited to two terms, threatening to "kick Obama's rear end out of the White House" and Ben Carson doesn't want to decide anything himself, preferring to get experts together and let them solve it. Jeb Stuart and Donald Trump talked about mental health as an alternative to gun control but did not seem aware that most insurance companies offer little mental health coverage.
I missed Rand Paul's intelligent responses to those who want to bomb the hell out of everyone we don't like (Paul says perhaps we could try diplomacy first and bombing only as a last resort) but he was relegated to the undercard and chose not to participate. The seven contenders on the main card want America to be as different as possible from other nations, especially European countries: no universal healthcare, no parental leave, no minimum wage, no labor unions, deport all illegal immigrants and don't allow any new legal ones, no increased taxes (especially for the wealthy), little or no gun control. This is how we will "take our country back" and "make America great again"?
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