HomeOPINIONThe GOP Debate: Disaster?

The GOP Debate: Disaster?

By JOE RONCA
Staff Writer

Last Wednesday, the eleven leading Republican candidates for the presidency met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
The candidates were, in no particular order, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Ohio Governor John Kasich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson of Maryland, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and of course the one and only Donald Trump.
Each of these candidates appeared in the FOX News debate held in August, with the exception of Fiorina, who has seen a boost in her poll numbers since dominating the lower-tier GOP debate held on the same day.
The debate was held directly in front of the aircraft that Ronald Reagan used as Air Force One, and was moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, and CNN’s Dana Bash.
The debate was a raucous affair from the start, with Trump firing off a series of personal attacks at his opponents, starting with Rand Paul.
Immediately after the opening statements Trump attacked Senator Paul, saying that his poll numbers were too low to justify his place at the debate. Paul responded by calling Trump’s remarks sophomoric.
The debate only got better from that point, as Trump continued to interrupt both his fellow candidates and the moderators with comments that were often personally insulting.
He also sparred almost non-stop with former Florida Governor, and his toughest competitor, Jeb Bush, interrupting Bush more often than the other candidates, and even at one point refusing to apologize for comments about Bush’s wife Columba.
In short, Trump dominated the conversation all night. His vitriolic attacks and talking-points sounded great, but were backed by little to no substance. In fact, there was a period of almost thirty minutes where Trump did not speak at all, as the other candidates discussed policy issues.
In my view, this debate was a total disaster for the Republican Party as a whole, and if I were a Republican strategist or consultant, I would be a little stressed right now.
Trump’s style of politics is one of simple anger, directed in every direction. He attacks Mexicans as rapists and murderers one day and implies that Megyn Kelly is menstruating the next.
Trump attacks the war hero John McCain for being captured and tortured in North Vietnam while he himself dodged the draft and then goes on to insinuate that Carly Fiorina is physically unattractive. All these things are unacceptable to some degree or another in today’s society, yet Trump gets away with them.
For some baffling reason, he only continues to gain strength in the polls after each successive public outburst. Now, if I were a Republican, I would be scared half to death by this trend.
To be honest, the writing is on the wall that the Republican Party is dying and this election could be its last if they can’t manage to beat the Democratic nominee, who will most likely be Hillary Clinton.
The Republicans are increasingly-challenged demographically at the national level as they have proven themselves unable to win the votes of women, Hispanics, and African-Americans in the last several electoral contests.
Trump has so far insulted and offended two of these three groups, and it only seems to be a matter of time before he insults the last.
The average Republican base voter may be a fan of these tactics, as Trump’s poll numbers have clearly showed, but the average independent voter can’t tolerate most of these statements in their face.
The Republican nominee has to win these voters, or the party dies, and Trump simply cannot win over sensible people who don’t vote on sheer emotion.
That is why the debate was a disaster for the Republican Party, and also for the country at large. It didn’t deal with policy on an intelligent level and it didn’t allow the candidates to showcase their personal strengths. All it did was provide a forum for Trump to express his pernicious brand of insult politics on a nationally-televised program viewed by 23.1 million Americans, close to one-tenth of the total population.
If that’s not enough, all the other candidates look weak and awkward in comparison to Trump’s brash style.
Jeb Bush looked especially weak as Trump repeatedly spoke over him, basically shutting down his arguments. As much as many people hate Bush, mainly due to his last name, he is the type of candidate who could win a general election for the Republican Party. On the other hand, as much as Trump is idolized in some circles, he could never win a general election against a Democrat. Yet the two Republican debates have been conducted in such a way that Trump’s ideas and past are discussed, while Bush’s policy points are essentially muted.
The Republican Party simply can’t afford to do this to itself in this potentially pivotal election.
I think that if the Republican Party was really serious about existing after November of 2016, several candidates would drop out of the race, allowing people like Bush, Fiorina, Walker, and Carson to challenge Trump without bickering amongst themselves.
Right now it’s a fact that the majority of Republican primary voters don’t plan on voting for Donald Trump. However, he doesn’t need a majority of votes to win, but simply a plurality.
The large number of Republican candidates are ensuring that anti-Trump Republicans are divided amongst fifteen other candidates, essentially allowing Trump to win.
If I were a Republican operative, I would be encouraging as many low-polling candidates as possible to drop out of the race in order to form a unified front against the Donald.
The candidates will never do this, though, as the only reason that so many are running in the first place is due to ego. So many politicians feel like they are the one who deserves to lead America, and of course most will not readily admit the opposite.
Therefore, in the foreseeable future Trump will continue to dominate in the polls against a divided opposition.
I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I simply tell it like I see it; and the way I see it, this debate, and the previous one for that matter, were catastrophic for the GOP as a whole.
If the party wants to win elections they have to stop being a vehicle for the antics of Donald Trump and try to nominate a candidate who is actually electable.
Fortunately for Republicans, there still is time to salvage this election and prevent a collapse of the party. However, if Republicans wait any longer, it may be too late to save the Grand Old Party from its own creation.

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