I haven't been blogging much anymore for various reasons but the fact that I actually took the time to watch the GOP's first presidential debate makes me feel obligated to write something up about it. So here goes:
Well that was awful. One thing that struck me as an overall theme of this Trump-lacking debate was how very much it is now Trump's party (with some notable dissents).
To keep things quick, and because I've decided to write this without looking at other people's reaction online let's just do bullet points.
- The narrative divide: There's a pretty giant divide in the GOP these days between old schoolers like Mike Pence who talks about a sort of Reagan's idea of "Morning in America" moment they want to bring about (the former VP seems to have mentioned Dutch more than five times) and folks like Vivek Ramaswamy arguing for a Trump style "American Carnage" master narrative. To put it simply this is a major change for the optimism of presidents like Reagan and the Bushes of my younger days.
- Vivek Ramaswamy seems to have "won" the debate: That is he probably got the most camera time and really raised his profile. I'd expect a "bump" in the polling, but I doubt that will last. Why have this know-nothing internet celebrity figure when you can have Trump, the platonic archetype?
- DeSantis did fine, which probably means he "lost" the debate: Sure he did a decent job of delivering his lines, but I didn't see much to change the current dynamics with Trump as front runner and him as a distant second. It's not the end of the world, RDS can still win, but this is yet another blown opportunity for him.
- The crazy doesn't stop: It's kind of wild that "bomb/invade Mexico" has become a mainstream position of various GOP candidates for president. That seems like a really poorly though out idea. It's also sad, Mexico isn't a failed state, it's a country with problems but nice stuff too.
- Less of the "woke" stuff: Nobody really used that term, and there was just one question about trans people, I don't know what this means but I expected more.
- Everyone else: Well Christie was fun yelling at Ramaswamy, but a lot of meh other than that.
In conclusion? It's still Trump's party and you can cry if you want to.
