The fourth Republican presidential debate took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but might as well have been taking place in outer space. Or as Gary Legum has observed, “the entire Republican primary, and really the entire party, exists somewhere outside the bounds of space and time. There is no reason to think they are ever coming back to Earth.” So I didn’t really watch the debate, myself, or rather, didn’t listen to it, but I did ‘see’ it with mute on so that I wouldn’t have an aneurysm.
Donald Trump and Ben Carson were mute pantomiming creatures, remaining center-stage as the top front-runners despite ongoing controversy over statements by both. I read later that Trump doubled down on his pledge to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants embracing an old Eisenhower program you can read about here called (I am not making this up) “Operation Wetback” … But apparently that didn’t faze the intrepid audience who were probably disappointed that no one had called for the crucifixion of immigrants along the Tex-Mex border –you know, as a warning.
Trump only faced boos for complaining about rival Carly Fiorina, she of the Consumer Protection Bureau breeds Communism insight.
Meanwhile, I also learned that Senator Ted Cruz delivered the night’s biggest gaffe when he failed to list all five of the government agencies he wants to shut down, saying something like….
“Five major agencies I would eliminate: the IRS, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, uh, the Department of Commerce and HUD.”
Leaving aside the merits of shutting down these departments—one of which provides all the major funding for the U.S. government—the fact that you can’t even NAME the departments you’d like to eliminate seems rather shoddy preparation for being dictator du jour or president or whatever it is Cruz thinks he’s doing on that stage.
All during the debate, hundreds of thousands of hard working people protested outside as part of a nationwide “Fight for 15” day of action. A hike in the minimum wage– which hasn’t happened in nearly a decade– is desperately needed for our sagging lower and middle classes. It’s one of the few simple and smart decisions that could immediately help the majority of people in this country.
But when moderator Neil Cavuto asked Donald Trump if he was sympathetic to workers around the country who were demanding that the federal wage floor be more than doubled, Trump responded “I can’t be, Neil. The reason I can’t be is we are a country that’s being beaten on every front, economically, militarily. There is nothing we do now to win.” Yes, I don’t know what that means either. Luckily, I didn’t hear it come out of his mouth or I might have thrown my copy of Bankruptcy for Billionaires and Bimbos through the television set.
Asked for his own take on the issue, Ben Carson said it would be misguided to raise the minimum wage. In particular, Carson said he would be concerned that such a raise might keep young African-Americans out of the job market—which relieved me a little as at least he didn’t say it would lead to slavery.
But Rubio hopped on it first chance he got, saying, “In the 21st century, it’s a disaster.”… “If you raise the minimum wage you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine.”
And we certainly can’t have people being more expensive than machines.
So, in a nutshell, the three front-runners—Trump, Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio—all agreed on opposing any hike in the minimum wage. Consensus! Now the interesting factoid in all this is that a minimum wage hike is very popular across party lines—both Republicans and Democrats like the idea. But the people funding this nonsense don’t like it so much, so you get answers that pretty much conflict with what the majority of the Americans want and need in order to lead a decent life. Or you get Marco Rubio explaining how what we really want is… “more welders and less philosophers.”
That makes sense, right? Because if you have too many philosophers practicing stuff like logic, God only knows what our public discourse might look like.
-Jack Johnson
Donald Trump Just Endorsed ‘Operation Wetback’ at the GOP Debate
Alliance for a Progressive Virginia 