At the Ronald Reagan Library, the Republican debate (of 11 candidates) quickly devolved into a shouting match, mostly thanks to Donald Trump, and lost its civil tone immediately. Jake Tapper, the moderator, valiantly attempted to keep control over the situation. At the first break, I had had my fill of this shrill scream-fest. I can imagine Nancy Reagan rolling her eyes as she watched this debacle.
The discord started immediately once Trump blatantly announced that "Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage"! It only got worse. Rand took the bait and attacked back. Who let the dogs out?
Many blatant lies were spoken, many misstatings of poll results, many contradictions of facts and flat-out lies. That didn't bother the candidates one whit. Kevin and I both thought that John Kasich was not as far right as the other candidates, and that Carly Fiorina seemed the most presidential of the sorry lot. When asked about Trump's critique about her looks, she gave a terse but effective and dignified reply.
The Kim Davis issue reared its ugly head, so to speak, and there was a lot of waffling on the issue, except for Mike Huckabee who went full-throttle far-right "Christian" on this. The only thing his argument lacked were any facts. Jeb Bush wavered, almost incoherently.
Planned Parenthood was brought up and received a lot of ugly, non-reality-based replies. The proposed Government shutdown was also sorrowfully justified as a responsible thing. Hillary Clinton and President Bush were routinely demonized.
After the break, I had had enough. Good luck to all who hung on to the bitter ~ and I mean bitter ~ end! The whole thing reminded me of the Feast of Fools festival from Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. You had to get ugly to be in this, with Trump our new Quasimodo.
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