A painful event for me to watch the 2nd GOP Presidential Debate last night, but necessary, to know where these candidates stand.
As a progressive, the candidates said nothing to impress me, instead bashing the president for every problem the country faces today. In true GOP fashion, the candidates spouted off the same tired promises of cutting taxes and reducing regulations, a mythical and thoroughly discredited strategy to robust economic growth. Any talk of energy policy had to do with more drilling and less regulation, which is insulting, considering domestic drilling wouldn’t be more than a drop in the bucket, not to mention the country faced it’s biggest oil spill in history just a year ago. But most insulting to me was the tirade of ‘family values’ nonsense, where the candidates pretty much all agreed that they’d rollback cultural progress like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I’m sorry, Conservatives, but you’re just on the wrong side of history on much of your cultural issues. Rolling back gay rights is like trying to repeal civil rights legislation; you’ll be viewed very badly in years to come.
I’m sorry, Conservatives, but you’re just on the wrong side of history.
And on top of it, nearly all of the candidates are hugely pro-life, to the point where they’d attempt to enact abortion legislation to prosecute doctors who perform them, and are against abortions even in cases of rape or incest. Now, the abortion debate may be a fierce one, but can I just add my two cents? The planet is overpopulated. People are everywhere. Those who seek abortions are obviously concluding they aren’t fit to be parents. Our nation’s social safety nets are breaking down, and our prisons are overflowing. Enough already. It’s my view that contraception should be much more readily available, but that abortions must always be an option to women. Always.
So, nothing less than I expected from the initial group of GOP candidates, but also a lot more brickheaded than I remember, as well.