Overall, at the debate on Wednesday, there were just no big ideas about where to lead the country going forward.
Noah was thrilled at the glimpse of the GOP this week, but I was rather despairing by the end of the debate. David French wrote, “Neoconservatism made its comeback tonight.” Why? Who asked? If you liked what we did in Iraq (P.S. The Iraqi military we fund and outfit is assisting Shia militias in attacking our troops in Syria and Iraq), you’ll love what we do with Iran, China, and Russia.
The message overall was that we are going to spend a lot more on guns, while cutting the butter at home. This is a return to the pre-electoral-apocalypse days of George W. Bush where Republicans start fiddling with Social Security, and we have to find out that the same government they distrust to run the DMV has trouble transforming Islamic nations into liberal democracies.
DeSantis was a half-step better than anyone else in saying he sought to end the war in Ukraine. And while I appreciate that he wants to get tough on fentanyl, he can’t actually promise to “shoot dead” any traffickers of fentanyl. Border-patrol and other police forces can’t summarily execute criminals at the crime scene.
Overall, there were just no big ideas about where to lead the country going forward, or how life can get better for Americans.