The 2023 Republican Debate thread

[Brisketexan 105,096]

Just now, Macanudo said:

There aren't any sane GQP voters anymore.

Well, that's been my position for some time.  But there remain folks who somehow claim "no, I don't like or support Trump," yet they also claim to be loyal GQP voters.  It COULD be that they haven't realized that there is no GQP that is not also "the party of Trump."  Or, it could be that they are simply cognitively incapable of connecting those dots.  Either they're lying to themselves, or they're just too fucking stupid.  Those are the only "sane" Republicans left (meaning....yeah, there are no sane Republicans).

[Js1 85,313]

15 minutes ago, South Austin said:

 

Yeah, this tells us everything we need to know about the party from here to November 2024 (and the foreseeable future). 

Silly me for thinking Nikki Haley might be a signal of some not-so-batshit-crazy movement in the Republican Party.

She’ll get ground up like Kasich. The party doesn’t tolerate not batshit crazy. But don’t be fooled, she is complicit in what the GOP has become.  And they aren’t going to elect a brown woman named Nimrata 

[smuggs 9,353]

5 minutes ago, Js1 said:

And they aren’t going to elect a brown woman named Nimrata 

Especially when there are 9 other white male nimrods to choose from.

 

 

 

edit - make that 6  white male nimrods.

Edited August 24, 2023 by smuggs
math.

[C-Man 27,217]

6 minutes ago, tokamak said:

It's already cliche to say so, but I think there's a sizeable chunk of the Trump coalition that will just never get excited about a Hindu guy named Vivek Ramaswamy. They'd choose him overwhelmingly in polls against a Democrat, but would they actually turn out in droves to vote for the guy?

[Sawbonz 27,547]

7 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

There aren't any sane GQP voters anymore.

The thing is half the people who will end up pulling the lever for the eventual nominee are not GQP or GOP. They are going to reflexively vote for the nominee regardless of who it is. None of them are even remotely paying attention to any of this. If they did primaries would look a lot different

 

A bunch probably won’t even turn out next November as long as there is no recession and gas/food prices aren’t outrageously high. If so we might be fucked 

[troph 24,783]

as soon as they find out Swarmy is a hindu and his faith based initiatives aren't christofacist views he's toast.

[Horn Dog 9,818]

36 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

From what I understand, that tracks with "who sucked Trump's dick the hardest."  Meaning that the only important metric of leadership for Republican voters is "how Trumpy can you be?"  And of course....nobody can beat Trump in the Trumpiness department.

I wonder how much longer it will take the remaining supposedly "sane" GQP voters to realize that by continuing to support the GQP, they are just cult members.  Probably too long.  If they haven't figured out the obvious by now, they don't have the cognitive chops to ever reach that conclusion.

 

25 minutes ago, tokamak said:

I know we've been in a topsy-turvy world for a while now, but think about how strange it is that we had a primary debate and most of the candidates decided to stand around praising the front runner. And then voters polled afterward agreed with that strategy.

It's basically the exact opposite of what normally happens during these things, and what conventional wisdom says that contenders should do.

 

21 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

There aren't any sane GQP voters anymore.

 

When I think of the modern day GQP,  ironically I think of the death of JFK Jr.   He is flying in his plane in the dark thinking he is going in a straight line, but it is slowly, but ever increasingly flipping upside down.   It's just happening at a rate that is undetectable by his vestibular system which has normalized being upside down.  Now the alarms are going off saying he is losing altitude, so he is pulling back on the stick to gain altitude, but instead the plane is heading straight down.   It's the same with the GQP.  They are upside down, and so when they try to correct they are doing the very opposite of what they think they are doing.   Just like JRK Jr.  they can't see out the window but everything "feels" OK,  so they just keep on pulling back that stick.  If they had the ability to look out the window and see that your supporters are increasingly white supremist, bigots, and the hordes of the uneducated, that really should be a warning to double  check your instruments and recalibrate. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Horn Dog

[Ghost of LL 15,531]

13 hours ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

My verdict - if Trump dies, Christie or Haley could win. 

They are the two that I think could win. 

It's a damned good thing Chris Christie isn't going to get the nomination, because putting Joe Biden up against him in a debate would be a nightmare.

I'm not sure debates really mean much in this third decade of the 21st Century.  But Christie says enough reasonable stuff that he would attract a lot of independent voters and convince a lot of Democrats that it wouldn't be a crisis if he were elected.  And given Biden's approval ratings, that would probably be enough to get Christie elected.

BUUUUT, that'll never happen because Christie has approximately a 0.00000% chance of getting the nomination.

[Brandywine 1,316]

None of those suckers should be president, period. Even if they do sound good and maybe moderate for now. Trump sounded good when he ran in 16, and people said, he may be kind of crazy but once he's in there the job will change him. NOPE!!!!!!!! If they get in there they'll still be the ones deciding who can be on the Supreme Court or any judge. And they still have their deep seated beliefs. So Nikki may sound good and Chris or Asa may sound good, but they still believe in crazy shit. And once given the ring will use it to further that crazy shit for the benefit of their party, not the countries.  

Edited August 24, 2023 by Brandywine

[Neonmoon 38,129]

Anyone that raised their hand in supporting a convicted fucking criminal that attempted a coup as President should be taken out back and beaten with bamboo 

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,324]

3 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Anyone that raised their hand in supporting a convicted fucking criminal that attempted a coup as President should be taken out back and beaten with bamboo 

And the idiots in the audience who applauded, cheered and yelped with enthusiastic glee should lose their right to vote.

[yoladu 4,093]

that debate was depressing.

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

2 hours ago, sidis said:

now that vivek has garnered some attention, i suspect we will start hearing all about intepirdine and axovant.

if anyone else on that stage was not a completely shameless clown, they would have strategically played to the maga olds by pressing him on his investment in and defense of martin shkreli and his "victimless crimes" instead of playing the he's inexperienced/not a politician card that is so effective amongst republican cult of trump members.

I don’t think saying he sounds like ChatGPT was the rhetorical slam that Christie hoped it would be. 

[A-Tex Devil 2,446]

1 hour ago, tokamak said:

It's already cliche to say so, but I think there's a sizeable chunk of the Trump coalition that will just never get excited about a Hindu guy named Vivek Ramaswamy. They'd choose him overwhelmingly in polls against a Democrat, but would they actually turn out in droves to vote for the guy?

edit: I just read the guy's Wikipedia article and his business career sounds like a fucking joke. His company doesn't do shit and has never made a profit. It seems like he got rich by fooling other, even richer people into investing a lot of money in smoke and mirrors. Good for him, I guess.

These guys are a dime a dozen in Austin.  Built and sold one company or have family money or whatever and run around trying to "help" entrepreneurs build their companies and raise and intro to investors for just a small piece of your cap table.   Somehow, Vivek has elevated the scam.  

[South Austin 52,463]

15 minutes ago, yoladu said:

that debate was depressing.

I look back fondly at the good old days of the 2016 debates, when we laughed our asses off at how downright silly all of the candidates looked (although Kasich by default seemed fairly normal, though lacking in personality) and how Trump assigned goofy names to his competitors (e.g., Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb, Lyin' Ted, Crooked Hillary).  And we all thought to ourselves, "Trump's not going to win, and even if he would, how bad can he be?"  We were so young then.

[jimmyjazz 45,900]

Vivek Ramaswamy has a weird background.  He was raised Hindu, attended a Catholic high school, and was a member of a Jewish student group at Harvard.

[Brisketexan 105,096]

5 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I look back fondly at the good old days of the 2016 debates, when we laughed our asses off at how downright silly all of the candidates looked (although Kasich by default seemed fairly normal, though lacking in personality) and how Trump assigned goofy names to his competitors (e.g., Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb, Lyin' Ted, Crooked Hillary).  And we all thought to ourselves, "Trump's not going to win, and even if he would, how bad can he be?"  We were so young then.

The bolded bit is the part I just don't get.  Plenty of folks here have said that.  WTF?  How the fuck did you NOT see how he would be EXACTLY as bad as he turned out to be?  It was plain, neon-lit truth.

[C-Man 27,217]

10 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Vivek Ramaswamy has a weird background.  He was raised Hindu, attended a Catholic high school, and was a member of a Jewish student group at Harvard.

Which means this smug little prick is not tied to any real religion and will make whatever decisions he needs to further his political ambitions. Right now, that's embracing Christo-Fascist ideals, which he will do gladly.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,869]

12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Vivek Ramaswamy has a weird background.  He was raised Hindu, attended a Catholic high school, and was a member of a Jewish student group at Harvard.

[South Austin 52,463]

25 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The bolded bit is the part I just don't get.  Plenty of folks here have said that.  WTF?  How the fuck did you NOT see how he would be EXACTLY as bad as he turned out to be?  It was plain, neon-lit truth.

I was young, my heart was an open book, and I used to say, "live and let live."

[Born to Run 6,569]

The bolded bit is the part I just don't get.  Plenty of folks here have said that.  WTF?  How the fuck did you NOT see how he would be EXACTLY as bad as he turned out to be?  It was plain, neon-lit truth.

It was the only election in my life that horrified the shit out of me in real time. I got drunk af. My girlfriend did too, and she was depressed for days after. I tried to convince her it wouldn't be That bad.

Narrator: it was That bad; especially for women.

[RDCanecutter 26,411]

Y'all prolly did this already but I am too lazy to read the thread so whatev.

Pence: We saw his balls drop. But still SuperPreacher.

Hutchinson: Mincing Deacon.

Christie: Disappointing as alleged attack dog.

DeSantis: Alfred E. Neuman is back, and he's not smiling.

Vivek: Jibbering cokehead not named Don Jr.

Burgum: Boring

Scott: Also Boring

Haley: G.H.W. Bush with better hair.

[Js1 85,313]

48 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Vivek Ramaswamy has a weird background.  He was raised Hindu, attended a Catholic high school, and was a member of a Jewish student group at Harvard.

What in the George Santos is this 

[RDCanecutter 26,411]

4 minutes ago, Js1 said:

What in the George Santos is this 

I welcome all Hindu Jewish Catholics so long as they check the Fascism at the door.

[tokamak 6,416]

50 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The bolded bit is the part I just don't get.  Plenty of folks here have said that.  WTF?  How the fuck did you NOT see how he would be EXACTLY as bad as he turned out to be?  It was plain, neon-lit truth.

For me, it was clear as day that he'd be a terrible president. What surprised me is that I thought he'd be a big failure politically. When he got elected, I thought to myself, "this is gonna suck, but he can't being coal mining jobs back to West Virginia, Mexico isn't gonna pay for shit, and he can't replace Obamacare with something better because a perfect plan doesn't exist".

So I thought his voters would turn on him when every promise turned out to be 100% bullshit. Turns out they didn't care at all.

[TheStoicPaisano 9,922]

8 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

2 hours ago, Js1 said:

She’ll get ground up like Kasich. The party doesn’t tolerate not batshit crazy. But don’t be fooled, she is complicit in what the GOP has become.  And they aren’t going to elect a brown woman named Nimrata 

At least Kasich was always emphatic in his opposition to Trump. Haley joined the Trump team and now she’s trying to straddle the line between being critical of him but not so critical that it will blow her shot as his running mate, which you know she would gladly accept. And if she became his running mate, she’d go right back to endorsing every batshit crazy thing he says. And if worst comes to worst and he wins, she’ll go right along with more cuts to whatever taxes the ultra wealthy are still paying and new records in deficit spending and debt. She’ll do or say whatever it takes to advance her career as the situation presents itself. 

[Js1 85,313]

4 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

At least Kasich was always emphatic in his opposition to Trump. Haley joined the Trump team and now she’s trying to straddle the line between being critical of him but not so critical that it will blow her shot as his running mate, which you know she would gladly accept. And if she became his running mate, she’d go right back to endorsing every batshit crazy thing he says. And if worst comes to worst and he wins, she’ll go right along with more cuts to whatever taxes the ultra wealthy are still paying and new records in deficit spending and debt. She’ll do or say whatever it takes to advance her career as the situation presents itself. 

Correct. She fucking sucks. This new act is just to get her attention and if she has to go back to fellating Trump as his #2, she’s got her knee pads ready. She’s an absolute party whore  

[Incredulity 11,666]

3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

She’s an absolute party whore

IPIHB is ------>

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

2 hours ago, Brandywine said:

Trump sounded good when he ran in 16

That’s where I stopped reading. 

[Beau Vine 54,212]

Pretty good summary.

[Beau Vine 54,212]

22 minutes ago, tokamak said:

For me, it was clear as day that he'd be a terrible president. What surprised me is that I thought he'd be a big failure politically. When he got elected, I thought to myself, "this is gonna suck, but he can't being coal mining jobs back to West Virginia, Mexico isn't gonna pay for shit, and he can't replace Obamacare with something better because a perfect plan doesn't exist".

So I thought his voters would turn on him when every promise turned out to be 100% bullshit. Turns out they didn't care at all.

He'll, I'm on record predicting that he would get impeached by the end of his first year...by Republicans, who would then install someone competent. 

[Js1 85,313]

Just now, Beau Vine said:

He'll, I'm on record predicting that he would get impeached by the end of his first year...by Republicans, who would then install someone competent. 

[Dbeasy 15,047]

Well, your resident independent voter did not even watch the debate. Between my refusal to turn the station to Fox, and my outrage over the stupidity of Republican voters still supporting Trump, I’ve finally thrown in the towel on the Republican party. What put me over the edge was the refusal of all the “serious” candidates to turn on Trump.

I’m not thrilled about everything the Democratic Party supports, but at least there is a level of competency, ethics, and intelligence inherent in most of its politicians and the party overall.

The Republican Party is just a bunch of cucks and nutjobs. Until that party completes a full makeover, I will not cast a vote for one in any race at any level. I’m hoping there’s a bunch of independents like me as well. I’ve got to believe that a lot of the independent voters are smart enough to see how deadly serious these Trump indictments are and what a piece of shit he is. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

1 hour ago, Born to Run said:

It was the only election in my life that horrified the shit out of me in real time. I got drunk af. My girlfriend did too, and she was depressed for days after. I tried to convince her it wouldn't be That bad.

Narrator: it was That bad; especially for women.

Another in the thousand ways Dubya foreshadowed Trump. I was horrified when Bush-Cheney “won” in 2000. (Won, stole Florida, whatever.) As is always the case, Trump just took that horror and turned it up to 11.

I went to see Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade in concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco that New Year’s Eve. I have a recording. Sometime I need to transcribe what Les said during the show about Bush winning. He was similarly horrified. 

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,663]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

The bolded bit is the part I just don't get.  Plenty of folks here have said that.  WTF?  How the fuck did you NOT see how he would be EXACTLY as bad as he turned out to be?  It was plain, neon-lit truth.

yeah, on Inauguration Day, I didn't believe he'd come close to making it through his term in office. He shouldn't have. 

[jimmyjazz 45,900]

12 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Another in the thousand ways Dubya foreshadowed Trump. I was horrified when Bush-Cheney “won” in 2000. (Won, stole Florida, whatever.) As is always the case, Trump just took that horror and turned it up to 11.

I went to see Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade in concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco that New Year’s Eve. I have a recording. Sometime I need to transcribe what Les said during the show about Bush winning. He was similarly horrified. 

Remember when The (Dixie) Chicks destroyed their career with their criticism of W's plans to invade Iraq?

Remember when Hillary Clinton told America exactly what Trump supporters were?

 

I 'member.

[Biff Tannen 45,676]

5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Vivek Ramaswamy has a weird background.  He was raised Hindu, attended a Catholic high school, and was a member of a Jewish student group at Harvard.

My Italian-American wife was a member of the Asian-American business club at McComb's.  

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,869]

I didn't watch but did they in any way discuss J6 and their traitorous comrades? Did they just gloss over that inconvenient truth? I think I already know the answer.

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

My Italian-American wife was a member of the Asian-American business club at McComb's.  

I’ll bet she really loves noodles. 

[TeeDubya 3,362]

The GQP handmaids watching the debate instantly disliked Ramasmarmy's climate hoax comment.  But I'm sure, they'll still never vote for a democrat....  

 

[Anastasis 23,469]

11 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Anastasis'd!

I know right.  It's like some posters don't pay attention to the people that Biden has laced his state department with.

 

[atomheartbevo 89,652]

7 hours ago, troph said:

as soon as they find out Swarmy is a hindu and his faith based initiatives aren't christofacist views he's toast.

I already told one relative who was talking about him, that I thought they were pretty progressive for saying such nice things about a Hindu and that I can’t wait to see what he’s sworn in on.

[Paul Wesley 3,278]

6 hours ago, South Austin said:

Kasich by default seemed fairly normal

I referenced Kasich when talking about the debate last night… a guy who I fundamentally disagree with on most things, but it seems like he and I more or less live in the same reality.  
 

…but 2016 was a loooong time ago.  
 

Including Trump, 3 of their top 9 candidates are billionaires, and two of those are absolute sociopaths.  Mike Pence is a bizarrely robotic freak who thinks he’ll get the nod if he can just say “Jesus” in every answer (might have worked back in the 1900’s).  He wants the 10% of sane Republicans to remember the one day he behaved with honor, and he simultaneously wants the rest of them to remember his decade of enabling evil and treason.  
 

Desantis is a fascist in adorable high heeled kids’ boots who is trying to pull enough profoundly un-Jesuslike publicity stunts so that modern American Christians will get behind him.  
 

Hutchison and Burgum might be decent humans in real life (or not), but definitely both have checked their integrity at the door so as not to lose the deplorable wing of the party (it’s a huge fucking wing).  
 

There was an old Simpsons episode where the Kwik-e-mart gets robbed, and Homer hides.  And after the burglar leaves, Apu calls out, “You may emerge from behind the chip display.  The chance to be a hero is long passed.”   That pretty much sums up Chris Christie.   You’ve already shown us what you are, Bro’.  We saw it.  
 

Tim Scott had his pre-prepared “Aw shucks, I’m just a folksy country boy” speech ready to go, but he launched into it right after the buzzer sounded, and then all of America had to suffer and impatiently squirm in their desks and wait for him to shut the fuck up already… like we were all in the third grade and it was the dumb kid’s turn to wrestle with reading aloud. 
 

Nikki = Ted Cruz.  

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

40 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I already told one relative who was talking about him, that I thought they were pretty progressive for saying such nice things about a Hindu and that I can’t wait to see what he’s sworn in on.

Right, like he’d use the Bhagavad Gita. That fakir would use the Bible. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

27 minutes ago, Paul Wesley said:

That pretty much sums up Chris Christie.   You’ve already shown us what you are, Bro’.  We saw it.  

Yep, and the only reason he wasn’t Trump’s first Attorney General was because he was the prosecutor who convicted Jared Kushner’s crooked father and Jared put the kibosh on his nomination. 

[Incredulity 11,666]

Just saw the clip of Vivek wishing Haley luck in her future career on the Raytheon and Lockheed boards.  
 

She may end up hating him as much as Klobuchar hates Buttigieg.

 

[Anastasis 23,469]

11 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

She may end up hating him as much as Klobuchar hates Buttigieg.

 

That’s a pretty good analogy in terms of who Vivek is. 

[Mdhorn 5,948]

Has anybody asked why they were all on stage running against Trump if they all thought he was so great?   

[Mdhorn 5,948]

7 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Remember when The (Dixie) Chicks destroyed their career with their criticism of W's plans to invade Iraq?

Remember when Hillary Clinton told America exactly what Trump supporters were?

 

I 'member.

I remember when they were cancelling CK for taking a knee during the anthem and calling him unpatriotic, then years later those same people took part in a failed coup.  Fuck them folks.  They're traitors and should be reminded of it every chance.  

Edited August 25, 2023 by Mdhorn