The Republican Debate
I don’t expect to hear too many specifics in a primary debate this early. With a stage crowded with candidates that clearly aren’t going to suddenly skyrocket up in the polls, there’s little time for the moderators to focus on key issues or statements that the candidates have made. Nonetheless, I tuned in for the last half of the debate tonight, just to see what Obama is up against. And I’m a little bit concerned about a number of things.
Republicans are anti-war now.
For starters, I’m shocked by how quickly the Republicans have changed their stances on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2008, Obama was constantly criticized for wanting to withdraw. “He wants to surrender”, they’d say. “America never retreats.” But here we are, 3 years later, and Obama is now being criticized for not pulling the troops out fast enough? I can understand criticism from the left, but from the right? If they were sincere, this would be a great situation to be in — everyone in American doesn’t want war! But sadly, this opinion will only stick around until it becomes politically popular to support war again.
Capital punishment should not be applause-worthy.
During the debate, Governor Perry was asked a question regarding capital punishment in the state of Texas. After it was mentioned that 234 people in Texas have been executed since he took office (the most for any governor), the audience enthusiastically applauded. This is frightening. It highlights not only concerns with Perry as a candidate, but also with those who were in attendance. I can understand people who think of the death penalty as a necessary evil, but I don’t understand people who enthusiastically embrace and support it. (And specifically in regards to Texas, there are cases where innocent people in the past may have been executed. According to Perry, these sorts of decisions don’t keep him up at night.)
Science is fundamental.
Lastly, there’s the issue of science. We live in the year 2011. The majority of manufacturing jobs have already left the United States. We’re seeing other countries, like China, catch up to us in technology. And yet we’re still debating some basic fundamentals of science that are already agreed upon by scientists all around the world. In particular, these are the issues of evolution and climate change. Republican candidates will mention all sorts of reasons for how Obama will bring America down. And yet, as a country, we still struggle with science. We can’t become a leader in science and technology if we won’t accept climate change and the human race’s involvement in the earth’s rising average temperature. And we can’t educate the leaders of tomorrow if we continue to put evolution and creationism on equal footing. The earth is older than 6,000 years, and we need a president who is willing to say that. You can’t hand-pick scientific theories to believe in. You either believe in the scientific method or you don’t.
September 7, 2011