A Moment from Republican Debate

If you watched the debate among the eight Republican candidates for president on Thursday night, you would have caught this amazing moment, as discussed below by Mark Karlin, of Buzzflash.  Would have been interesting if they had also asked: "How many of you do not believe in global warming/climate change?"

Gramma Windy

How radical and cultish are the declared Republican candidates for president?

The answer is clear from a question that came 48 minutes into the FOX sponsored Iowa "debate" on Thursday.

According to a TIME magazine blog of the event, the moderator, FOX's Bret Baier, asked "everyone to raise their hand if they would oppose a debt deal that offered $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. Everyone raises their hand, though Pawlenty's hand bobs up and down a bit."

In one infamous moment of ignorant and cowardly group-think the radical and destructive financially anarchistic outlook of the GOP was revealed.

"No new taxes (or really no taxes)" has been the lynch mob call to arms (and votes) for national Republican candidates for years, but it has reached a feverish and pernicious pitch.

Think about it, all the GOP candidates for the presidency (and Rick Perry and Sarah Palin would have held their hands up too, you can be sure), would turn down, let's say, a trillion in cuts in federal spending if they had to also vote for just 1/10th of that amount in tax increases on millionaires and billionaires.

The rational responses to this craven tomfoolery are too numerous to detail in a short commentary. Suffice it to say, the anti-tax mantra has become a political/religious symbol that defies logic or common sense. In a time when the nation is beset by enormous financial problems, it is a placebo pill that removes the challenge of finding multi-faceted and inventive solutions to an immensely complex problem.

By raising their hands in unison in opposition to a modest increase in taxes on the most wealthy, big oil, and hedge funds (because that is whom a $1 in tax increases for $10 in revenue would likely affect), the GOP candidates affirmed themselves as snake oil salesmen. And snake oil doesn't cure anything; it only enriches the person selling it (or in this case, might help them attain the power to run America).

As the TIME blog noted at 121 minutes into the exchange in Iowa, "Baier mercifully ends it all."

But unfortunately, it was only the debate that concluded. The long delusional nightmare for America continues.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout