We Have Officially Entered the Upside Down

Republican Voters are Completely Irrational; They No Longer Care About What is Said, Only That it is Said Forceably and with Conviction

Well folks, we have officially entered the upside-down, black is white, through the looking glass, irrational world of the Republican Party. They no longer make any reasoned sense whatsoever. We’ve taken a turn towards the surreal. I’m still just shaking my head and fearful as to what this all means.

On Wednesday evening, the Republicans had a debate. It was a trainwreck but for all practical purposes, there were consensus winners and losers. You can read our summary of it here:

The overall consensus, not just with us (but which we largely agreed with), and not just with CNN or MSNBC Or various news outlets but also with FOX’s Post Debate breakdown too, was that the order of finish went something like this:

• Nikki Haley and Mike Pence did a great job.

• Chris Christie had some good moments too but Republicans don’t like him.

• DeSantis was a disaster; basically reiterating tired tropes and then blending into the background as a wallflower.

• Vivek Ramaswamy is a f**king idiot who has no idea what he is talking about, but can sell bulls**t pretty well. Seriously, he advocated policies that weren’t just dumb or counterproductive, but downright DANGEROUS.

• Tim Scott seemed rather clueless on stage.

• Asa Hutchinson and Doug Borgum were just lucky to be there and forgettable.

So the results of the Washington Post, 538.com, Ipsos poll came in of Republicans who watched the debate and how’d it turn out?

• Well, at least there was agreement Asa and Doug didn’t really make an impression. They came dead last.

• Who won? RON F**KING DESANTIS. The guy who regurgitated canned lines delivered robotically and seemed lost the rest of the time had the highest polling at 29%.

• Who came second? VIVEK RAMASWAMY. After all, it doesn’t matter what is said anymore, just that you say it with conviction, in a snappy soundbite with a smile. Everyone attacking Vivek for arrogance and ignorance seemed to be helping him all the way to a 26% polling and second place.

Two of the three WORST performers ended up first and second. We’re now in the upside down where the bottom is the top and the top the bottom. How else to explain that even after multiple bankrupcies, serial philandering, two impeachments, $8 trillion in debt added over a single term, four separate lawsuits resulting in 91 individual indictments could Donald Trump be lapping these wannabes? It’s like Republicans watch with the sound off and it doesn’t matter what they say, just how they look when they say it. But that’s not all.

• Consensus winner Nikki Haley got only 15%, about half of what DeSantis had. Haley mopped the floor with Vivek and delivered some of the best lines of the night.

• Pence, who I thought had the strongest night of the candidates, got less than HALF OF THAT, at only 7%.

• Christie, who I thought did a good job controlling the debate and making good points (although even I knew this was stuff that the GOP voters don’t want to hear) got the same score as Tim Scott who was largely seen as the WORST performer of the evening. How is that possible?

I want to reiterate, the best, most reasoned, professional, leaders of the GOP establishment could only garner 34% collectively, and that wasn’t even with Trump included, only Trump wannabes DeSantis and Ramaswamy. The Establishment wing of the GOP is now dead as far as can be seen.

What DeSantis and Ramaswamy had in common (and it is in common with Trump as well) is that it doesn’t matter WHAT you say, just HOW you say it. Every line each of them said on Wednesday were prepared canned remarks. Even the “rebuttals” that Vivek responded to Haley, Pence and Christie with were canned. He may have well have said “Oh Yeah, I’m rubber and you’re glue.” But what he DID do was talk OVER his accusers and speak AGGRESSIVELY. DeSantis, when he chose to speak, did so too. Who cares if it makes sense? Republican voters seem too dumb to understand the intracacies of public policy anyway.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what that leads to:

• Debates, for all practical purposes, are done as a forum. We are now going to get pre-programmed verbal Royal Rumbles where everyone talks over one another, nobody can understand what others are saying, and the audiences are going to approve only the person who says it the most confidently and forcibly. We’ve entered the WWE version of political discourse.

• On that last point, you’re going to get to a point where it may seem like several may come to blows, but when there is zero incentive to back down…

• Advocating for policy positions with no foundation in reality and without any moral center is a dark and dangerous place to go. People usually point out the demogogues and dictators who demonstrate this; however, it’s just as horrible to turn inward, isolationist, that we then collectively turn a blind eye to and be complicit in truly horrible crimes committed by others.

• Worst of all, given the constant cowering and groveling for Trump voters to like them, unless they take a solid. collective, principled stand, we can anticipate Trump to win again and that no real “anti Trump” candidate will emerge.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

I got nothing. I’m too depressed to even contemplate the consequences of this.

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