The most boring part of the debate last night was the first half hour or so, before they started savaging Vivek Ramaswamy. That’s what I want to talk about, ‘cause boring is what I do.
The prevailing delusion was that somehow Biden’s spending gave rise to inflation. In and of itself, this is doubtful. If the Gov spends money you might have spent, the composition and impact on consumer prices is not all that different. Most Federal spending goes to payments to persons or their doctors. Defense spending goes to persons in the defense industry who spend their money like everyone else.
More properly, it is the extent of the deficit that is more likely to have an impact on prices, but there the MAGAs have a dilemma. Trump had big deficits too. You can’t say his would not affect inflation but Biden’s would. To be sure, the deficits in both cases financed useful spending.
Two hyperbolic policy points are also worth noting. One is the batshit-crazy notion that teachers unions are the greatest national security threat to the U.S. Nobody seemed to blink at that. Buried in that context were the boosts for “school choice,” which means some combination of vouchers, tax credits for home schooling, and charter schools. A Republican Party serious about votes from POC would go hard on this.
The other is the alleged fentanyl holocaust. There was talk of tens of thousands of fatalities. Is this true? I looked it up and it is. The Google tells me that 70 percent of the 110,000 overdose deaths in 2022 were due to fentanyl. Like a lot of other things, it would not be surprising to learn much of the ingredients are exported to North America by China. Not out of malevolence, but just to make money, which China is very good at.
That brings me to my last note, the notion prevalent among the debaters that the U.S. should be an economic autarchy, somehow disengaging itself from Chinese exports. Easier said than done. Moreover, this flies in the face of traditional Republican economic doctrine and testifies to the party’s alienation from its Reaganite past.
An unrelated observation, Ramaswamy has made himself a thing who will not be going away any time soon. His proposal that young people be required to pass a citizenship test, along with his dumb claim that the Constitution caused the American revolution (impossible without time travel) testifies to his ignorance. That won’t hurt him with the Republican primary electorate. He is the Trumpiest of them all and has invested for the long term. “Vivek” is now a household word. Yuck.
I can understand why Republicans think that teachers' unions are a great threat to America. Teachers are girly (with some notable exceptions), and empowered women are indeed a great threat to masculinism. Since Republicanism is masculinism, this all makes some kind of perverted sense.