Quick Thoughts On The First 2024 Republican Debate

No, I'm not kidding, I really wrote something about this Human catastrophe. Yes, this is pretty much a cut-and-paste mind-vomit.

Hello, friends,

So, I did a foolish thing and watched the Republican Debates. Here are my quick thoughts. Just as a reminder, I don’t know if/when I’ll have a formal article out this week, as I have a half-business/half-pleasure trip coming up this weekend.

I noped out when they went to the break where they took aim at teachers. I know first-hand how Republicans feel about us, and I'd already tortured myself for an hour and a half. If there were later break-out moments, well, they came too late. Each of these nutbars had their own moments.

"Stone. Cold. Dead" with his delayed reactions that make my socially-awkward ass look normal was terrifying, but DeSantis...Well let's just say I tried to think of his name just now and I couldn't. I just visualized a serial killer who wants to invade our southernmost neighbor. Maybe the craziest out of the bunch for wanting to send SpecOps into Mexico or whatever.

Ramaswamy was maybe the one who did the best job...At running for Trump's VP. MAYBE if Trump goes down on crimes, Ramaswamy could pick up the GOP nomination...Except that many of them will never vote for someone with his skin color. So VP it is.

Christie was the person I was keeping my eye on, and he did about as well as I thought, maybe a bit worse. More conservative than I was hoping to hear, but, yeah. He attacked Trump. Attack dog attacks. Other than that, he sounded like a madman.

Scott and Hutchinson didn't do much of anything. I caught Scott trying to break into preacher-voice for a moment and I cringed. Hutchinson...Well, he worked for Bush Dubya, I think, so that's enough out of him.

Burgum? At least I know his last name, now. Not his first, though. And I know he got some kind of physical injury before the debate.

Pence repeatedly talked into the void and seemed forgettable as it gets, so much so that I almost forgot he was there. He did get a good soundbite from Christie and some slobbering from the others. Too bad that they don't represent the modern-day GOP - no amount of talking about his God is gonna change that.

Haley was probably the winner from what I saw. She came off sounding (not *being,* but sounding-by-comparison) reasonable on abortion, she kinda actually sounded great on fighting Putin, and she seemed to have the brains necessary to actually run an operation. If the GOP were anything resembling a sane, rational party dedicated to advancing its Humanity-avoidant ideologies, she'd be the nominee.

Of course, all of this was a charade unless suddenly one of them breaks the 20% mark.

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.