There was something disturbingly comical about the 4th Republican Party Presidential debate Wednesday, where four candidates tore into another one another, while the Republican leading figure Donald Trump again skipped the entire affair.
Trump facing several criminal indictments continues to lead in Republican polls, while alternative candidates Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie insulted one another in an event that seems to be completely removed from reality.
Ramaswamy referred to Haley as “lipstick on a Dick Cheney.” Christie mocked Ramaswamy’s “smartass mouth.” DeSantis said Haley “caves every time the left comes after her.”
Christie characterized his debate-stage opponents as cowering in fear over the thought of crossing Trump, and likened them to characters in the Harry Potter novels who were unwilling to say the name of villain Voldemort.
How do Republicans take any of this seriously on a day when their party blocked an emergency funding bill for Ukraine, as a critical war with Russia drags on, with huge ramifications for global security?
“Make no mistake: Today’s vote’s going to be long remembered, and history is going to judge harshly those who turned their backs on freedom’s cause,” Mr. Biden said on Wednesday at the White House, just hours before the vote. He said Republicans were “willing to literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process.”
The Republicans have taken the populist position on American border funding making it a priority over any foreign policy issues.
This while Russia has continually threatened to push beyond Ukraine in the future to take Poland and the Baltics under it’s influence. And as President Biden has noted, that will mean NATO Nations under threat will mean American soldiers will have to be deployed to fight Russia later, instead of adequately army and funding the Ukrainian army now.
But the realities of conflict in Europe have often come to America last, and even Canadian’s joke how the U.S. is so insular, many American voters barely know where Canada is on the map, let alone Ukraine.
If Trump is reelected in 2024, he promises to turn U.S. democracy on it’s head, pledging to take revenge against his political opponents, and acting like a dictator on day one on issues like the border and drilling.
Trump’s followers are scheming to install ideological loyalists throughout the federal government, centralize all power in the executive branch, and unleash the Justice Department on perceived political enemies.
And practically none of this got the attention of the 4th and likely last Republican debate between the 4 who at this moment won’t be chosen to run for President.
In the meantime Israel has escalated it’s war in Gaza to oust Hamas, while over 2 million Palestinians are displaced and in search of shelter and food.
Israeli soldiers surrounded the Khan Younis home terrorist Yihya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas Oct 7 attack on Israel. Sinwar, who is thought to be hiding somewhere under ground in the maze of tunnels under Gaza.
Senior U.S. officials said Israel has no interest in discussing the "day after the war" because it does not want to send a message that the fighting is nearing anything near its end.
The White House is pushing Israel to allow in more aid to Gaza immediately, to throttle back on air strikes which have killed over 15 thousand civilians, and to aim to stop the fighting in Gaza in January.
P.M. Netanyahu is refusing to be drawn on the end game in Gaza, even rejecting now the notion the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank could fill the vacuum in Gaza once Hamas is overthrown.
Netanyahu accused the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority of promoting and financing terrorism, and described its creation as “a terrible mistake.”
And that’s been Netanyahu’s position on Palestinian rule and statehood since the 1990’s, helping to destroy the OSLO peace accords, and undermining moderate Palestinians who could help bring peace between Jews and Arabs.
The U.S. Biden camp continues to believe in a two state solution to the conflict, and is urging Israel to begin discussing a process to bring long term peace to Israeli’s and Palestinians.
Much of this discussion will bleed into the U.S. Presidential debate in 2024.
And last night’s Republican debate was a sideshow that didn’t help promote any kind of a sensible conversation on Ukraine or the Middle East, even though America’s role in both is so key.
Dana