Wednesday, 16 SEP 2015 :: The GOP (Republican) Debate

I was able to see most of the two debates tonight... which is better than not seeing any of it.  I looked it up on the internet and only CNN and Salem Radio were listed as options.  I don't have cable and didn't think I could watch it on CNN.  When I finally turned on the radio to listen, it wasn't on my local stations... and I am not that much of a techie to know why not.  I checked online for the radio website, but nothing was there.  I finally went to CNN.com to see if there was any information there and I was able to live stream it...kind of.  I had to keep refreshing the page to keep viewing it and never knew if it would work.

The topics and number of people to answer was interesting... you can tell the politicians by their answers... and the "newbies" are easy to see, too.  I was impressed with Bobby Jindal in the first debate, and there were a few winning segments/presentations in the main debate.

Immigration and Iran were the main issues that kept coming up. And the tax problems we are facing also came up.  We can't do anything without money, and the budget is wasted on interest payments because of our debt.  The president is only one man in the government, and no one man can solve all our problems.  This is the problem with our elections... everyone promises to fix it all, but when they get elected, they can't.

I can't say I liked the answers about immigration.  I was glad to hear that 40-60% of the millions of "illegal immigrants" that keep getting highlighted are not people who have come over the death trails from Mexico... someone mentioned they are people who came on work visas and stayed over their given time period.  I think that means they don't cost us money in forced support costs when they are imprisoned for wanting a better life.  Legal work and taxes could solve that problem.

Another person said they wanted to restrict any potential immigrants to agricultural work.  That comment says a lot about someone's opinion of the people involved.  It assumes the issue is about Mexican/Spanish illegals, and it says this someone thinks that's all the immigrants are good for. 

There are a lot of people who come here from Mexico and work in the agricultural fields because that is what they know and the main type of work they can get as a non-English speaker.  It also means that someone thinks that is all they are good for... and that solving our agricultural problems is how they can qualify to stay here.  No one seems to see these strangers as normal people with families, trying to survive the same way a zillion others are trying to survive.

That brings up another issue :  the language conflict that has become a problem in our conversations.  If we went to another country, would we know the language?  No.  Somewhere along the way we would have to learn it.  That takes time.  Until we do, the only language we can understand is out home language, which could be Spanish, French, African, Russian, or any number of languages in the approximately 200 countries of the world.  All this energy wasted on what language needs to be spoken is really a waste of time.  English is our language.  Translating our government materials into other languages is the real problem... it costs money.  Maybe we are talking about the wrong problem.

The automatic American by birth issue is related to immigration... it was a hot topic as well.  I had no idea that the practice was associated with the 14th amendment. (I think that is the one.)  And another one of the debaters said that was really not even a clear "commandment" in the law... that it applied to slaves, not anyone else.  The issue has never really been explored in our government system (the Supreme Court).    Here we are, arguing about something that hasn't really been established legally.  I suppose this is another case of talking about the wrong problem.

The conflicts we are involved in all over the world came up and also were attached to our military readiness.  Controlling Iran seems to be the concept that is traveling in government circles...like we can do that.  Bombing Iran, having full access to any facility they operate, unannounced, voiding the recent treaty that was negotiated, the security problems caused by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton  (and now Kerry) were brought out by several of the debaters... but Marco Rubio was the easiest to understand in that topic.

I think I must be like all the other Americans who have too much to do to follow every action of our government, trusting that the ones we have in charge will do what is best for America and for us.  I don't keep track of all the little detail because I can't.  It's a full time job... their job...and I struggle to survive the details of my own life.  I just want to have food to eat, a place to live, and work that can help me with my basic needs and small dreams beyond that.  At one point in my life, I realized that is what the "silent majority" was... all the Americans who don't have time or inclination to monitor the government representatives they elect.  We don't write letters to the editor.  We vote.

I hope I can find the best overall person for the job ahead... we need the best.  America is dealing with problems that can destroy us. Some people would love to see us destroyed.