CD8 GOP Debate Proves One Thing Conclusively: Jessie Kelly is an Idiot

By Michael Bryan

I watched the CD8 GOP debate on AZPM.

GAHHHHHHH! My head nearly exploded. But I endured.

It was cringe-inducing to watch all four candidates sink, at times, to the lowest possible denominator.

The extreme and dangerous degree of political orthodoxy on the right is fully on display in this primary contest. The past several appearances of these candidates demonstrated just how little choice GOP voters have in this election – there is barely any difference in opinion or policy between them. The main differences are their backgrounds, style, and presentation. Very disappointing and a sad state of affairs for the once-Grand Old Party.

The vacuous free-market mysticism, socially-atomistic, government-eviscerating, state sovereignty-loving, budget-slashing, drill-baby-drill, tax-hating slogans and platitudes flew fast and furious, with only occasional flashes of actual thought and intellect.

I do think that Sitton and McSally each had moments that demonstrated they have active intellects and human feelings hiding behind their now-mandatory extremist political cant. Antenori was message-perfect, but reality-challenged.

Grinning petroleum-fueled zombie, Jessie "More Oil than Saudi Arabia" Kelly, however, demonstrated no redeeming qualities. Kelly proved conclusively that there is no "there", there.

The man is an unqualified, loose-gunned, moron.

Kelly wants to sell all the Federal land west of the Mississippi to pay for a double layer border fence? He thinks the "only way" we can significantly grow the national economy and become "wealthy" is by selling fossil fuels to the rest of the world? Oh, and we have more oil that Saudi Arabia? Bet you didn't know that… mainly, because it's simply not true. The man may actually be mentally ill, he is so far removed from reality.

The very thought that any portion of this community could be represented by this dangerously misinformed, self-inflicted head-wound of a human being deeply alarms me. Come on, GOP voters, you've got three choices whom, while certainly not my choice, are at least not comically embarrassing.

Sitton came across as the candidate most willing to talk reasonably and rationally about public policy. On health care he touched on preventive care, incentivizing healthy life choices, and public health improvements. On immigration he broached separating border enforcement from immigration reform, and focusing on organized crime. He actually touched on some real human concerns, though he certainly served up some red meat for the base, as well.

McSally established the most credibility on national security and foreign policy topics. She also scored points as the most politically realistic and courageous by standing up for "earmarking" as a means of serving constituents' needs. I don't agree with her, but her willingness to go against the anti-"earmarking" orthodoxy laid down by McCain's 2008 campaign either speaks to her independence, or her inexperience with the political shibboleths of conservative politics: either is OK with me.

Sadly, Antenori came completely armoured in extremist Republican rants. Despite his belligerent temperament and frequent lack of couth, he's a smart and capable guy. Unfortunately, he's seems to have buried his humanity under a well-polished carapace of slick right-wing rhetoric. Sometimes practice makes too perfect.

Antenori made several claims – as he is wont to do – that seem unlikely to be entirely true. He claimed that if we only took the money Obama "wasted" on the Affordable Care Act, that we could fund vouchers to buy everyone private health insurance. I call batshit/bullshit on that one. Perhaps it was not intended to be "factual statement"? He also claimed that although he personally has TriCare (military vet coverage), he never uses it. I would like to see proof of that, Frank. I think that assertion is bullshit, too.

The worst thing about the "debate" is that the moderators failed to focus on issues that are actually central to current citizen concerns. They used a nice gimmick that seemed to have left the topic choice to member of the public, but it resulted in a discussion that lacked depth or focus. They opted for breadth – the deficit, federalism, health care, immigration, Iran – over depth on the one issue – jobs and the economy – most important to voters.

I would have preferred if the moderators had drilled down on the candidates' ideas for getting America back to work and improving the economic security of average people, rather than just watching them spin out their talking points in response to a number of hot-button issues.

The main approach that all the candidates laid out in response to the real economic pain of citizens is to develop domestic sources of energy in order to bring gas prices down. Over and over, they all (but especially petroleum-on- the-brain Mr. Kelly) returned to gas prices as central to easing the economic problems of middle class people. Kelly closed with, "Drill here, drill now, pay less at the pump. That's what will help Southern Arizona families." You have got to be kidding me. Is Newt writing this idiot's slogans?

Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to pay more at the pump, but really, gas prices are neither something that American policy has much short-term control over, nor a primary cause of economic pain, nor a source of relief to struggling American families.

Lack of employment and stagnant wages are the real issues, followed closely by the causes of the recession – financialization of the economy, the political power of Wall Street and the 1%, growing income inequality, economic insecurity because of health care costs, cratered housing prices and the need for mortgage restructuring, the monstrous consumer and educational debts of Americans, the future competitiveness of our workforce, our crumbling infrastructure, the fairness of our system of taxation, corporate welfare, and building a consumer demand-led recovery on wage increases instead of yet more debt – these are topics that our government, and our wanna-be representatives, need to deal with.

I hope that we see the media demanding responses from these candidates to people's real needs and concerns. We certainly didn't get any real answers from this "debate".

To the CD8/2 candidates: If you think you can take on real questions about the state of the economy and the nation from people who are ready and willing to ask them, then accept BlogForArizona's standing invitation to interview you. We have put together a group of Arizona's bloggers who stand ready to ask the sort of questions that really matter to voters. If you think you can stand the heat, accept our invitation to a two hour live interview with our blogger panel. Contact BlogForArizona@gmail.com for more information and to accept our invitation.