Falling into Alice in Wonderland’s Rabbit Hole, the debate became a reality show for Hollywood:

Uggh – the debates. So many candidates leaves little time for individual shine. Full disclosure, I didn’t want to watch but my husband asked and I relented … for a while.

From the horse’s gate, the style was one that I abhor. The topics were entertainment style, tabloid, petty insults, personal insults, derogatory rhetoric and within minutes I wanted to turn it off, walk away, sit outside and enjoy the evening breeze. But, alas, I didn’t.

When all was said and done, I didn’t much care enough for anyone, for the most part they succumbed to the histrionic attack and the self lauding that really makes me wonder if this will once again be an election in which we vote for the lesser of two evils rather than a true shining warrior winner for the people.

Setting aside my own personal views on the issues, which is very hard, I didn’t learn a whole lot about theirs:

1. I think they all agreed on a solid wall between Mexico and the US as a starting point to curb illegal immigration.
2. I think most agreed on defunding Planned Parenthood from a Federal level.
3. Most agreed that the deal with Iran was messy and wimpy.
4. Syria and Russia were a point of division – no one seemed to know that the US has already engaged Russia to help with ISIS in Syria… so you can’t exactly vilify and sanction Russia for doing your bidding.
5. China was also a point of division with some naively stating that snubbing the President of China at the White House dinner was a good policy – albeit immature and childish, while others felt isolating China would be good for the US, given that China is our biggest trade partner and holder of T-bills, that would be a fall on your face political and business short sidedness mess!
6. Vaccines – I don’t believe they should be a political decision.
7. Raising Minimum Wage – divided. The worst rhetoric on this front was the candidate who stated that he wanted to raise education levels so no one was working minimum wage… Slight problem, who then is performing those jobs? No one? Script!

The resounding debate seemed more of a self-promotion campaign to tell everyone all your successes, ad nauseum. The “I” statements flew with such force, they were good moments to refresh my cup of coffee. And while I do understand that a candidates track record is of value, most people really don’t care, just look at Obama’s track record… he had none, nothing, zilch. When Trump attacked Carly’s track record and her response, he then defended his own failures with similar points thereby substantiating her points.  High school debate lesson 101; ‘don’t attack someone’s failure with the same challenge that you failed in’ (pardon the preposition).

The overall attempt was to outshine, to find a stage on which the candidate could perform Othello. And while they all have intellect, who among them has wisdom?

The ‘blow them to bits’ mentality of destroying nations has gone way too far. Throwing Russia and China into the mix of hostility would be suicide. Sanctioning Russia and China is a Socialist move, it eliminates competition and hence raises corruption, fraud and ‘prices’. We don’t have the capacity or ability to eliminate China from our markets. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!

And while I have been a fan of Carly, she is a spot on orator, she was a bit too Hillaryish last night. Angry.  By contrast, Ben Carson and Huckabee didn’t interrupt enough to get air time. Christie was admirable for trying to redirect the animosity away from each other. Trump was Trump. Rand Paul too quiet. Bush too defensive. Kasich elaborated exponentially on self. Rubio was poignant but I don’t care for his politics, Cruz and Walker didn’t offer anything special. I felt I was watching a reality show and began to fantasize that it wasn’t that much different than the portrayal of government in The Hunger Games or some other science fiction flick. But given I don’t watch reality shows, this one had no more appeal to me than any other and I soon flipped the channel to watch Frasier.

Interestingly, even the way in which the media determines winners and losers is remarkably viewed from a perspective of entertainment in evaluating performance rather than substance, in declaring victory for being outspoken without content, in making it a Donald Trump ‘show’, in succumbing to the very childish stance of bullying and victimizing, and in making it a defensive personality show.

I imagine we could have had anyone on stage and they could have performed for the audience – but is that what we need, want and crave? Or do we want someone who is ardently, fervently a defender of our country, of morality, of cohesiveness, and of compassion working in unity to better our economy, our political fraud, our internal government corruption, our budgets and spending fraud, our reputation, someone who truly believes in the words they speak, and we have no doubt will follow to achieve those goals.

Instead we saw our candidates pulled down Alice In Wonderland’s rabbit hole by a media bent on ridiculing the entire party.