The Nature of Things

There's another of the endless Republican "presidential" debates tonight and I can hardly wait to see what the slavering audience will cheer this time. So far the Republican debate audiences have gone wild to show their support for: The death penalty to be applied without restraint. Letting uninsured people die of treatable diseases. An electrified border fence to kill people who try to cross it. Furthermore, they have booed: Gay soldiers who choose to serve their country, even those who are in war zones. Letting children (who may themselves be citizens) of undocumented workers pay in-state tuition at Texas universities. Given that history, it's really not all that hard to predict what the crowd might get hot and excited about this time. I would guess that if Newt Gingrich mentions his plan to do away with child labor laws and put six-year-olds to work as janitors, the Republican crowd would love it. And if he goes even further and mentions his long-ago scheme of hav...

We've now had three debates of the Republicans candidates for president and it's the audiences at those debates that have made the most news. In the first debate, the audience cheered wildly when one of the questioners prefaced a question by pointing out that Rick Perry, as governor of Texas, had overseen some 234 executions of prisoners.  The audience really, really liked that.  They really like capital punishment. In the second debate, a question contained the scenario of a young, healthy man who chooses not to get health insurance and then suffers a catastrophic illness that puts him into a coma for six months.  The question was about whether the man should be treated or allowed to die. Some in the audience shouted that he should die.  It's all about personal responsibility, you see.  You refused to buy health insurance, so you must suffer the consequences.  And if you couldn't afford to buy health insurance?  Well, then, you are just out of luck. ...