Bob Herbert on the most recent Republican Debate — “Are we electing a president or a sheriff?” The bludgeoning of logic is yet another form of violence coming out of the Republican debates.

 Columnist – Bob Herbert
EXCERPTS:

On immigration, an issue ripe for demagoguery, most of the howling G.O.P. pack has sprinted away from Mr. Bush, preferring a more macho, politically exploitive approach. (Mr. McCain is an exception.)

Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado wants to stop all immigration, legal and illegal. Too much immigration brings problems, he said. Among other things, “it makes it difficult for us to assimilate.”

Former Mayor Giuliani, once a gun-control champion, has swallowed the party’s Kool-Aid straight from the packet, not even bothering to mix it with water. “People will be allowed to have guns,” he said. “I’m not going to interfere with that.”

“I just finished having Thanksgiving dinner with the troops, and their message to you is, the message of these brave men and women who are serving there is: ‘Let us win.‘”

How is that helpful or enlightening? What does he mean by “win?” And win at what additional cost to human life and other resources?

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (an ordained minister) talked proudly about the tough challenge he faced in “carrying out” the death penalty in Arkansas.

“I did it more than any other governor ever had to do it in my state,” he said.

Bob concludes:

“I don’t know if children should be allowed to watch the Republican presidential debates.

The Republican Party has won a lot of elections in recent years. So maybe this crop of candidates knows something about American voters that many us would rather not acknowledge, that too many of them are small-minded, fearful, bigoted and too shallow to recognize policies that are against their own — and their country’s — best interests.

Read Bob Herbert’s Article In Full

REFERENCES:

1. 41 Things You Have To Believe To Be A Republican Today
2. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush’s America