{"id":41622,"date":"2023-09-28T03:54:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T03:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/28\/after-second-gop-debate-trumps-nomination-couldnt-feel-more-inevitable\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T03:54:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T03:54:51","slug":"after-second-gop-debate-trumps-nomination-couldnt-feel-more-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/28\/after-second-gop-debate-trumps-nomination-couldnt-feel-more-inevitable\/","title":{"rendered":"After Second GOP Debate, Trump’s Nomination Couldn’t Feel More Inevitable"},"content":{"rendered":"


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There were knocks against Joe Biden<\/strong>. Some friendly fire against one another. There were even a few jabs at the conspicuously absent Donald Trump<\/strong> from someone other than Chris Christie<\/strong>, who is waging something of a kamikaze campaign to bring down the former president. But ultimately, the futility of the second GOP debate was best summed up by Vivek Ramaswamy<\/strong>: \u201cThe real divide is not between the Republicans on this stage,\u201d he said early on in the affair Wednesday evening at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. \u201cWe need to unite this party.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was a point to any of this, it was for one of these candidates to finally stand out from the pack<\/a> as a viable alternative to Trump, who once again skipped the debate, this time to campaign in Michigan. But the problem, as Ramaswamy unintentionally pointed out, is that these aspirants are too substantively similar to distinguish themselves from one another. Sure, there\u2019s some slight variation in packaging, from Ron DeSantis<\/strong>\u2019s awkward approximation of what a tough guy would say to the corny uplift of Tim Scott<\/strong>, who appears to be trying to reinvigorate his flagging campaign with some new facial hair. But open every box, and you find the same MAGA junk: fearmongering about immigrants and cities and transgender Americans; lots of talk about a decaying country; the misrepresentation not only of Biden\u2019s policies, but of reality itself.<\/p>\n

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The candidates did seem more willing to go after Trump\u2014something most were reluctant to do in the first debate<\/a>. But their attacks were still too tame or lame to really make an impact, whether it was DeSantis accusing Trump of being \u201cmissing in action\u201d for skipping the debate or Christie taunting him as \u201cDonald Duck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I know you\u2019re watching,\u201d Christie said into the camera. \u201cYou\u2019re afraid of being on this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is surely afraid of a lot of things\u2014namely, that one of his four indictments will result in jail time<\/a>\u2014but it\u2019s hard to imagine he\u2019s that nervous about seven challengers he\u2019s currently leading by more than 40 points and who don\u2019t even match his polling numbers collectively.<\/p>\n

Especially when they all seem to be trying so hard to sound like him.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the seven challengers spent the evening trying to out-extreme one another. We got Scott essentially arguing, when questioned about striking auto workers, that Americans should work more and for less money\u2014surely a winning message. We got obfuscation about the looming government shutdown, which Christie said was the fault of \u201ceverybody\u201d\u2014though it is Kevin McCarthy<\/strong> and House Republicans who are holding government funding hostage. We got Ramaswamy, insufferable as ever, promising to \u201cmilitarize\u201d the southern border\u2014something Nikki Haley<\/strong>, running as the self-styled adult in the room, more or less echoed later (\u201cIt\u2019s how we deal with terrorists,\u201d she said, calling for special operations to go after drug cartels). We got a humorless-as-ever Mike Pence<\/strong>, the former vice president and noted Christian, suggesting he would address mass shootings by passing an \u201cexpedited death penalty\u201d law and proposing a \u201cfederal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country.\u201d And we got Christie bashing Biden\u2019s education policy by quipping that the president was \u201csleeping with a member of the teacher\u2019s union\u201d\u2014a reference, of course, to First Lady Jill Biden<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to reverse this country\u2019s decline,\u201d DeSantis said at one point, recalling Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerican Carnage\u201d inaugural address.<\/p>\n

These people are each trying, in theory, to position themselves as a more reasonable alternative to the former president. But what they\u2019re actually doing is confirming that this remains the party of Trump, in all his absurdity. They might have their scraps with one another\u2014\u201cEvery time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber,\u201d Haley told Ramaswamy, in what was perhaps the best (and most cathartic) line of the night\u2014but at the end of the day, they\u2019re not all that different. None of these seven actually offered up a vision of a post-Trump GOP; they offered up a vision of the current<\/em> GOP, with a less charismatic extremist sitting at the top of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n