The first GOP primary debate went along largely as expected Wednesday night.
Former Vice President Mike Pence defended his staunch pro-life position. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged special forces to fight the cartels. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley went full neocon on Ukraine and China. Of course all took on Jan. 6 and “the elephant not in the room.” Overall, the candidates spoke to a diverse array of issues plaguing the country. However, Fox News moderators Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum missed an opportunity to press the candidates on several issues that appeal to the nationalist conservative and populist sides of the Republican party.
Gender Ideology
While candidates discussed transgender issues under the umbrella of education, the moderators ignored the broader societal implications of gender ideology. Discussions were relegated to the not insubstantial issue of biological men dominating in women’s sports. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. (RELATED: Winners, Losers And Empty Suits: GOP Debate Performances Ranked)
Schools across the nation — with the support of the powerful teacher’s unions — plot to gender transition children without the knowledge of their parents. They mainstream gender confusion and lies throughout the curriculum while courts are already taking children away from parents over insufficient gender affirming care. House Democrats pushed a “Transgender Bill of Rights” that would subordinate objective truth to people’s arbitrary and subjective self-perception.
Crossing the Alphabet Mafia will no longer just get you cancelled — it could get you arrested. It will be the end of free speech in America — replace the system of equality with a rigid hierarchy, and destroy parents’ rights over their children. Anyone who says this is a slippery slope fallacy is naive or lying — just look at what’s already happening in the U.K.
Any Republican president needs to have a plan to combat this for the sake of the country. But the influence of Moms For Liberty, perhaps the most powerful grassroots group since the Tea Party, shows that it is powerful campaign issue as well.
#Parents are now marching on the streets & headed from #CityHall to #LAUSD #headquarters where the #school board is currently meeting. LARGE #police presence…#protest #schools #Children #LosAngeles #California pic.twitter.com/iaM5xtCctM
— Larry Schalk 🍊 (@schalk_larry) August 22, 2023
Moderators missed the chance to force candidates to stake out a position. Would they take the weak libertarian position that the government has no role in preventing the mutilation of children or pornography in the classroom? Or would they pledge to fight fire with fire, and actively use their power to push back on gender ideology. If so, how?
Manufacturing/Trade
Now, economic policy is not the sexiest issue to campaign on. People certainly care about their pocketbook issues, but tend to zone out when politicians delve into the specifics. Trump showed how to break through and make this a winning issue in 2016.
Trump campaigned on ending corrupt trade practices with China and bringing our decimated manufacturing sector back home. He initiated movement on both fronts, but with only four years, did not stay around to finish the job.
There is still much to be done to balance trade with China, but Republicans are split by the extent they embrace free trade. The trade-offs of the trade war with China remain a topic of dispute.
There is also debate over whether industries should be re-shored back home or merely diversified out of China. The CHIPS Act showed bipartisan support for strengthening one critical industry, but there are many others of national strategic interest.
These are popular issues with the Republican base — many of whom were directly impacted as the “losers” of globalization in post-industrial America. But America’s status as an unrivaled economic superpower hangs in the balance.
Watching Trump on @larry_kudlow talking about trade/tariffs. This is one of his strongest, most persuasive, most unique messages.
“The tariff is so high that nobody wants it, but what they want us to do is they want us to go over and build a plant. And then you have no tariff.… pic.twitter.com/G7YydrtCdv
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) August 18, 2023
Moderators missed the opportunity to force candidates to commit to continuing or deviating from Trump’s economic legacy.
Hunter Biden
How could we forget — America’s prodigal son. Hunter Biden revelations have dominated the news cycle all summer. The allegations are so overwhelming that even the mainstream press has been forced to cover them.
Moderators may have avoided it, thinking the Hunter saga is inconsequential. But these would not have been flippant questions at all.
The Department of Justice tried to give Hunter a sweetheart deal while targeting Trump, his allies, and a host of other conservative groups. The Republican base resents the apparent two-tiered system of justice at play. A country cannot survive long if half the population believes the justice system is rigged against them. (RELATED: Google Trends Shows Big Winner In Last Night’s Debate)
DeSantis was the only candidate to briefly bring up the first son, but the topic failed to gain traction. However, it should not have been left to him. Moderators had a duty to both their viewers and the country to ask candidates how they would restore faith in the justice system.
Election Integrity
Nearly $800 million later, it’s clear that election fraud is a touchy subject for Fox News. But millions of Americans still believe the 2020 election was stolen. There may not have been millions of phony ballots, but procedural changes under Covid and the months of rolling riots ensured that the election probably wasn’t entirely on the up and up.
If moderators were instructed not to delve too deeply, they at least had a responsibility to press candidates on how they would ensure a free and fair election in 2024.
They could have also asked about candidates’ plans to increase voter registration, ballot harvesting and youth organization. Any candidate unprepared to meet Democrats on a level playing field does not deserve the nomination.
Ensuring that people believe they participated in a fair election — on either side — is the only way power will ever transition smoothly in America again.
Trump Indictments
While moderators asked whether candidates would support Trump as the nominee if he were convicted in any of the indictments, they ignored the question on everyone’s mind — a litmus for viability in the Republican party — if elected president, would you pardon Donald J. Trump of all counts?