Ramaswamy "won"?! WHAT?!

 I have to admit, debates can be a bit of a rorschach test sometimes. I've seen atheists and christians debate and see atheists thinking their side won and christians thought their side won. Same happens with republicans v democrats, with republicans thinking their side won and democrats their side. 

But at the same time, I try to be at least somewhat objective. I put my own values aside and try to look at things as objectively as possible. And I have admitted in the past that Bernie and Yang, my favored candidates, have either bombed debates or had weaker performances than I would have liked. 

And let's face it, I went into the republican debate not really having ANY dog in this fight other than not liking trump and trumpism. And if anything, my expectations were rock bottom. I expected people to be trying to one up each other and trying to act more conservative than thou, and the extremes getting rewarded, and the moderates being tarred and feathered.

But it actually seemed to work the other way. There were a lot of big name establishment conservatives on the stage and honestly? They seemed almost sane compared to our current republican standard bearers. I'm going to be honest, I'm NOT a conservative, and I largely have a disdain for conservative values post 2012, but let's be honest. I also WAS a conservative at one point, and I did have values that leaned that way at one time. And my views were much more aligned with the moderate wings of the party these days than the extremists.

This is because I value, above all else, ideas that work, and as a conservative, I valued stability. Because that's what conservatives are supposed to do. it used to be "the left were the ones who wanted to push all of these extreme untested ideas on people and they dont work and end in disaster". But now the right is...being as extreme as possible?

That's one of the reasons I ended up abandoning conservative values in general. I followed the assumptions through to their conclusions, realized the radicalizing GOP was just going for the conclusions of their stated ideologies, and shifted away from them as a result. And as I said, my value for stability and some lessons from conservatism did serve me well in my life as a liberal, where I'm now ripping on my own new side's extremist impulses at times in talking about socialism and SJW ideology. 

But seeing a return to establishment moderates to the stage after dealing with trumpism, the most psychotic of GOP ideologies, and something that would have caused me to abandon the current party even if the tea party didn't force me out, it almost feels like a breath of fresh air. And seeing pence prattle on about conservative values and someone else go on about reagan almost made me slightly nostalgic. 

But then vivek entered the fray. And he's a 38 year old idiot who has no idea what he's talking about. he took the most extreme, delusional positions possible, and he came off as someone who doesn't know crap about politics but thinks they know it all. And I just saw a bunch of older, more experienced candidates with more realistic positions on things take him to school over and over again, and tell him to sit down, shut up, and take notes.

But somehow, people think he WON?! What PLANET are you people on? Has trump like rotted your sense of reality so much you now like this guy over a team of older, more experienced classical reagan conservatives who actually know how to govern? What?!

I admit, as a leftie, I like outsiders. This is because my ideology isn't well represented in politics and I am trying to act as a change agent. And sometimes you have to fight the battle with the army you got, not the army you want. I know vivek has been compared to like yang before. I mean, I like yang, but I also wish i had someone more experienced than yang with a similar value set, and to have someone who is more consistent with those values. And I like williamson, but lets face it, she's no bernie sanders. 

And I have to admit, when yang debated democrats like biden and harris, he looked TERRIBLE at times. Totally out of his depth. Even bernie kinda just went on about the same old stump speech and never stood out. Candidates like biden and harris dominated the 2020 debate cycle, with bernie only offering a middling ron desantis level performance. 

As such, I feel qualified in saying, no matter how you FEEL about vivek ramaswamy, he was out of his depth. He was young, he was inexperienced, he didn't know what he was talking about, and in a room full of conservative experts he looked bad.

And I know republicans tend to dislike things like expertise and think bob the 38 year old car mechanic from iowa knows better about virology than fricking dr fauci, but COME ON. Vivek was an idiot, he was out of his depth, and his ideas were often dangerous.

I get he was the best trump stand in given trump wasn't there (and i do think trump would've at least held his own because love him or hate him, he DOES have experience for this job), but seriously, he looked like an idiot. He really did. He didn't have the charisma or smooth talking trump did in 2016, and he sounded like that annoying hyperactive nerd people like trump and their hyper masculine alpha male mentalities would otherwise stuff into school lockers. It wasn't a good look. Hell, Christie, Pence, and Haley DID metaphorically stuff him into the school locker and handed him his butt on stage several times, and people still think they won?! WHAT?!

I don't get these people. I really don't. Like even, as an ex conservative, I dont get these people. There was a whole room full of more qualified candidates than vivek ramaswamy. Fricking Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum had better debate performances in my opinion. And you might be asking WHO? Yeah, that's the point. Ya know, old white guys with white hair no one can remember the names of with like 1% in the polls? Those are their names. That's how much vivek sucked in my opinion.

I stand by my opinion that anyone who actually thought he did a GOOD job literally doesnt understand politics, and probably would benefit most from taking the citizenship tests that vivek wants to force on people. Not that I would advocate for his proposal, because that's authoritarianism and the history of giving tests to people in order to allow them to vote is rife with negative consequences and open voter suppression. And unlike vivek, I'm not an authoritarian nutjob and knows better than to go down that route, regardless of how idiotic I think some voters are sometimes. 

Like really, forget my existing views for a second, as an ex conservative, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU PEOPLE?! I DONT EVEN RECOGNIZE THE PARTY ANY MORE! This is not the realignment I had hoped for. You had a stage full of experienced conservatives, many of whom i dont particularly like or agree with, but i can at least respect, and you go for fricking trump, who doesnt even believe in debates any more, and this vivek guy who basically is certifiably insane?

The republican party I grew up with cared about limited government and the rule of law. They fricking WORSHIPPED the constitution. They werent perfect, and as I got older, I became more liberal and left. But then I look back, and I really have to wonder what happened? because I look at the state of the party and I feel like we're in 1920s weimar germany. We even already had our failed fascist takeover like they did. And if this trend of illiberal extremists continues, then I fear that this country is screwed. 

Just fricking moderate enough where i dont have to fear for the state of american democracy if the right wins. That's all you have to do. Reject Trump, reject Ramaswamy, reject Desantis. Just reject your authoritarian nutcases. That's all I'm asking of you people. It's not like I'm expecting you guys to support universal healthcare or UBI any time soon. I get that, not gonna happen. Just fricking stop running candidates who make me fear for the future of democracy and who are a few fries short of a happy meal, ya know?