GOP Debate Stuff We Didn't Hate

Plus: A listener question about the continued absurdity of sports stadium subsidies

1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x

:15 :15

Download

GOP Debate Stuff We Didn't Hate

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch and Katherine Mangu-Ward welcome special guests Eric Boehm and Zach Weissmueller for a post-mortem examination of the first Republican presidential primary debate last week and to discuss reactions to former President Donald Trump's mug shot.

0:42: First Republican presidential primary debate

23:08: Donald Trump's interview with Tucker Carlson

32:17: Weekly Listener Question

55:34: Persistent back-to-school COVID measures

Mentioned in this podcast:

"There Were No Anti-Interventionist Candidates at the GOP Debate," by Christian Britschgi

"Nikki Haley Burned Trump and Her Fellow Republicans for Blowing Up the Debt. She's Right." by Eric Boehm

"A GOP Consensus Emerges: Militarize the Border," by Fiona Harrigan

"Nikki Haley Slams Biden's 'Green Subsidies,'" by Joe Lancaster

"Vivek Ramaswamy: 'The Only War I Will Declare…Is on the Administrative State,'" by Robby Soave

"Vivek Ramaswamy's Popular Incoherence," by Matt Welch

"Candidates Spar Over National Abortion Ban in First Republican Debate," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Tucker Carlson's Sycophantic Interview With Trump Illustrates the Advantages of Skipping the Debates," by Jacob Sullum

"Stop Publishing Mug Shots—Even Donald Trump's," by Billy Binion

"Baltimore Orioles Owners Demand Even More Unnecessary Taxpayer Money," by Jason Russell

"The Oakland Athletics Just Showed Why They Don't Need Taxpayers To Buy Their New Stadium," by Eric Boehm

"Voters Put Arizona Coyotes' Arena Project on Ice," by Eric Boehm

"Stadium Subsidy Stupidity Hits New Record," by Jason Russell

"The Expensive, Seductive Nostalgia of Field of Dreams," by Matt Welch

"Dozens of Colleges Still Require COVID Vaccines for Students," by Emma Camp

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

• Sometimes we're faced with a crossroads in life, and we don't know which path to take. Maybe you're thinking about a career change or feeling like your relationship needs some TLC. Whatever it is, therapy can help you map out your future, and trust yourself to find the way forward. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online and designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Let therapy be your map, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Good Omens 2

Eric Boehm

• Sleep No More

Zach Weissmueller

• Silo

Matt Welch

• The Band FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Fathers of Americana by Peter Aaron

---

Comments

[Fats of Fury]

All those people, worse than Hitler, in one room. I bet you guys were pretty scared.

[Mother's Lament]

Not as frightening as when the Mises faction took over the Libertarian party, but, by the grace of Koch, our brave heroes survived that,

[Olivahunter]

I'm making $90 an hour working from home. I never imagined that it was honest to goodness yet my closest companion is earning 16,000 US dollars a month by working on the connection, that was truly astounding for me, she prescribed for me to attempt it simply. Everybody must try this job now by just using this website... http://www.Payathome7.com

[Senater Tim Scott]

Speaking of the GOP (which is the political party of gay and Black men like Milo, Caitlin and Ye) today we lost another {honorary} Black man.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/us/politics/samuel-wurzelbacher-joe-the-plumber-dead.html

Taken down by Jews, the Soros Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and Big Pharma— in his prime by the Clot Shot. Terrible.

[Mother's Lament]

Quit sockpuppeting Shrike, FFS.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Not me.

I do have a low opinion of Senator Beetlejuice but I would prefer to ridicule him as The Buttplug.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Wait, I thought Beetlejiuce used to be mayor?

[Mother's Lament]

Jews

[Mother's Lament]

Frenchmen, sarcasmic.

[Senater Tim Scott]

Ugg… for a Black (don’t forget gay) man to be misidentified as a Hillary Clinton vagina sniffer like Shrike is definitive racism.

[Zeb]

This seems to be a different user from the one who is spoofing you and R Mac.
The "gay black republican" thing seems familiar.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Ye is black now?

Damn.

[Libertariantranslator]

Nothing any of those looters recite is relevant. The relevant stuff is in the party platform, the six-hour caudillo speech the party Whip binds them to vote by. LP spoiler votes trip up these flimflams by offering a short repeal platform drawing enough votes to topple Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich conspirators alike. Naral uses a similar approach. If some Christian Hitlerite votes a bill bullying women, they unseat a member of that team's coterie--not necessarily the same brutish coward. My support, for instance, now goes to Naral, not the Mises Anschluss that wrecked the LP platform.

[Mother's Lament]

"the Mises Anschluss that wrecked the LP platform"

Imagine how fucked up and butthurt you would have to be to actually compare Mises libertarians to Nazis.

[R Mac]

Hitler would have been a Republican and I would have voted for him.

[Mother's Lament]

Jews run everything.

[Mother's Lament]

Good for them. Wife-beating hillbilly child abusers from Maine on the other hand, can't even run their own lives.

[JesseAz]

My guess is when sarc started socking he forgot his password and is now stuck in sock mode.

[DesigNate]

Just fucking sad at this point.

[CE]

Well, there are at least 2 things about the debate that Reason didn't hate (without bothering to read or listen):

1. Nikki Haley (the Davos candidate)
2. No Trump

[soldiermedic76]

They likely hated Nicki's answer on abortion. Can't fear monger the fact that the is zero chance of getting 60 senators to vote for an abortion ban. She's right. She's also right that we will eventually have to have a real discussion without demonization and work out some form of compromise that ENB will assure us is a ban. I personally preferred Bergum's response, but I'm more a constitutionalist than a libertarian but there is definitely overlap.

[soldiermedic76]

If the USSC in Roe had ruled the 9A rather than the 14th it would have been much harder for me to argue for Roe's overturn. Much like the Commerce Clause the courts have definitely overstretched the 14A.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Huh, so I guess Tribal police don't have much love for Just Stop Oil.

[Public Entelectual]

“Wants to hand Crimea to Moscow”

It takes an idiot to raise a Potemkin Village

[MasterThief]

Obama did that already. The time to respond would have been then.

[Lena_Es]

Elections in 2024 will be truly hot, like the summer in Hawaii 2023! My candidate is not here

[Brandybuck]

Political Parties are like shopping baskets. If we had democracy instead of markets, then going into a grocery store would be like seeing two shopping carts full of groceries, but you MUST choose only one. Sure there are third party grocery carts, but you're just throwing your food stamps away if you pick one.

So the Democrat cart is full of tofu and veggie burgers and marmite, but also has Haagen Dasz and really good whine, er I mean wine. Plus a good assortment of heirloom veggies. On the flip side, the Republican cart has steak and bacon and Jimmy Dean sausages. But it also has Jimmy Dean sausages and off brand hotpockets canned spinach and sugary breakfast cereals and frozen dinners and those weird taco salad taco bowls.

Each basket has stuff you like, plus stuff you don't like. Which is why grocery stores should NOT be like democracy. We should be able to go in an pick and choose the individual items we want.

So of course the GOP debate had stuff we liked. It also has stuff we don't like. But it is a package deal, we can't get one without the other. And if we demand choice, if we choose Steak from the GOP basket and Wine from the Democrat basket, we are declared traitorously unamerican and should be ashamed of ourselves. Pick a basket and eat everything in it! And then tell everyone that you had a choice!