So the Republicans are three for three now. In each debate, the narrowed minded audience cheered or booed something to make the rest of the country cringe. I am just now sure why the GOP continues to cater to this small subset of their party while alienating everyone else.

During the GOP debate on Thursday night, host Megyn Kelly played a Youtube clip for a question to Rick Santorum. The clip was a question from Stephen Hill, a soldier in Iraq who, up until this week, had to “lie about who [he] was” in order to serve in the army. Hill asked if Santorum would reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

After the clip with Hill was played, several members of the audience booed him. Someone could also be heard yelling “faggot.” Nice reaction for the party that “supports the troops.” Santorum response was not much better. “I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.

The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to, and removing don’t ask don’t tell. I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing: to defend our country… “

Kelly asked Santorum what he would do with soldiers like Stephen Hill. “What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That’s tragic. I would just say that going forward we would reinstitute that policy if Rick Santorum was president. That policy would be re-instituted as far as people in, I would not throw them out because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration.

But we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past. Which was- sex is not an issue. It should not be an issue. Leave it alone. Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual. “

Although Santorum never denounced the audience’s absurd reaction, other GOP candidates did the next day. Jon Huntsman told Talking Points Memo that the booing was “unfortunate.” A Perry representative, also called the incident “very unfortunate.”

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The GOP debate on Thursday night was, once again, an attack on Texas governor Rick Perry. In the past, candidates have gone after the governor for his HPV vaccination in the state. On Thursday, it was about immigration.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum first attacked Perry over immigration. “I would say that he is soft on illegal immigration,” Santorum said. “He doesn’t want to build a fence. He gave a speech in 2001 where he talked about binational health insurance between Mexico and Texas. I mean, I don’t even think Barack Obama would be for binational health insurance.”

Santorum called Perry “very weak on this issue of American sovereignty and protecting our borders and not being a magnet for illegal immigration.” Perry defended his stance on immigration, especially a policy where he allows children of undocumented workers to receive in-state tuition costs at public colleges.

He said that the other Republicans who opposed in-state tuition for children of illegals were heartless. “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said.

Romney pointed out that students from states outside Texas have to pay full tuition, putting holes in Perry’s logic. “If you’re a United States citizen from any one of the other 49 states, you have to pay $100,000 more. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Romney said. Perry had some awkward moments throughout the debate and seemed to be off his game.

Pausing and struggling to answer some questions. And the polls reflect that performance. A focus group run by Fox News said after the debate that Romney was the clear winner, and that Perry lost a large degree of support. Romney’s poise, confidence and specificity is beginning to impress voters.  Surprisingly, Santorum is also gaining support.

He had another strong performance during the debate. Rep. Michele Bachmann is already fading to obscurity as Republican voters are starting to see the electability problems she has.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/

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It is easy to forget that some Americans, apparently Tea Party members, believe that uninsured people should actually die rather than the United States providing any form of help. That fact was startling clear on Monday night during the Republican debate.

Late in the debate, CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer posed a hypothetical question to Rep. Ron Paul from Texas. “What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?” Wolf Blitzer asked. The audience actually cheered at the idea of letting someone die because they don’t have health insurance.

This is the world we now live, allowing other humans to die rather than have some damn socialist system is preferable. Paul interrupted the cheering to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing.

“We never turned anybody away from the hospital,” he said of his volunteer work for churches and his career as a doctor. “We have given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves, assume responsibility for ourselves … that’s the reason the cost is so high.” There are countless examples of people dying because they don’t have health insurance.

This is not a novel idea. It is a reality in everyday America. We can pump out our chests and talk about how proud we are to be an American, but a country that allows 45,000 citizens to die each year because they don’t have the money it not a place I am proud of.

Just the other day, there was another heart-wrenching story about a young girl who died with a very treatable condition because she was uninsured. A ten-year old girl was sent home from the emergency room by two different doctors on two different days, even though during her second visit she was blue around her mouth and nose, had difficulty breathing and couldn’t pee.

She was diagnosed with the “worst kidney infection” this particular doctor had ever seen. The girl died the next day. Although Paul may have an idealistic idea of a free society, that is not what happens. Clearly. Maybe people are not turned away for not having insurance, but they aren’t given the best care either.

I don’t want to live in a society where it is celebrated that people die because they live in the wrong socioeconomic bracket.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/eriklandru/

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The second Republican debate of this month was held on Monday night in Tampa, Florida. Candidates spent much of the night attacking frontrunner Texas governor Rick Perry. Perry defended his controversial views on social security despite attacks from Mitt Romney.

“We have not had the courage to stand up and look Americans in the face” to tell them that “this is a broken system,” Perry said of Social Security in the opening minutes of the debate among eight Republican presidential contenders at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

When asked if he believed states should run social security, instead of the federal government as he proposed in his book last year, Perry skillfully dodged the question. Perry said it was time for “thoughtful conversations with Americans, rather than trying to scare seniors, as you’re doing.” “The term ‘Ponzi scheme’ is what scared seniors,” countered Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Former Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania criticized Perry for his views on immigration. Perry defended his policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition in Texas. “No matter what the sound of your last name, we believe in you,” he said, drawing some boos from the crowd.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is currently struggling to stay in the race, attacked Perry again for his controversial executive order of requiring the human papilloma virus, or HPV, vaccination for young girls in Texas. “If I had to do it over again, I would have done it differently,” Perry said, saying he should have consulted the Legislature on the issue.

Bachmann suggested that Perry passed the order because of campaign contributions. Perry stated that the pharmaceutical company, Merck, had given him only $5,000 of his $30 million campaign war chest.”If you’re saying I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended,” Perry said. “I’m offended for all the little girls who didn’t have a choice” to receive the vaccine, Bachmann replied.

Other participants tried to maintain relevance in the debate. Romney and Perry debated about who can create the most jobs as president. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich pointed out that the government does not create jobs, but that people do. Other participants included former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, Herman Cain, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and Rep. Ron Paul from Texas.

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