Republican candidates heart torture

The latest thing that we learned from the Republican presidential debates is that these candidates are really enthusiastic about torturing people and that they would reinstate waterboarding as an interrogation technique on their first day in office.  Furthermore, we learned that a Republican audience would wildly applaud and cheer such action.  None of this should be a surprise to anyone who has paid any sort of attention to these debates.

Throughout the debates, they have been all about who can stake out the craziest, most extreme position and stick to it.  Whoever wins this race to the bottom usually gets to be the frontrunner for that week or at least the one who gets the most buzz for the week.

The whole thing is beyond depressing.  How can anyone take any of these guys seriously?  They are not serious people.  They will do and say anything that they believe will give them the advantage with the Republican base, and, excuse me, but the Republican base is batshit crazy!  They are for letting people without medical insurance die in the street.  They are very much in favor of the death penalty. (They would probably like to extend it to jaywalking.)  They will boo a soldier who is serving this country in harm's way if he happens to be gay.  And they love the idea of torturing people with no restraint or guidelines on those activities.  And these are the people who will select the next Republican candidate for the presidency.

Even cranky old John McCain, who actually knows something about torture, was outraged at his party's candidates' stated support for waterboarding.  I didn't know he had the capacity to be outraged about anything any more.

These candidates for the presidency are so ill-informed, intellectually incurious, and completely without principle that the thought that one of them may actually become the leader of this nation is enough to make one break out in a cold sweat and rush to start packing one's bags to emigrate to Canada or Costa Rica.  At least those countries believe in having universal health insurance and not letting people die in the street because of lack of money for medical bills.  Plus, I believe they have a dim view of torture, too.  Two points which place them far above your average Republican on the evolutionary tree.

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