MICHAEL WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
DONALD TRUMP, Photo provided by MARISSA BURR | Opinion Editor
The second Republican debate was held on Sept. 27 and wow, what a real **** show it was.
At the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California (30 minutes outside of Los Angeles), candidates from all sides of the Republican Party came together to articulate a vision of their party without Trump. But Trump was able to take the center stage of the debate again.
When asked about immigration, candidates offered lines such as, “I would deploy troops onto the southern border” or, “I would declare an act of war against the Mexican government.”
In the segment on the economy, we heard one-liners such as, “People need to be picketing the White House for it’s economic policies” and, of course, “the debt is too high,” which is funny because the government provided essential services to keep low-income citizens alive to prevent us from living in a 2008-style crisis again.
Regarding healthcare, the focus was on reforming tort law, the type of law that protects healthcare companies. This would shield healthcare providers from lawsuits similar to how we shield police officers.
We lead the western world in police killings per capita and prisoners.
Not a good policy to pursue.
Last, but not least, we all had the honor of listening to Republicans moan about the “radical woke teachers” that are ending life as we know it on Earth, and ruining your kids with genderqueer fantasies.
It was a hot mess, topped with lots of politician-on-politician violence.
Anyone who watched it knows how important it is to not have curtains purchased by Obama in your office (yes, they really talked about that).
All in all, one of these people will probably be Trump’s second-in-command.
This is where things get interesting.
Trump could pick Vivek Ramaswamy or Marjorie Taylor Greene to lead the ticket with him. These are people who agree with him pound-for-pound on immigration, the economy and climate change.
This could be a disaster for Trump, or it could bring up his voters’ turnout rate to be even higher.
After all, we saw him increase his number of votes from 2016 to 2020 by moving further to the right on cultural issues.
With people not as excited to vote for Biden as they are for Trump, this could be a winning strategy, and Trump could avoid the struggles of choosing another Mike Pence-like running mate that could hamper his radical agenda. It’s crazy to call Mike Pence a moderate, but those are the times we live in. However, Trump could choose to run with Nikki Haley, another moderate candidate.
Nikki Haley has become a favorite with suburban women and moderates across America who are tired with Biden and Trump.
If a record number of people vote like they did in 2020, she could be the key ingredient that gives Trump a win in Pennsylvania or Michigan.
Will centrists suck it up and vote for Joe even if they don’t like his recent spending habits? Or will they vote for Trump if Nikki is close by, keeping him in check, or even being there to replace him if he can no longer carry out the job.
Trump has always been one for the spotlight, and who knows if he could be capable of putting his ego aside to do what’s best for him.