Quote:Here is where you and I differ.  The social issues mean very little to me.  I wish the Republican party would stop talking so much about Planned Parenthood because even though the issue is important, it's NOT the THE issue that most (sane) people are worried about.

 

I didn't hear anything about DHS or NSA stuff during the debate.

It was mid-debate. Sanders in particular blasted the NSA's warrantless recording and indefinite saving of virtually every phone call made in this country, and blasted the private sector's harvesting, saving and exploiting of personal information as well. His end point was that consideration has to be given to national security, but national security should not override our Constitutional rights. I was sold at that point, because it's exactly what Rand Paul would say.

 

Social issues are a secondary concern for me as well. My issue with them isn't so much that people think differently from me and feel passionate about those issues, it's that GOP candidates are talking about how they're going to waste inordinate amounts of time and resources trying to overturn every Supreme Court verdict since Van Staphorst v. Maryland during their debates instead of talking about the issues. The Democratic stage was more or less interested in just leaving things alone. I'm sure that's influenced a great deal by the fact that the "liberal" point of view has been owning the day with this "conservative" Court and they don't feel a need to change anything, but it is nice to see a 2.5 hour debate with five minutes total spent on abortion, rather than a 2.5 hour debate with each candidate making a five-minute speech of their own on abortion (Huckabee taking twice as long). Amazingly enough, I don't agree with everything that the Supreme Court handed down last year, but I think there are more important things to worry about. That's kind of why I like Kasich. He acknowledges that decisions he disagrees with were made, but he isn't interested in spending a ton of time and effort trying to force "overturn" cases through or wasting everyone's time on attempted Constitutional amendments.

 

Quote:Tell that to the families of the service members killed in Chattanooga.

 

#1 security threat is our porous southern border.  Next in line is a nuclear enabled regime in an unstable part of the world.

1. I would. Know why? Because it's the truth. You're four times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you are to die from terrorism. The fact that anyone dies in terrorist attacks is horrible and disgusting, but the attacks in Chattanooga, Charleston, Oregon, all of those are factored into the numbers, and the numbers indicate that a guy with a bomb strapped to his chest probably won't walk into your office tomorrow and take out the entire block.

 

2. The Mexican border? Really? No way. The biggest security threat facing America is increasing polarization of the Middle East. Every nation that falls under ISIS control has to be considered a very real threat to Americans in the Middle East and, possibly in time, Americans at home.

 

Quote:Edited my post.  It is not the most important issue at all.  If Sanders and Clinton directly addressed the NSA it must have been at the end.  I've heard enough of all of their nonsense not to mention how CNN was putting the focus clearly on Hillary and Sanders with very little opportunity for the other candidates to share their views.  It was pretty clear that they didn't like Jim Webb.

Sanders and Webb appeared to get along pretty well, actually, and frequently complemented each other. Chaffee kind of sat on the end waiting his turn, O'Malley took every opportunity to stop appearing to be a fool by opening his mouth and removing all doubt, and Hillary, well, aside from endorsing Bernie Sanders after his response about her email scandal, seemed to generally dislike anyone not named "Hillary Clinton".

 

I should note regarding my change of heart on Hillary's emails: I still think that what she did was a huge mistake, and I have no respect for her decision to cover it up rather than publicly admit that she screwed up. I essentially stopped caring after Kevin McCarthy's well-publicized comments (that didn't have a thread here, hmm) about using the Benghazi committee to damage Hillary's campaign. At that point, any and all public attacks on Hillary Clinton became partisan white noise for me, little more than abuse of the press (and the DOJ) by a Republican Party desperate to slow down a juggernaut. I would still not consider voting for Hillary Clinton under any circumstance, but the "charge her with treason" bullcrap lost all credibility when Republican leadership admitted that the whole thing was a witch trial.

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