US polls: The fourth Republican debate and conservatism

Many non-Americans find the Republican presidential debates difficult to follow. This would be truer for people from the developing nations; in particular, in the way the candidates have debated on socialism, a concept that is assuming great significance in the way the Republicans are shaping to fight the Democrats. Most people from the developing nations, whether their respective countries have socialist governments or not, have respect for socialism because it opposes "the appropriation of resources and power by the few" and "share them equally among the population." The Republicans are posturing to vilify the Democrats as socialists and win the White House.
Socialism is now a pariah word among the Republicans. Thus in the fourth debate of the Republicans that was held on Tuesday, November 10, socialism came up for some real bashing, ridicule and hate mongering. It is McCarthyism all over again; only in place of communism it is now socialism that is under attack.
Carly Fiorina explained why socialism is detestable. She said that government creates problems then steps in to solve it to open the door for socialism. She used the real estate boom that both Democrat and Republican administrations encouraged when Americans bought houses even when they could not afford to fulfil the American Dream. She said that when that bubble began to burst, "it was President GW Bush who pushed larger banks to buy smaller ones in an effort to solve the problem." Carly Fiorina explained, "this is how Socialism starts" where the government gets bigger and expands its activities by a set of deliberate actions to interfere more and more into the affairs of the individuals.
She showed the way and the other candidates followed on how to save the country from socialism. They all stated that the way is to strip Washington of most of its powers and return it to the people. Through the debates so far and in particular with the last one, these candidates have pushed the idea that the country should go back to the same spirit that had existed when 13 independent colonies had gotten together to form the US Government, where the colonies had thought that the federal government would be at their call and not the other way around.
In such an attempt, the candidates have entered into a no holds barred fight with one another to establish that he/she represents the true conservative spirit. Thus Senator Marco Rubio passionately debated for less government in the spirit of the founding fathers until others reminded him of his track record of supporting high military spending that in fact is one major reason why the federal government has not just become huge but also one through which it establishes a lot of its power that the conservatism spirit rejects. In fact, in trying to establish true conservative spirit, the candidates not just spoke against their own party but also managed to confuse the viewers about what that true conservative spirit really is. Most of them appeared as confused over what the true spirit of conservatism is as the viewers they tried to convince.
The fourth debate was billed to be on economics and less on the personalities. In the end, however, it was again like the previous ones; on personalities and issues such as immigration and foreign affairs. The two leading the pack, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, mystified many viewers on how they could be leading by good margins. Donald Trump has used the "worst ever" words as the trump card to describe everything that President Obama did in international affairs like the Iran deal that to him is the "worst ever" deal signed by the US. But this time the "worst ever" card landed him in a great deal of embarrassment when it came to the Trans-Pacific Trade Pact (TTP). He described it as the "worst ever" because China will use it for a back door entry to harm US interests blissfully unaware that the TPP has been designed by the US with 11 other countries to unitedly fight China in international trade!
Ben Carson, who has recently been exposed for lying in his book "Gifted Hands" that he was offered a "full scholarship" to West Point (West Point is a fully funded academy at taxpayer's money), said in the debate that the Chinese are in Syria with the Russians. That, of course, is totally incorrect but no other candidate in the debate seemed to know that Ben Carson had made a stupendous blunder. The moderators too appeared to be unaware of the truth. In fact, Ben Carson made the reference to China in the midst of some unbelievable gibberish he uttered while criticising the Obama administration's policy in Syria.
The Republican debates so far have harmed the Party because the candidates have fought against one another in establishing their conservative credentials. Their extreme and unrealistic positions on issues to prove their conservative credentials and the fight they indulged to do that underlined that they had really no clear idea of what they debated and to the audience what they said was little more than rhetoric. The Republican agenda such as on restricting the powers of the federal government was supported by many outside the Party in the past. Many non-Republican voters supported the Party in federal elections because of the element of compassion in Republican conservatism. President GW Bush benefited from such a perception of Republican conservatism in getting elected in 2000.
The worst economic depression in recent memory hit the country as a result of the war on terror and that changed the perception of the extreme right in the Party about conservatism. The federal government under President GW Bush had to spend US$ 700 billion in the Wall Street bailout in 2008. That bailout angered the extreme right to start the Tea Party movement whose main aim, since it emerged in 2009, has been to curtail the power of Washington as much as possible. The Tea Party movement is now a major force in the Party. In fact, the Republican candidates in their debates thus far have generally highlighted this Tea Party spirit, some wittingly others unwittingly, as the true conservative spirit. In fact, given the way some of the candidates have spoken on the immigration, income tax and healthcare, many voters who had voted for the party in the past because they believed that Republican conservatism was tampered with compassion now see the compassion has been replaced by heartlessness.
Thus the Republican Party would need to do a lot between now and election time to remove the growing perception of heartlessness in Republican conservatism. To do that the party must show the door to the two leaders Donald Trump, who is primarily responsible for stamping heartlessness into Republican conservatism, and Dr. Ben Carson that could be difficult because they lead the pack of candidates handsomely.  Using Hillary Clinton, upon whom the candidates spent a lot of the time in the last debate, and socialism as the arch evils may bring a great deal of hurrahs in the Republican debates but will certainly not show the Republican Party the way to the White House.
The writer is a retired Ambassador.
 [email protected]