The Republican debates are now at full speed and getting pretty heated. There are a lot of topics flying around that really raise some good questions.
Last month, CNN’s John King was the moderator for the Republican debate in the South. He started off the debate by asking former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about previous allegations concerning his ex-wife and open marriage, something that happened around twenty years ago.
Newt Gingrich fired back saying, “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that” (The Huffington Post).
I absolutely loved the way that Gingrich replied to those statements. Debates are not supposed to get personal. Some people might want to know his ethical views and moral values, but that is a completely irrelevant topic for a presidential debate, just like Gingrich said. That scandal, if you want to call it that, is way in the past. It happened twenty years ago and it makes me wonder how it had anything to do with what was being discussed at the debate.
I believe that the Republican debates should be focusing on more important topics, like the economic disparity that is happening in this country right now. That is the really problem that is going through American citizens’ heads right now, not Gingrich’s personal life. If the Republicans continue to debate and talk about topics like that, I would not be surprised at all if people started to side with the Democrats.
These debates are really starting to show the corrupt nature of politics in America today. What ever happened to the politics of the old days back when candidates would actually debate about stuff that the people cared about, when they would fight for what the people wanted? Today, candidates are trying to take stabs at each other’s personal lives while neglecting to talk about hot topics in today’s society.
Now, this opinion may be viewed as extreme or as an overreaction, but I am glad that Gingrich’s supporters were not fazed by these allegations (MSNBC). It would be a shame to see a candidate get defeated because some moderator wanted to start off by getting personal. Gingrich said that those allegations were not true, so it should be kept at that. Move on to more important topics.