# March 3rd Republican debate **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875 "2016-03-03T23:10:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/141 "2016-03-04T18:30:46Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > They should cancel the remaining debates and schedule a series of pie fights. It would contain the same amount of issue-based discussion, and be more dignified. Honestly, did anyone get anything out of last night’s debate (aside from jokes about white flecks and Trump’s dick)? What a waste of time. Garbage candidates and garbage audience (amazingly, the Fox moderators were the high point despite their obvious attempts at Trump gotchas). If I was the RNC, I’d want to pull the plug on these things – they only serve to embarrass the party at this point. I felt worse for having watched it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/142 "2016-03-04T18:47:40Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > So you prefer the old days when the States didn’t vote for their delegates? The “old days” as I understand it involved a lot of behind-the-scenes control by party bosses and so lots of potential for corruption. The kind of system I described is a lot more transparent. Is it good or bad to have a system where the front-runner and presumptive nominee is a shock to the party establishment and is fracturing the very foundations of the party? I suppose it depends. In this case, when said presumptive nominee is a national and international laughingstock and a dangerous idiot, it’s clearly pretty bad. Moreover, the system appears to have rejected one of the reasonable moderates along with various lunatics, and is giving the remaining reasonable moderate basically zero chance of a nomination. Also pretty bad. No system is perfect but as I see it, since voters don’t always make wise choices it’s good to have a system that maximizes the chances of turning out reasonable candidates, so that the worst candidate they can pick is still going to be a half-decent leader and is not going to be a conniving lying populist demagogue. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Parliamentary systems have a primary system, it just occurs at the Party level, when they vote for their Party leader. Sure, but you can’t really call them “primaries” because (at least in the systems I know of) it’s not the general electorate that participates, it’s the party organization. That’s crucial difference #1. They elect delegates at the electoral district level who then vote for the party leader from among the declared candidates at a leadership convention. Furthermore, this only occurs when a new leader has to be selected and is completely independent of election cycles – a leader remains in place as long as the party wants him. That’s crucial difference #2. Either way, all that stuff is done and over with long before election season begins and campaigning starts, hence campaigns tend to be relatively short. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/143 "2016-03-04T18:56:37Z")
Yeah if anything I would say Parliamentary parties have a caucus system. It’s always a party run election for the local rep and the party establishment and leader has a lot more authority. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/144 "2016-03-04T20:13:24Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > They should cancel the remaining debates and schedule a series of pie fights. It would contain the same amount of issue-based discussion, and be more dignified. I dunno, I think the _gravitas_ of a caged nude one-man-leaves Jell-O wrestling match would be more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/145 "2016-03-04T20:32:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I dunno, I think the _gravitas_ of a caged nude one-man-leaves Jell-O wrestling match would be more appropriate. No one wants to see that. Now, if each candidate were championed by a nubile bikini babe, well, that’s a whole 'nother kettle of fish. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/146 "2016-03-04T20:37:29Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I thought you said Cruz didn’t eat it. LOL, ISWYDT. Meanwhile, the Onion proves its prescience, regarding Drumpf’s tiny, shriveled, non-functioning member: [http://www.theonion.com/article/donald-trump-stares-forlornly-at-tiny-aged-penis-i-28589](http://www.theonion.com/article/donald-trump-stares-forlornly-at-tiny-aged-penis-i-28589) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/147 "2016-03-04T20:44:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Jesus Christ, the guy has never actually held political office and he’s already “an authoritarian thug”. This is as much about celebrity as anything else. Joe Schmoe could have the same platform as Trump, and he’d get nowhere. > > I can’t see that there anything about the process that has produced Trump. People like him. Mostly because “he’s Trump”, and he’s outside the system. He plays to people’s fears, but that makes him a demagogue, not “an authoritarian thug” Supporting and encouraging his proto-Brownshirts at his rallies to attack protesters and kicking out people who are just standing there AT THEIR OWN UNIVERSITY makes him an authoritarian thug. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-3rd-republican-debate/747875/148 "2016-03-04T20:50:27Z")
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