So the third Republican primary debate took place on October 28, and it’s an understatement to say it was an improvement from the last round. It seemed that the candidates had respect for others this time, which was a nice breath of fresh air.
Before I get into my opinions, I’d like to frame this rant around something called the moral matrix. The moral matrix, as articulated by Jonathan Haidt in his TED talk, defines the factors that lead people to the morals they value the most. Those factors are harm/care, purity/sanctity, authority, fairness, and in-group loyalty. It’s a little more complicated to republicans because they generally value all five of these factors, while democrats tend to focus mostly on harm/care and fairness.
With that in mind, let’s proceed. Although I’m very hesitant in naming a “winner” of the debate, there were a few that were definitely not, at least not from the obvious standpoint. Let’s begin with Ted Cruz, who gave up his entire 60 seconds of allotted time to fire back at the moderators. Cruz voiced that, “this is not a cage match…look at the questions- ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?’ ‘Ben Carson, can you do math?’ ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?’ ‘Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?” Marco Rubio and Chris Christie quickly joined, where Christie added that “even in New Jersey what you’re doing is called rude.” To some, this interjection may seem like a waste of everyone’s time and a way to get out of answering a question, but to them, Cruz, Rubio, and Christie stood up for fairness and possibly in-group loyalty. These three believed that the questions being asked were not fair to the competitors and they stood up for their group (republican candidates) to try to change what they saw as unjust.
So even though these three seemed to be some of the “losers” of this debate because they wasted their time on other things besides answering the questions, in their minds, they stood up for their morals, which is the best prize one can win.
Democratic debate is coming up next, stay tuned!
Before I get into my opinions, I’d like to frame this rant around something called the moral matrix. The moral matrix, as articulated by Jonathan Haidt in his TED talk, defines the factors that lead people to the morals they value the most. Those factors are harm/care, purity/sanctity, authority, fairness, and in-group loyalty. It’s a little more complicated to republicans because they generally value all five of these factors, while democrats tend to focus mostly on harm/care and fairness.
With that in mind, let’s proceed. Although I’m very hesitant in naming a “winner” of the debate, there were a few that were definitely not, at least not from the obvious standpoint. Let’s begin with Ted Cruz, who gave up his entire 60 seconds of allotted time to fire back at the moderators. Cruz voiced that, “this is not a cage match…look at the questions- ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?’ ‘Ben Carson, can you do math?’ ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?’ ‘Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?” Marco Rubio and Chris Christie quickly joined, where Christie added that “even in New Jersey what you’re doing is called rude.” To some, this interjection may seem like a waste of everyone’s time and a way to get out of answering a question, but to them, Cruz, Rubio, and Christie stood up for fairness and possibly in-group loyalty. These three believed that the questions being asked were not fair to the competitors and they stood up for their group (republican candidates) to try to change what they saw as unjust.
So even though these three seemed to be some of the “losers” of this debate because they wasted their time on other things besides answering the questions, in their minds, they stood up for their morals, which is the best prize one can win.
Democratic debate is coming up next, stay tuned!