It sure seems this year — especially (but not solely) on the GOP side of the race, that it's reached new heights. Perhaps because Republicans have been so used to just lambasting Obama, claiming whatever the heck they find sound bitey, but never having to actually formulate alternatives, that it just remains more comfortable to do so.
Take this case, and the oldest bugbear in the Republican handbook regarding the current administration: Obamacare. Aside from handwaving about how "millions have lost their jobs" (which is, to put it judiciously, a lie — http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/29/ted-cruz/ted-cruzs-pants-fire-claim-health-care-law-nations/), Cruz still has nothing about what he would do for the folk who now have health insurance that didn't before.
Cruz says he has to "lay out the problems with the law first," as if the GOP hasn't been doing so since before it was passed.
I noticed this watching the GOP debate the other night. Candidate after candidate was ranting and raving over the existential, apocalytic threat of ISIS and how we had to (a) beef up our military again and (b) free them to do whatever it takes to win. Which sounds good until you ask any of them what that really means? How many more billions need to be added to the defense budget, and where will those come from? How many hundreds of thousands of US troops need to have "boots on the ground" in Syria and Iraq, and what precisely will they be doing there? What level of civilian casualties from carpet bombings are acceptable in order to try and wipe out Da'esh?
They don't have an answer[1] because they apparently they don't need one. They only need to shout about FEAR and ISIS and OBAMA and GUTTING OUR MILITARY and MILLIONS HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS … and, hey presto, time to move onto the next question.
It's going to be a loooooong election.
—
[1] Though, God help me, Jeb! Bush actually talked about concrete policies regarding Da'esh at the debate this past week. Which everyone promptly ignored because nobody thinks Jeb! can actually win the nomination any more.
Uncomfortable Question for Ted Cruz on Obamacare Silences the Room
A Hillary Clinton supporter whose brother-in-law, uninsured until the Affordable Care Act, died of cancer, asked Senator Ted Cruz what he would replace the law with if he dismantled it.
