Grand Old Party not so grand these days

The Republican Party is at it again.

It’s as if the Grand Old Party (GOP) never learns its lesson. From Donald Trump’s lashes against other candidates to former businesswoman Carly Fiorina’s lies about Planned Parenthood videos, the GOP is running riot with the bad publicity. It’s a party comprised of candidates  who are instilling fear rather than inspiring Americans.

Trump has gained the most publicity for his comments, especially his call to register all Muslims in America, but the debates this fall have been instructive in learning about the GOP mind-set.

Following the Republican Party debate in Colorado on Oct. 28, candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Mike Huckabee and Trump aimed fire at CNBC over the content of the questions asked during the debate.

The main argument that Republicans had against CNBC was that the Democratic national debate that happened just a few weeks earlier didn’t have questions that were nearly as harsh.  

According to Fox News reporter Sean Hannity, a rabid conservative, the questions asked during the Democratic debate were comparable to asking, “What’s your favorite color?” or “What’s your favorite dog’s name?” Hannity’s claims follow suit with not only his previous lies on national television but also the recent antics of the Republican party. It took “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah proving Hannity wrong by showing that all of the questions asked in the Democratic debate were as tough, if not tougher, to rebut Hannity’s egregious claims.

Noah rolled a clip of moderator Anderson Cooper asking questions to the Democratic candidates, including one of the most pressing questions of all to Bernie Sanders, “How can a Socialist even win an election?”

The GOP has, of recent, become a comical group. Not only are its candidates complaining without substance about the questions they are being asked, but they are also trying to hide their nervousness from the audience.

According to a report from CNN, the GOP candidates requested that the temperature in the debate hall be set at 67 degrees so the “viewers wouldn’t have to see them sweat.”

At one point in the latest GOP debate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio cemented the GOP’s reputation as a comic book party when they got into a petty argument regarding each other’s personal reputations. Bush, having fallen to the level of having to down others to make himself seem better my comparison, accused Rubio of being a bad senator and intentionally skipping out on voting, a technique he clearly picked up from Trump.

The GOP has also gained unwanted attention outside of the debate.

In a recent interview, Republican candidate and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson claimed that he was not always soft-spoken and was actually a violent teenager. Anecdotes of his include him having almost attacked his own mother with a hammer and attempting to stab his friend with a knife.

In doing so, his main goal was likely to prove that he is indeed a product of American self-reinvention and can sympathize with people going through similar hardships. However, immediately after, several reports questioned whether or not this claim was true. He had to cover his tracks and try and reassure skeptics that he really was a violent kid in order to save face.

Has it gotten so bad for the GOP that its candidates have to make the choice between having a violent past or being a liar?

Carson has also been in the hot seat for calling out the debate moderators after the third  debate.

“Debates are supposed to be established to help the people get to know the candidate,” Carson said, according to The Washington Post. “What it’s turned into is — gotcha! That’s silly. That’s not helpful to anybody.”

According to Carson’s business manager, Armstrong Williams, CNBC’s question to Carson that he was referring to, “wasn’t a gotcha one but an absolutely fair one.”

And if it’s not Ben, it’s Trump.

Due to recent terrorist attacks by ISIS, Trump has stated that all Muslims living in the United States need to be registered. How can the United States progress racially if one of the potential presidents is intent on setting aside Muslims as a separate group?

The candidates prove just how comical the GOP has become. And if one of these candidates is the next one to sit in the White House, it’s anyone’s guess what will become of the country.