The first GOP presidential debate was held on August 23 in Milwaukee.  Present were eight candidates whose combined polling was less than that of Donald Trump.  For two hours, they talked about being the future of the Republican Party: how they would boost the economy, lower inflation, secure the border, and improve education.

Trump already did that.  And what he's talking about now, in appearances that draw many times the number who attended the first debate, isn't just undoing Biden's mistakes and doing what he did before all over again, but even more.  Trump has a vision beyond anything the eight little voices are capable of: a vision of returning America to its citizens and unleashing growth and opportunity beyond anything seen before, anywhere. 

The eight little voices had their carefully prepared remarks on how to restore America, but they were only words without a great man's forcefulness and will.  Vivek Ramaswamy did indeed sound a bit like ChatGPT, as Chris Christie charged.  Ramaswamy argued that climate change is a hoax, a point I agree with, but he failed to back up the claim with convincing detail.  Nikki Haley seemed to think she was entitled to the nomination because she was the only woman on the stage.  The day after the debate, no one could remember anything Tim Scott said.

For the most part, the candidates were just sniping at one another instead of presenting a compelling case for their nomination.  Pence thoughtlessly argued that Vivek is too young, others too old; he, Pence, is just right in terms of age.  By that logic, Reagan was too old, Kennedy too young, Nixon just right.

Nikki Haley's assertion that "if you want to get something done...ask a woman" was just silly, as was her attack on Ramaswamy for "no foreign policy experience."  Haley's foreign policy experience consists of a year or so of service as U.N. ambassador, not materially different from Ramaswamy's. 

Doug Burgum and Tim Scott didn't even have one memorable statement for me to rebut.

Ron DeSantis was the most convincing of the eight voices, establishing his position as second to Trump.  The left realizes that DeSantis offers a serious threat to Biden.  That's why leftists are already mulling the idea of charges against DeSantis for bussing migrants out of Florida, "in violation of their civil rights" — when the migrants themselves requested to be bussed.

Every candidate spoke of securing the border, but Trump had done so, or was well on his way to, when Biden crept into office and reversed his policies and his wall-building.  Voices can talk, but only Trump eliminated two regulations for each new one signed.  Even with her clever performance, I can't imagine Nikki Haley (or Asa Hutchinson) striking fear into the hearts of Putin and Chairman Xi.  Trump did.

Inevitably, abortion came up as a topic.  The eight little voices parsed their words, positioning themselves for the primaries to come.  When he said we cannot allow abortion "right up to the moment of birth," DeSantis was right, but what about three or six or nine months before birth?  When Haley objected that "you can't put a woman in jail" for having an abortion, she was reinforcing the idea that she is the only female candidate.  So what?  There's no Eskimo candidate at all.

All in all, the debate was a big waste of time.  Approximately 20 million Americans watched the debate, or, more likely, slept through it.  According to Reuters, former president Trump attracted "more than 74 million views" to his "counter-debate" discussion with Tucker Carlson on platform X.

Trump's discussion was highly articulate, substantive, and reasonable.  None of the candidates on Wednesday's stage presented such an engaging and fluent case for his candidacy.  Each of the eight little voices has appeared in one-on-one interviews on Fox News and other channels, and each of them sounds like an elementary-level pupil compared to Trump.

In his X interview, which ought to have aired on every major TV and cable channel, Trump's intelligence and command of the facts come across in spades.  Compared to what happened in Milwaukee, Trump's interview was a treasure trove of knowledge, experience, and vision, and it was more than words.  When Trump spoke of ending the war in Ukraine, he meant it, and one can believe that it will happen.

The eight little voices are just setting us up for failure and defeat because there is no gravitas behind what they say.  With four years out of office to contemplate his moves, Trump will be chillingly effective.  The left won't permit a Trump-Biden debate, but the contrast will be obvious, even without one.

It's because the left fears him that Trump is under four indictments, facing hundreds of years of prison time.  Prosecutors could just as easily have brought charges against former V.P. Pence for withholding classified documents or against others, perhaps, for financial missteps.  But it's only Trump who interests liberal prosecutors because he is the force to be reckoned with.  Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson, even Tim Scott, aren't much of a threat.  But if Trump won the election in 2020, as I believe he did, he can do so again, and by a margin great enough to make election fraud more difficult.  Of course they want to encumber him with false charges right through the primaries and the general election.

And now there's evidence that Trump's prosecutors have acted for political purposes.  Back in Feb. 2022, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg suspended his prosecution "indefinitely" as two top investigators resigned amid charges that the prosecution was political in nature.  Fulton County D.A. Fanni Willis is facing impeachment by the Georgia state Legislature for doing the same.  U.S. House Republicans defending Trump labeled Willis a "junior varsity prosecutor from a county filled with crime and corruption."

Along with Bragg and Willis, Special Counsel Jack Smith and N.Y. attorney general Letitia James have brought charges against former president Trump, all of them apparently timed to correspond with the presidential election cycle.  The evidence of election interference is compelling when four cases, each involving numerous charges that could have been brought years ago, are brought forward in the midst of the presidential election.

The left is terrified of Trump but not really worried about the eight little voices on Wednesday's debate stage.  At this point, there is no serious challenge to Trump's nomination.  We'll see how the primaries play out, but, based on what we saw in the first GOP debate, it appears that Trump will be the Republican candidate.

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.