Editorial: We hope GOP debate will spotlight issues, not silliness

It’s almost un-Californian to get in the way of good show biz. Still, as the Republican presidential hopefuls prepare for their debate tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, we wonder: Is it too soon to plead for some dignity?

In a campaign that’s supposed to be about electing the leader of the free world, we’ve seen more antics in the past few months than in the last few elections put together.

Donald Trump calling Carly Fiorina unfit to be president because of her face. Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz vying for proximity to a lawbreaking Kentucky county clerk and her fourth husband. Sarah Palin, who’s not even a candidate, jumping on the Trump bandwagon, urging immigrants to speak “American,” apparently as opposed to Jeb Bush’s second language, Spanish.

Some of this is to be expected. Some is even entertaining, if only to Democrats. But at some point, the public has to get a sense of how the candidates would lead. There hasn’t been much room for that, so far.

Other than the odd word-in-edgewise – John Kasich’s stirring and intelligent defense of Medicaid, Bush’s reasoned defense of his record on education, Marco Rubio’s defense of legal immigration – the last debate was a jangly hodgepodge of insults, references to God and random references to taxes and tithing.

Voters, we hope, want serious answers. What are the Republican contenders prepared to do about climate change? Do they believe it’s a human-caused problem? What solutions do they have for the drought that has left the West so devastated, or the wildfires that are raging?

Also, how do we embrace our booming technology without creating a nation of haves and have-nots? And how about some details on immigration? What about the real elephant in the GOP room, the nation’s 21st century evolution toward California-style diversity and the accompanying nativism that has arisen among poorer white voters?

The media deserves some of the blame for letting the examination of serious issues be drowned out. Trump’s antics, in particular, have proven too telegenic for reporters to resist.

But the democratic process shouldn’t be forced into the service of one narcissist’s neurosis. The presidency is an office that the American people revere; it demeans it to pretend the job is just some simplistic shtick involving yelling, pandering and religion.

Would President Dwight D. Eisenhower jockey to get into a photo with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis? Would President Ronald Reagan stand outside the U.S. Capitol, braying that the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiating team was “very, very stupid”?

Of course not. Most Americans wouldn’t either.

The Republican field does have candidates who see governance as a job, not a performance. Here’s hoping that tonight one or more will forget about show business and get down to the people’s business.

Summer on the campaign trail is often a silly season, but summer is ending. It’s time to shine the spotlight on something besides silliness.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Editorial: We hope GOP debate will spotlight issues, not silliness."