Great TV night last night. Republican debate, which I think was very well produced and #JonVoyage, which I think was <literally> perfect. It’s funny.. thematically speaking (to me), #JonVoyage represented everything that’s right about the world, and the Republican debate represented everything that’s not so right.. ok, a work in progress.. fine, wrong.

The latter part of that isn’t meant as a dig at a political party, or viewpoint on life. But #JonVoyage was a celebration of the new way our society can approach the challenges ahead – intelligent debate and discussion, devoid of ulterior (many times financially influenced) motives. As he said, most everything we encounter has been influenced by bullshit, it’s our job as citizens to be vigilant, sniff it out, and get to the heart of issues.

Cut to the Republican debate (and believe me, I’d have a similar viewpoint if it was a Democratic debate) and we have a bunch of (mostly) career politicians, who’ve grown up in the political machine, yipping back and forth about the issues of the day, with the sole motive of coming out looking the best, vs actually solving any problems. The only freshness I saw in the Republican debate came from Rand Paul.

Here are my other takeaways:

• Trump was comical, but outclassed. I don’t expect a non-politician to be a master debater (uhh thank you), but it didn’t seem to me that he put any prep time into it, and it showed. This will mark the beginning of his exit from the race.
• Rand Paul scratches me where I itch. He’s a non-republican, conservative. He made a great point in closing, “I’m the only one who leads Hillary Clinton in 5 states that were won by President Obama; I’m a different kind of republican.” I need to understand where he stands on key social issues before I let this hype train go any further.
• I thought Chris Christie was decent, strong closing statement. “I’m a conservative, pro-life governor in a state where it’s very hard to be both.”
• I think Huckabee began to cement himself as the strongest, traditional republican candidate.

I guess I should have caveated this whole post with, I only watched from 10-11pm. Sorry, my slow pitch softball league takes priority, but that’s what I saw. I’ve heard musings of Dr. Ben Carson doing well, John Kasich coming off as the most level headed (compared to what though) and a divided stance on Trump – some say it’s over, some say he won over even more people with his refusal to be the “same old politician.”

This is just the beginning. We are 15 months out from electing a new leader. As we do, let’s promise ourselves we’ll do things the #JonVoyage way – sniff through the bullshit and have real, authentic, problem-solving focused, non-ulterior motive having, discussions.

PS If you’re wondering why there isn’t more #JonVoyage coverage in this post, I told you in the second sentence. It was perfect. Nothing more needs to be said 🙂