I’m going to admit something: I don’t actually watch the Republican primary debates. If I wanted to watch a group of eight politicians repeat the same talking points week after week, I could turn on C-Span reruns. At least then there would be less chance of me developing a hemorrhage.

However, I do follow the highlights in the newspaper (much like one might follow ESPN the day after a Cowboys’ game).

After reading about some of the most recent debates, I have to say that I’m genuinely astonished. My surprise really has nothing to do with Rick Perry calling social security a Ponzi scheme or Michele Bachmann making unsubstantiated claims that Gardasil causes mental retardation.

These candidates have basically been parroting the same sentiments ever since Obama was elected, and nothing they say is particularly shocking anymore. What’s consistently been amazing me is the kind of people that have been showing up to these debates and responding to the debaters’ talking points.

In one recent debate, when Ron Paul was asked if an uninsured sick patient should be left to die, he responded with a pretty definite yes, which elicited resounding applause from the audience. For Paul’s part, I can understand his position (though I might not agree as wholeheartedly), but I’m not sure the audience was necessarily trying to offer a passionate endorsement of the free market.

Likewise, in another debate when the moderator made a comment about Rick Perry having overseen 234 executions as governor of the state of Texas, Perry didn’t even have a chance to open his mouth before the audience began cheering him on.

I know the death penalty is a contentious issue, but even if one stands in favor of it I find it difficult to be happy about it being used with such frequency.

But last week delivered the coup de grâce. During a debate when the candidates fielded questions that were submitted by various people from the country, the moderators played a video of a newly out gay soldier serving in Iraq with a question for Rick Santorum about his support of the Don’t

Ask Don’t Tell policy. Upon hearing his question, the audience members vehemently jeered.

Now, cheering on the deaths of poor people and criminals is one thing, but booing a member of the U.S. Army serving this nation in Iraq for criticizing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is something entirely different. To me, it’s always seemed like conservatives (especially Tea Party Republicans) espouse patriotism as a high virtue and national service as one of the most worthy professions there is, and to actually attack a member of the army like this seems entirely hypocritical.

I try to comfort myself by saying that these people are not representative of the wider population of America and that most people are generally more tolerant and sound of mind than this. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter if the rest of America behaves better than this.

What we’re dealing with right now is a primary election, and the thing that separates primaries from general elections is that the people who vote in primaries are generally much more partisan and much less willing to compromise. See: these exact people in the debate audiences. If these are the kind of people we’re entrusting with selecting our candidates for general elections, I weep for this nation’s future.

So please, do me a favor America: if you’re going to vote, don’t just vote in the general election. Go to the primaries as well. If you don’t, and the Republican Party ends up choosing someone openly bigoted like Michele Bachmann to represent them, don’t complain that you hate the choices in the general election next year.

The primaries give you a chance to select a sane candidate, or at least in this case someone who’s not as nuts as the people in these debate audiences.

Brandon Bub is a sophomore majoring in English and edits The Daily Campus opinion column. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]