The Republican Presidential debates have been, in a word, horrific.  Not because of the candidates’ own words, although those have been wavering between asinine and offensive, but because of the things that have gone unsaid.

Each debate thus far has featured an outburst from the audience, reflecting intolerance, hatred, or just plain violent glee.  In the first debate there was spontaneous applause for Governor Perry’s outrageous number of executions, after that an audience member shouted out that a patient without medical insurance should simply be left to die, and at the Google/YouTube debate, the audience booed a gay soldier.

The candidates, all nine of them, didn’t say a word.  They didn’t apologize to the soldier, and thank him for his service to their country.  They didn’t address the callousness that cheers for the mass slaughter of criminals.  They didn’t bother to mention that they believe in the preservation of life.  Or, perhaps, they only care about whether somebody lives or dies if they haven’t yet been born.

The GOP is priming its base not into an effective electorate, but into an angry, bloodthirsty, hate filled mob.  Are all Republicans vicious and intolerant?  Certainly not.  But almost entirely because they feel so strongly about their party that they refuse to acknowledge that it has become the de facto party of the playground bully.

And those rational Republicans, they have to do some real soul searching in the next year.  They need to decide if their own loyalty or that of their party is more important.