Slapfights and the real issue

The Donald and Tailgunner Ted finally took the gloves off and started slapping each other last night.  As usual, the republican debate was long on personalities and short on substance.  Most people know where all the candidates are coming from; the same tired prescriptions of concentration of wealth, militarism abroad and further shredding of the social safety net at home.  Whichever of the prima donnas on the stage last night should make it to the Oval Office, the results would be the same.  As we saw with the recent incident where Iran took some of our sailors into custody when they entered Iranian waters, the candidates fell all over themselves to blame the President's weak foreign policy for emboldening foreigners to mess with us.  When they were promptly released, no credit was forthcoming.  Meanwhile, the pace of wealth concentration continues to accelerate and except for Bernie Sanders, no one seems to notice or care.  If anything, the GOP celebrates the growing inequality as the necessary price to reward the "job creators".   When confronted by the fact there are more business startups per captita in Sweden, which has an extensive welfare state, than the US, all you hear is crickets.  Most of the 1% were born to parents who gave them every advantage, or in the case of the few self made men on the income gravy train, they were in the right place at the right time and made the most of their advantages.  There will always be inequality, but as Paul Krugman puts it in his column today, the wealth concentration in the US is not inevitable nor is it necessary.