Vocabulary from the Seventh Republican Debate, January 28, 2016

The Seventh Republican Debate was held in Iowa on January 28, 2016, just four days before Iowans caucus and begin the voting in this primary season. Donald Trump chose to sit out this debate, when, after objecting to the choice of moderators, he exchanged some harsh words with Fox News Channel.

Here are twenty vocabulary words from the Seventh Republican Debate -- 13 selected as most "relevant" by our list builder, and 7 more of general interest. (Why are these "relevant"? We explain here.)
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. apocalyptic
    of or relating to a catastrophe
    And I believe only with a strong America will we defeat this radical group, this apocalyptic group called ISIS.
    - Senator Marco Rubio
  2. recidivism
    habitual relapse into crime
    Well, we have treated the drug-addicted in our prisons and we released them in to the community, and our recidivism rate is less than 20 percent.
    - Governor John Kasich
  3. reorient
    determine one's position once again
    As I said before, we are a land of immigrants, but we have to be intelligent about the way that we form our immigration policies, and that's one of the reasons that I have called on us to declare war on the Islamic State because we need to reorient our immigration policies and our visa policies for people who are coming into this country because there are many people out there who want to destroy us.
    - Dr. Ben Carson
  4. caucus
    meet to select a candidate or promote a policy
    I'm asking you for your vote. Caucus for me on Monday night because if I am your nominee, I will unite this party and I will defeat Hillary Clinton and when I'm president, America's light will shine again and the 21 century will be a new American century.
    - Senator Rubio
  5. consensus
    agreement in the judgment reached by a group as a whole
    I have supported a consensus approach to solving this problem [illegal immigration] wherever it came up. and in 2007 it almost passed when my brother was president of the United States. A bipartisan approach got close.
    -Governor Jeb Bush
  6. disparaging
    expressive of low opinion
    Disparaging women, disparaging hispanics, that's not a sign of strength.
    -Gov. Bush
    Governor Bush was referring to comments made early in the campaign by Donald Trump which Bush sees as counterproductive.
  7. mandate
    assign under an official instruction or command
    We should be developing oil, and gas, and coal, and nuclear, and wind, and solar, and ethanol, and biofuels. But, I don't believe that Washington should be picking winners and losers. And, I think there should be no mandates, and no subsidies whatsoever.
    - Senator Ted Cruz
  8. downtrodden
    abused or oppressed by people in power
    I inherited a state in New Jersey that was downtrodden, and beaten by liberal democratic policies, high taxation, high regulation.
    -Governor Chris Christie
  9. opportunist
    taking advantage of any circumstance of possible benefit
    Look, first of all, I recognize that Vladimir Putin is an opportunist and he's a bully, and we have to face him down.
    - Dr. Ben Carson
  10. accountability
    responsibility to someone or for some activity
    Everybody else was in the witness protection program when I went after him [Donald Trump] on behalf of what the Republican cause should be: conservative principles, believing in limited government, believing in accountability.
    -Gov. Bush
  11. saturation
    the process of totally infusing something with a substance
    You want to know what carpet bombing is? It's what we did in the first Persian Gulf war; 1,100 air attacks a day, saturation bombing that utterly destroyed the enemy.
    - Sen. Cruz
  12. unity
    the quality of being fused into one
    We have to come together as a country. And we have to stop all the divisions.
    And, you know, that's been my message in New Hampshire. And having been in New Hampshire and here in Iowa, but in New Hampshire, I just received the support of seven out of eight of the newspapers in that state because they see positive, they see unity, they see coming together, and they see a record of change and a record of accomplishment.
    - Gov. John Kasich
  13. tranquility
    an untroubled state that is free from disturbances
    We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the benefits of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America.
    - The Preamble to the Constitution, as read by Dr. Ben Carson
  14. shun
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    I do think that her [Hillary Clinton] position as promoting women's rights and fairness to women in the workplace, that if what Bill Clinton did any CEO in our country did with an intern, with a 22-year- old, 21-year-old intern in their office, they would be fired. They would never be hired again. Fired, never hired again and probably shunned in their community. ... she can't be a champion of women's rights at the same time she's got this that is always lurking out there...
    -Senator Rand Paul
    Senator Paul said this in response to whether Hillary Clinton can be held accountable for the behavior of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
  15. scrutiny
    the act of examining something closely, as for mistakes
    When he [Sen. Rubio] brought forward the "Gang of Eight" bill to give citizenship to those who came here illegally, I put forward an amendment that says we should have more scrutiny on those who are coming as students, those who are coming as immigrants, those who are coming as refugees, because we had two refugees come to my town in Bowling Green and try to attack us.
    - Sen. Paul
  16. diligence
    persevering determination to perform a task
    And I'm so grateful for the diligence, for the seriousness with which the men and women of Iowa approach this process.
    - Sen. Cruz
  17. subvert
    overthrow or destroy completely
    And in the Holy Land Foundation trial in 2006 in Texas, they had a memorandum, an explanatory memorandum that talked about the fact that Americans would be easy to overcome and to commit civilization jihad [against] because they were going to be trying to protect the rights of the very people who were trying to subvert them.
    Dr. Carson gave this answer in response to a question about aAmerican Muslims and the fact that they perceive a rise in Islamaphobia in The United States.
  18. premise
    a statement that is held to be true
    But what's wrong is your premise in the question. You can do both. There is no reason why you can't stand for principles, go and fight for them and be able also, to have to get things done in government.
    -Gov. Christie
    This response was to a general question about whether compromising to get things done is worth it if you have to betray your principles to reach that compromise. As the quote shows, Gov. Christie objects to the idea that you can't both stick up for your ideas and reach a compromise.
  19. sovereign
    not controlled by outside forces
    I think the only argument is are we a sovereign country, are we not allowed to choose who comes in, when they come in and how they come in? And that's not what's happening now.
    -Sen. Rubio
    Senator Rubio gave this answer as part of his response to a question about illegal immigration.
  20. morale
    the feeling that makes group members want to succeed
    ..in 1981, when Ronald Reagan came to the Oval Office, he encountered a military that had been debilitated just as the current military has, just like Jimmy Carter weakened our readiness, undermined our ability to defend this country, so too has Barack Obama. Just as morale in the military has plummeted in the last seven, so it had then.
    - Sen. Cruz
Created on Thu Jan 28 23:34:46 EST 2016 (updated Fri Jan 29 12:16:10 EST 2016)

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