Watching last night’s GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee, I felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Before Donald Trump injected his weird carnival barker routine into the bloodstream of American conservatism, Republican primary contests were generally dull and predictable affairs. And in this respect, much of last night’s proceedings — at which Trump was a no-show — viewed like a kind of bizarre controlled experiment that aimed to recreate the vintage boredom of GOP debates circa 2012 to a tee.

Thus, as the eight candidates jockeyed for the singular privilege of surviving the race long enough to lose to Donald Trump by forty or so points, there were plenty of canned lines, boasts about electability and managerial competence, allusions to the federal deficit, cookie-cutter platitudes about American greatness, and very little in the way of entertainment.

Emblematic was an early segment concerned with the economy that saw former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley declare, “It’s time for an accountant in the White House!,” and Mike Pence drone on about the virtues of fiscal responsibility. Elsewhere, Pence and Chris Christie gushed about the Constitution while North Dakota governor Doug Burgum at one point produced a physical copy from his pocket.