Is America Great Again, Yet?

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”

– Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

DISCLAIMER: I cannot and do not speak for black people and their pain. I am privileged to learn about these issues with my face in a book and not on the pavement with a knee on my neck. I recognize that racism is an embedded fear and hate of blacks in American society as well a systemic problem built into the very history and laws in this country.

 Here are some of the ways our country has systemically oppressed and murdered blacks:

for the Republican Party. They have written the “Stand Your Ground Law’, SB 1070 which allows police to stop anyone they perceive to be an immigrant, and most our immigration laws. (link)

6) Plea deals - our penal system implemented a law that allows people to accept plea deals for admitting guilt to crimes they may not have committed. 97% of individuals are not offered a trial in our country. Black Americans are pulled off the streets in unprecedented numbers by cops that have unrestrained power and are incentivized into admitting guilt to crimes they did not commit, and then deprived of their rights to participate fully in our society due to their criminal status. Life-long oppression. (link)

7) Militarization of local police forces. This has led to many tragedies that white people are aware of…Kent State Massacre, Waco, etc. We know of those because they were crimes against white people. What we haven’t been paying attention to is that police violence is one the leading causes of death for black males. (link)

 1) Aggressive propaganda after the civil war depicting blacks as violent, animal-like, and evil. This was responsible for the rebirth of the KKK (link)

2) Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ and ‘War on Drugs’ (link)

3) Reagan’s war on drugs and support of white supremacists groups that were responsible for assassinating an entire generation of black leaders. (link)

4) Bill Clinton’s Federal Crime Bill massive expansion of the industrial prison complex. In 1970 prison population was 357,292 but by 2014 it was 2,306,200. 1 in 17 white males will do prison time, compared to 1 in 3 African American Males (link)

5) Political corporations that use their money to elect politicians that will put the bills they write into law - American Legislative Exchange Council writes laws -

America was never great. Only quieter, as the voices of the oppressed were murdered and imprisoned. These are only a small number of the ways that our country has deeply embedded racism into our laws and country - and lined their pockets with the proceeds. Racism is systemic - it isn’t just about persistent hate and fear of blacks. It is about white people having more access to voting, electing white leaders, who have consistently put laws in place that lead to SYSTEMIC oppression and death of blacks.

If you are white in this country, you have benefited from that. Your life does matter, but it always has.

All lives can’t matter when Black lives don’t.

It doesn’t make you evil, but it means that you have to be a part of the change.

Or you are part of the problem.

DO SOMETHING.

Watch - 13th Documentary

March - in your city’s local protests

Donate to:

The Loveland Foundation

Campaign Zero

Black Lives Matter

NAACP

Community Bail Fund

ACLU Nationwide

Bernie, Biden, Battlestar Galactica

BERNIE, BIDEN, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

The word ‘Coronavirus’ will only be used twice in this article…that was one of them. The other one is also right now: we are not going to be talking about the Coronavirus.

 Who is winning? Who is even still in the race? Why is Biden suddenly in all the headlines? Are the primaries important? Do our votes matter or are we just pawns? Are my vitamins making my pee smell weird?

 These are some of the burning questions that, I believe, we have all been asking ourselves. Well I’m here to answer most of them. If you’re having issues with your vitamins you should consult a doctor. As for the history of elections, how they work, and what the hell is going on…I can cover that.  Today we are going to cover how presidential elections work in America, the fallen warriors of the 2020 Democratic race, and the battle of the old white dudes – Gandalf and Saruman…I mean Bernie and Biden.  

Click the buttons below to navigate the post! I didn’t write a Just The Tip section for this post, because I am too lazy to accommodate other people who are also lazy. Just read the whole damn thing, kay?

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DISCLAIMER:

I am not a professional, this is not a legitimate source of news - just an informative and light hearted take on the current state of Democratic politics in the United States. Just enjoy it.

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HOW ELECTIONS WORK

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We are going to step into a time machine and travel back to 1787 – you’re at the Constitutional Convention, it’s hot, you have needed to use the outhouse for over an hour now, Hamilton won’t shut the hell up…*okay, stage is set*

 While you were thinking about almost peeing your pantaloons, and that speck of food stuck in Washington’s dentures, everyone else was arguing about how best to elect a President to the United States. Here’s what they discussed –

Many ideas were proposed, some people wanted Congress to elect the president, another very vocal group desperately fought for a direct popular election (which, spoiler alert, we do not have). Hamilton (our boy) was vehemently against this idea, which may surprise some.

But those of us that have read the Federalist Papers...just me?....well Hamilton spends a lot of time talking about some of his worst fears – mobs, information access, and populist presidents. As usual, Hamilton’s warnings were very astute. First, he worried that most average citizens lacked the resources to be fully informed about the candidates.

His second, and arguably biggest fear, was that an extremist and vocal ‘mob’ could steer the entire country astray.

Lastly, he feared that a populist president that appeals directly to the people could command a very dangerous amount of power. So basically, all three of those things define the Trump presidency.

This is why when historians and democrats say that Trump is threatening our Democracy, though it may sound hyperbolic, what they mean is that he checks all of the boxes that define a force that is capable of having power not previously designed for the presidency.

Hamilton’s fears have been realized despite their attempt at building a barrier between the people and the presidential election. This is where we get to the part that a surprising number of people don’t know: you, as a citizen of The Unites States do not vote to elect a president. *gasps*

Enter: The Electoral College

Every state is allowed a number of ‘electors’ – this number is calculated using the combined total of its membership in the Senate and its delegation in the House of Representatives. Which to sum up means, states all have more or less electors depending on how populated the state is.

This has been a point of contention in regards to U.S. Presidential Elections for decades and decades. It is also why candidates campaign particularly hard for states such as California – they’re worth more points. Your vote elects an elector, who then votes for your candidate…most of the time. I am not going to get into the details of the electoral college, all you need to know is that basically every single state has different rules surrounding it, and if you knew more about it you’d never believe in Democracy again.

“We’re organized as a republic. We’re not a direct democracy, the Founding Fathers set that up to make sure that large population bases do not overrun smaller populations”

– Rose Publiese, leading the effort in Colorado to reform electoral college process.

 There is a history of electoral college members voting against their party. These assholes are called “Faithless Electors”, and here’s how it works. Say you want Trump for president so you vote for the elector who represents the Republican candidate, and then that elector turns and votes for Hillary. Extremely rude.

However, Faithless Electors have never had a real impact on an election. So they just get labelled as dicks and we move on.  If you’re feeling confused because you don’t remember ever voting for an elector, that’s fine. Would it make you feel better to know that you do vote for a presidential candidate, which gets counted in the popular vote that doesn’t matter?! Ya me neither. The popular vote is only important because it tells us when the U.S. elects a president that the majority of people didn’t want         * cough cough *

This actually happens less than you’d think – it has happened in 1824, 1876, 1888…then no one had an issue for a while…and then the 2000’s came around and it happened in 2000 and obviously in 2016. Makes you wonder if those Republicans are up to something….I kid I kid.

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THE FALLEN

 Seems as if the Democratic ‘herd’ has thinned as quickly as it developed.

Some of the biggest drops are Bloomberg, Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren. Although I think we were all surprised to find out that Tulsi Gabbard only dropped a few weeks ago…someone forgot to tell her to stop campaigning. Very awkward situation.

So all the dropping out began right before Super Tuesday, if we all recall. That’s about when every headline you read was about Biden (we’ll get to that later). While it may have seemed routine, the few weeks before and after Super Tuesday actually made history and are likely to shape the Democratic party for some years to come.

Why? Let’s start with Buttigieg.

 Was the United States ready for an openly gay president? There is a lot of debate on that, and we aren’t going to answer that question today. However it is worth noting that very few people attribute his fall in the polls to his sexuality – it will always be his inability to appeal to voters of color. Which is an achievement in and of itself.

He ran an extremely legitimate and competitive presidential campaign, and regardless of his loss he has undeniably broken a very difficult barrier.

What any political operative would tell you is that being openly gay and running for president is nearly impossible, you have to find the sweet spot between basing your campaign around sexual orientation or ignoring it and getting a beating for being ‘ashamed of your orientation’.

Pete walked that narrow line between letting it be the center of his campaign and letting it get washed away – and that is an incredible thing. His striking intelligence and military experience catapulted him to the top of the polls. In the end he couldn’t pull ahead of incumbents like Bernie or Warren because he just couldn’t command a diverse enough voting pool. His inability to command many Black or Latino votes was his true demise. He also lost some white votes for his inexperience – many argued that being a Mayor of a small town did not give him the qualifications for the presidency.

But most of all he brought the idea of an openly gay president from the abstract to the concrete and I enjoyed his campaign thoroughly.

Now let’s move on to Trump but Liberal – I mean Bloomberg. The Bloomberg campaign, similar to Buttigieg, was also a courageous test for the American people.

Can money buy the presidency?

Apparently it cannot. His money kept him in the race way past his expiration date, this much is true. But, you can’t put lipstick on a pig…and he really is a pig. No amount of beautiful marketing, creative commercials, etc., can make a pig look like it isn’t a pig. And a lot of people would say that Bloomberg definitely was a pig. With multiple accusations (unverified) of sexual harassment, horribly offensive quotes, past employers that describe their experiences with colorful terms – Bloomberg clearly didn’t realize that the American people aren’t looking away from those things anymore.

Although I do want to thank him for giving us this billboard…

The #MeToo movement has made powerful change in the way that men in power are handled in society. Bloomberg re-entered the public eye in a very different world from when he was mayor, and it showed.

People just aren’t enamored by billionaires or asshole business men anymore.

In the era of Donald Trump I am happy to say this at least once – Bloomberg was unsuccessful in pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. He entered an already crowded Democratic race with genius marketing, loose platforms, a flaming Trump hatred, and a questionable past – and it just didn’t cut it.

Now let’s talk about what happened to Elizabeth Warren. Was it déjà vu from Hillary? Not exactly.

Hillary was more comparable to Bloomberg in my opinion, she carried a very heavy past with her into her campaign. Warren was the only of the ‘fringe’ candidates who hung in all the way through Super Tuesday (except also for Tulsi Gabbard…which how, and why?).

Warren’s super depressing results after super Tuesday sealed the deal for her, but today we are going to look at what happened to her campaign.

So the Warren kiss of death was that most of her voters looked like her, college-educated white women. Myself included. Although Warren wasn’t able to lasso the moderate liberal or the non-white vote, many would agree that she set the pace for this entire race.

Her policy plans drove the entire agenda and set the pace for the other candidates. She also relied on intensely loyal, small donors which set a competitive trend for the other candidates as well. After her extreme success early in the campaign and serving a beating to Buttigieg and Bloomberg in the debates, she suffered a very slow slide starting early in 2020. The New York Times wrote that her political demise was,

“…a death by a thousand cuts”.

Warren was much more moderate than many give her credit for, in fact her policies most similarly aligned with Andrew Yang (remember him?). Many do not realize the economic genius of Elizabeth Warren. She is a specialist in bankruptcy law, and much of that expertise was channeled into her student debt forgiveness plans and her new bankruptcy restructure plan.

She ran a rational, solutions based campaign. But there is a rule in competition that I’ve found to be almost universally true:

The better team will often stoop to play at the level of the worse team. Elizabeth Warren made this mistake, just as Hillary did in 2016.

When Warren’s numbers slipped she started to lean farther to the left as her campaign went on. By the time she hopped onto Bernie’s “Free College” train, she was grasping at straws. She received major backlash for that move, and it is when she really started to fall behind.

Her promises to take down Wall Street and to create big structural change will now go unfulfilled. But for many that are mourning her loss, that is not what ails them.

There are many women who after 2016, have begun to feel that America will never be ready for a female president. That misogyny runs too deep.

That pushing through misogyny your whole life, fighting tooth and nail to the top of your field, will only result in the world labelling you as bitchy, angry, or untrustworthy.

Many women like myself, are crying at a ceiling we seem unable to break.

But just like the sun rises in the east, the battle goes on.  As A. A. Milne said -

“Rivers know this, there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

Although, respectfully A. A. Milne…we are in a bit of a hurry.

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Bernie v. Biden

Even though the 2020 Democratic candidate pool started out as the most diverse in history, the American people whittled it down to the old white guys yet again.

Despite this disappointment, all of the candidates have played an influential role in shaping the narrative of where the remaining candidates stand today. First I just want to give an overall look at what each candidate stands for. Mostly because while we hear Bernie’s raspy screams about “Healthcahhh” in our sleep…what else does he stand for? And more importantly what the hell does Biden stand for?

Where Bernies fights for free healthcare, Biden wants a mix of that and private healthcare. Where Bernie wants free college tuition, Biden wants to lower tuition. Where Bernie wants a full assault weapon ban and destruction/buy-back program, Biden wants expanded background checks and assault weapon ban.

Biden basically is a more neutral version of Bernie. While they agree on most of the issues, Biden’s plans for legislation are less radical.

Some people think that Biden’s neutrality shows weakness, and that we need radical change.

Some believe that Bernie’s radical ideas divide the Democratic party instead of uniting it against Trump.

But it turns out that the ONLY thing that people care about right now is….ELECTABILITY. And Biden has oodles of that apparently. What is electability, and why are people voting on it?

Electability is not a real thing –

it’s just peoples’ perception of who ‘seems like they could win’. That is why Biden’s accrued accusations of assault, and history of bad policies don’t effect his ‘electability’. Because it isn’t a rational thing. But voting on electability is like the stock market, you’re betting on what you think people are going to do.

Right now, Democrats are voting on what they think other people are going to do. And basically, everyone thinks that people are too scared to vote for someone as extreme as Bernie, and losing to Trump. Which is exactly what happened on Super Tuesday. Biden’s win was so astounding, it blew all the pollsters’ tits off. The New York Times said:

“Biden won in states where he didn’t campaign. He won in states where he didn’t have offices.”

So why did he win so decidedly?

When the pressure hits, history has shown that Americans tend to play it safe.

But don’t be disheartened, because that hasn’t prevented massive social, political, and cultural shifts from happening like the abolition of slavery or women’s rights.

 I think one of the biggest things that represents the brokenness of the Democratic party is the Biden vs. Bernie debacle. It also represents the stark generational divide between the younger generations and Baby Boomers - even within a singular party. So many young people are furious with how the Dem. Party has been run, and we are tired of holding our nose and voting for the ‘electable’ one. All this while we watch our government get further and further entrenched in the assholes of big business. But our older voters hesitate at the thought of a radical movement (they’re old).

I know there are a lot of opinions around Bernie, but he represents something that has belonged to the young generations in all of American history – the desire to change the status quo. This is also what Trump was elected on (and a few other things). But I think it is important right now to *takes deep breath* recognize the similarities between the Trump and Bernie movements.

There is a growing disparity in America. People are hurting, they are fed up, they feel voiceless.

They watch money go into the wrong hands, they watch our government become a swamp. The poor people in America have never had a voice, but now the middle class is losing theirs as well. This is a deep, deep, hurt that both Democrats and Republicans are feeling.

Studies show that as income inequality grows, so does political polarization. Whether you are a M.A.G.A. hat wearer, or you’re camping out on Wall Street – we need to all realize that nobody is listening to us.

This sentiment got Trump elected, and it has fueled the Bernie movement as well. Many have pointed out the similarities in their followers as well – please don’t stop reading, I promise this part is almost over – both Trump and Bernie supporters are FIERCELY loyal and debatably populist. Both movements are built on the same emotions – fear and anger.

We are all hurting right now. Some blame Trump, some blame Capitalism, some blame social justice movements, political correctness, whatever your boogie man is – but we all have something in common. We are being taken advantage of.

That is how Trump got elected, and it is the same flame that has ripped through the hearts of Bernie supporters everywhere. I am not arguing that it is right or wrong or misguided, I’m just saying…it’s there, and it’s there for all of us. And it’s important that we all realize that we do have something in common.

We just disagree on how to fix it.

Why didn’t Bernie have as much success as Trump? Because Biden. Because American Democrats are scared of Trump’s erosion of our democracy, and they are willing to sacrifice a lot of progress for a little. I am here to tell you, that while this may make you angry, this is politics. Many Americans, Republican and Democrat alike, have an idealistic view of politics. That someone like Bernie or Trump can come in and tip over the tea kettle. But that is a unicorn. Many of our most powerful presidents have been mild-mannered men who are just really good at compromises.

But politics is a not a zero sum game, it’s more complex than winners and losers or good and evil.

A good compromise usually means that everybody feels a little good and a little shitty in the end. And that folks, is Joe Biden in a nutshell.

Trump was elected to drain the swamp, basically what Bernie wanted to do – and even if Trump actually wanted to do that, he hasn’t been able to. He is constantly frustrated by having to play by the rules and succumb to small incremental changes. Bernie would have suffered the same fate.

Let’s not pretend that Joe Biden isn’t a stale marshmallow of a candidate who represents so much of what the Democrats are fearful of. But there is a reason he has lasted this long, and there is a reason that Obama, Warren, and Bernie have finally waved their flags of support. It’s because he is good enough, and that right now is the prize. To get anywhere in politics, you have to play the dirty politics game. I don’t mean you have to be corrupt (although that’s a different discussion), I just mean you have to get a little dirty. Bernie was not willing to play the game, he was renowned for turning down talk shows and videos if he thought he wasn’t going to be praised. He was also renowned for rarely speaking or commenting publicly on anything outside of his stump speeches. And is there anyone better at being the butt of a joke than Biden? Ya, probably, but he does pretty well. His high-profile career in politics has trained him not to avoid bad press or hide at any whiff of hostile backlash. Biden isn’t going to expose the underbelly of government or drain the swamp, and for all of us that hoped and prayed for that in 2020, it is okay to feel loss.

It is okay to feel that we are pushing up against an immovable barrier…

…that the corruption in our government is untouchable, and that moderation will never make a dent. But it will make a dent. We have to keep making dents, as exhausting, and disheartening as it may be. Small snowballs roll down the hill to form big snowballs. We can’t cut corners. Biden may not make the big moves that Bernie promised, but he at least won’t let the dial move too far the other way.

Big structural change has happened in the face of much worse – but you just can’t alway come at it waving a big stick like Teddy Roosevelt.

In reality, change is made by every day people pounding and pounding and pounding at the barrier – because it moves a little bit every day. It’s just hard to see unless you take a step back Ferris Bueller style.

If we wait for a savior, we will watch our Democracy fall into pieces. Allowing Trump to continue into a second term while you wait for another Warren or Bernie, is naïve. There, I said it. We are young, and seeing the big picture isn’t our strong suit. But in the big picture, this is a marathon not a sprint. We have to start somewhere or we will never start. Spoiler -  the Savior doesn’t show up – we have to do it ourselves. Our president is a reflection of the people, it isn’t a chicken and the egg. We have to be the change, before we see that change in the White House. There. are. no. shortcuts. I’m not going to leave you with a loud, powerful, inspirational statement. Because this is about incremental change, and incremental change is what it is - painstaking and ordinary.

A little bit, every day. Today, it’s Joe Biden. Tomorrow – who knows? But probably something better.

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THAT’S ALL FOLKS

Democrats Debate, America Bamboozled

DEMOCRATES DEBATE, AMERICA BAMBOOZLED

This piece is for the worn down, the broken hearted, just kidding, it’s for the people who don’t have the time to keep up with the political shit storm we call U.S. politics. It’s hard enough to keep up with the impeachment inquiry, testimonies, documents, and every breaking news headline. Who has the time to keep up with the current mob of democratic candidates?

I do. Because I live alone and have a light social calendar.

This piece is for the people who still care and want to care. We’ll run through the recent Democratic debate on October 15th. Breaking down the stand outs, the embarrassments, the annoying ones, and the geriatric ones. Get the scoop on where the Democratic Party stands after the 4th National Democratic Debate.

Click the buttons below to navigate the post! Lazies who don’t want to read my hard work, head towards Just The Tip. If you just want to see who said what, look at Candidate Break Down and see everyone’s shining moments.

OR just don’t be LAZY and read The Whole Schlong.

JUST BE HERE FOR THIS, KAY. I WORKED HARD.

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DISCLAIMER:

I am not a professional, this is not a legitimate source of news - just an informative and light hearted take on the current state of Democratic politics in the United States. Just enjoy it.

Direct quotes from: Washington Post Debate Transcript

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HOW WE ALL MUST APPROACH POLITICS

JUST THE TIP

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• Biden was missing most of the time, possibly making frequent bathroom breaks, possibly getting intimate with the back stage curtain

• Warren had some highs and lows, but didn’t differ from her regular campaign talking points. She stood up to heavy back lash from fellow candidates, and a real gross comment from Biden

• Andrew Yang showed the hell up, very effectively tied his knowledge of the economy in with his desire to address deeply embedded social issues

• Bernie Sanders was his usual self. Same talking points, same hair, same neck veins. Didn’t weigh in much on guns or opiates – piped up on healthcare and foreign affairs

• Corey Booker didn’t really stand out but had a deeply unsettling moment bragging about his veganism

• Peter Buttigieg didn’t come in too strong, but stood firm on his points, called out Warren on her vague tax policy plan, and spoke on our foreign military affairs from personal experience

• Julian Castro basically didn’t have much to say, but spoke up about police violence and spoke of personal experience

• Kamala Harris didn’t seem to have many policy plans and was overly emotional, also she got real weird about Warren not joining her battle to take down Trump’s Twitter account

• Amy Klobuchar showed the hell up, attacked Warren’s plans for being idealistic and focused on how to ‘get things done’, spoke up most on bipartisanship and anti-NRA with serious passion

• Beto O’Rourke was mostly annoying, wasn’t able to get a word in, but kept trying to ride the wave of ‘my city was the recent mass shooting’ and then spoke Spanish some more

• Tom Seyer obviously didn’t get much screen time because no one knows who the hell he is, most significant moment was when he, as a billionaire, endorsed Bernie’s tax on high income

• Tulsi Gabbard also couldn’t make much headway in the pack, but had a good response when questioned about young age, and she brought military experience into her ideas for middle east

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THE WHOLE SCHLONG

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[ START HERE ]

National debates are so fascinating to watch,

because each one has its own flavor. Depending on recent news, where it’s held, how far into the race it’s held, they can ratchet up into explosive screaming matches or sometimes snooze-fests, or even very rarely – insightful looks into the qualities of the candidates. This debate was one of those unicorns – a really insightful look into the current candidates. I believe this was mostly because they put 100 democrats on the stage together and it’s early in the race. The new-comers are very eager to get a foothold with the nation, the old-timers are mostly just trying not to get beaten to death.

In this debate,

I saw some lesser known candidates start to show the hell up, making some of the more established candidates sound like me getting called on by the teacher after not doing the reading and spouting nonsense like this:

“President bad. Facebook bad. Charlotte Bronte displayed homosexual undertones.” 

Well they didn’t say that exactly. But one of the benefits of shoving 500 democrats on a stage together and televising it, is that they all only get about 60 seconds to speak. I believe this gave the advantage to the scrappier candidates – they are used to little to no airtime, they know how to get their opinions and plans out in 150 characters or less. Front runner candidates like  Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie are used to the big stage and being allowed to say a whole lot of words without saying anything at all. I found that they struggled in this debate for that reason. That’s not to say some of them didn’t get in some solid left hooks, Warren had the crowd on their feet with her outright demand that the companies responsible for the opioid crisis must be held monetarily accountable for their victims’ recovery.

Biden also threw the crowd into a deafening silence when he

…oh wait, no, I was thinking of one of the other candidates that spoke at all during the debate. More on that later.

I loved watching some of the underdogs steal the show – Andrew Yang made astoundingly succinct arguments, his knowledge of the economy is unparalleled, and he was easily the smartest person on that stage.

He was able to cite economic data and projections but then draw a line from the numbers to how they are affecting issues like national debt and healthcare. When asked if he supported the impeachment inquiry, he quietly waited for a few of the candidates to attempt to sever their own vocal chords (*cough cough* Bernie), and then presented what ended up being my favorite response of all -

“I support impeachment, but we shouldn't have any illusions that impeaching Donald Trump will, one, be successful or, two, erase the problems that got him elected in 2016.”

And he is right, it cannot be assumed that this impeachment process will be successful even if the Democrats believe firmly that the truth will out. The truth WILL out, but I worry that with the state of our country right now, the truth might not be enough. And THAT is the very issue that Yang refers to – and he again presented data on how our economic issues beget these socio-political issues.

“Amazon alone is closing 30 percent of America's stores and malls, soaking up $20 billion in business while paying zero in taxes. These are the problems that got Donald Trump elected, the fourth industrial revolution. And that is going to accelerate and grow more serious regardless of who is in the Oval Office.”

Yang, like many of the other candidates, is not a career politician. He is an entrepreneur with extensive economic knowledge, and revolutionary ideas that unfortunately are probably about 4-8 years ahead of his time. He is actually capable of creating the job climate that Trump promised by promoting industries that are built to last and controlling big tech – but America, and especially Democrats, aren’t ready for a candidate who is so hyper-rational. Right now both parties are tilting towards their extremes, and they want to hear their candidates feeling the same way as them. It’s just like trying to calm a screaming toddler with calm discussion – they aren’t going to hear it. This is a toxic undertone in the upcoming election, and will inevitably lead to both parties supporting extremist candidates who will both be equally unable to inspire progress in a stalwart congress.

[ THEN GO HERE ]

I’m going to make a graceful transition from the rational to the delusional. Also that was my transition, I’m not going to try any harder than that.

So it wasn’t publicized much for whatever reason but Kamala Harris wasn’t able to make the debate, and instead they sent ­­Amy Adam’s mom from Sharp Objects.

She seemed like she was having a hard time stringing words together, and got fixated on some very weird and trivial points. The highlight of her talking points was when she bitched at Elizabeth Warren for not joining her campaign to get Trump off Twitter.

She cut across Warren, grabbing that mic like she was Kanye about to dump on Tayler Swift, and yelled at Warren for not joining her campaign to shut down Trump’s twitter account. Warren literally couldn’t have cared less and fired back with -

“I don’t want Trump off of Twitter, I want him out of the White House…”.

Kamala wasn’t satisfied and shouted over Warren like she was Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor

 “WILL YOU NOT JOIN ME?!”.

Warren literally just goes…. “no.” and keeps talking. And to be honest I couldn’t agree with her more.

Working to take down Trump’s twitter account is like when you are moving and all the dudes are lifting your massive dresser up three flights of stairs and you hop in there like, “Here, I’ll guide it…”

And as Trevor Noah said about the topic – “We need Trump on Twitter, how else are we going to monitor what he is up to?”

Other than Kamala’s vendetta against Trump’s Twitter account, and Warren swiping a HARD left on that – there were still some other candidates embarrassing themselves up there.

First of all there was that moment when Cory Booker claimed his expertise on health and dietary regulations with this gem,

“As the only vegan in the room…”  

Okay Corey, you are better than all of us because you shove broccoli up your butt or whatever.

WE GET IT.

Even though he proceeded to condemn Trump’s dietary habits (which are in fact, despicable) it was a super random comment and he came off like a total dick.

There was also that moment when Pete Buttigieg turned into Jason Aldean for a second and performed a touching soliloquy about Chevy trucks.

Here’s the monologue,

“I didn't even realize it was unusual to have empty factories that I would see out the windows of my dad's Chevy Cavalier when he drove me to school, I didn't know that wasn't every city until I went away to college. Now I drive my own Chevy. It's a Chevy Cruze.”

Pete, relax, we are all cool with you being gay, you don’t have to aggressively tell people you drive a truck anymore.

As far as hilariously stupid moments go, I’ve saved you the best for last. So unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of Biden because he had a previously scheduled appointment to make-out with the backstage curtain. However, he was able to pop into the debate just long enough to interrupt Warren mid-sentence and inform her that she was best suited for her current position.

Behold this misogynistic gem:

“You did a hell of a job in your job.”

A literal dead silence fell on the crowd.

Warren picked up the slack with a small chuckle and a “Thank you…”.

Biden immediately had to return to his passionate necking with the back stage curtain.

end of page 1

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Okay, Biden wasn’t making out with any curtains back stage…

but he was conspicuously absent in most of the debate. He got in a few talking points and was definitely targeted by some of the impeachment related questions. But for the most part he took a step back and chose not to comment on many questions or make many definitive statements.

Ironically though he still ended up with the second highest amount of on-air speaking time, just behind Warren. Honestly he just talks really slow – in one of his responses he spent a good 15 seconds coughing up a hair ball. Or maybe it was curtain fiber.

Either way Biden didn’t come in with many home-runs, he seemed to rely on boasting his past experience and established political precedence. Most of his statements began with something like this, “I am the only one who actually has experience in this…” or this, “My past experience has allowed me to understand…” Very few of his statements involved policy plans, action statements, or even a vague reference to what he would do with HIS presidency.

When asked a complicated question about his specific legislative plans, he mumbled, coughed, and then talked about how

“you gotta level with people.”

That didn’t exactly have me on the edge of my seat. He seemed MIA for most of the debate, when he was talking he was mostly referencing the past, yet somehow he dominated most of the on-air speaking time.

I think this is an important note – even though I, like many others, am comforted by his steady and experienced tone, at this debate he was all fluff and no substance. That put a major ding in my trust in him as a level-headed candidate. He was like a bag of good ole Lay’s potato chips – that you open and only has like 5 chips in it.

Okay, we’ve talked enough about the duds. Let’s talk about who killed it.

So beyond Andrew Yang slaying it, the other candidate who stole the show was Amy Klobuchar. She is a moderate candidate whose ideals really bounce back and forth across the aisle. Her experience with an addict father has inspired her to fight hard for drug and alcohol addiction reform. She is an incredibly well spoken and fearless debater, who frequently went head to head with the biggest candidates without a flinch. She directly called out Warren for not having a legitimate tax plan to fund her plans to erase student debt and provide Medicare for all.

“But, again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done. And we can get this public option done. And we can take on the pharmaceutical companies and bring down the prices.”

We again got to see how the more rational propositions don’t always feel as grabby, and don’t usually captivate voters. But Klobuchar had such a fiery and confident tone that it made her very moderate plans sound like a Coach Taylor half-time speech to the Dillon Panthers.

This is why she repeatedly stood out from the other lesser known candidates. In fact she made one of my favorite points of the night – she addressed an issue very near and dear to many women in this country – one that I’ve never personally heard talked about by politicians. She directly called out the availability of legal gun purchase for domestic violence offenders.

It was a chilling moment, and gave her a ton of points in my book. She definitively claimed her intentions to ban assault rifles and high capacity magazines, but simultaneously said she wanted to avoid political division and just ‘wanted to get something done’.

Words that echoed previous Republican candidates promising to cross the aisle in the name of forward movement. In the case of guns and the NRA’s chokehold on our government,

I think we need more creativity than that.

We touched on Pete Chevy Buttigeig and survived him beating us over the head with the fact that he is from blue collar mid-west.

Other than that, he really performed quite well for the rest of the debate. While he didn’t really stand out as a forerunner, I think he ended up at least holding his place as a competitive and intelligent candidate.

He condemned the liberal idea that once Trump is gone we can get “back to business as usual” – stating that we can’t and shouldn’t return to the past but must set new standards for our country’s future.

His military experience really stood out when other candidates fumbled on their responses about the Turkish invasion in Syria.

His most unique comment was during the gun control topic – he was the only candidate to bring up the epidemic levels of suicide in our country and how gun availability is affecting that.

That statement combined with his military knowledge, his understanding of the working class, and his experiences as a closeted homosexual in politics and the military, had him standing out as one of the most capable candidates on stage.

As he has had a tendency in the past to come off as a tad ‘elitist’, he chose to not be too aggressive with how much he spoke in this debate. He wasn’t MIA like Biden, and he didn’t over do it,

he just happened to say the right things just when you wanted him to.

So finally, let’s talk about Elizabeth Warren.

She was very hit or miss at this debate. She seemed to rely on her canned talking points and hit them with strength, but when the more minor candidates pressured her on them, she seemed to falter.

As the debate went on it became clear that she was the ultimate opponent for every other person on that stage. She has risen above Biden in the polls and has raced into the frontline position in this early stage. I believe Biden might be intentionally letting her take the lead and the heat that comes with that.

But either way, she had a target on her back at this debate.

Every single candidate on that stage attacked her and her policies.

She held her own for the most part, but naturally ended up looking a little desperate as she was constantly forced into a defensive position. She faltered on some of the more hard hitting questions about her tax policies – when she was directly asked about whether or not her tax policies would raise taxes for the middle class, she wasn’t able to answer definitively and Buttigieg called her the hell out on it –

“Well, we heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer. Look, this is why people here in the Midwest are so frustrated with Washington in general and Capitol Hill in particular. Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything.”

He outlines the frustration that plagues the Democratic party – they all know what isn’t working, but they continue to promote plans that aren’t likely to pass into law.

The Democratic front-runners seem to have an idealistic plan for everything, but no actual ideas of how to turn those ideas into laws, in collaboration with their conservative counterparts.

They are lacking in compromise and it showed.

That is why, as is typical of early and highly competitive presidential candidacies,

those with succinct plans stand out and those with idealistic and ‘pretty’ sounding ideals get lost.

end of page 2

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This is why I find this phase of the candidate selection process so vital,

because down the line when we are watching 2-3 candidates spout their romantic ideas, we all start to forget about how they plan on getting these things done. Warren touted structural change, and breaking up all of big tech and big oil, forgiving student debt. These are incredible ideas that I also want to come to pass – but I think at the very heart of this upcoming election, Democrats know that we have to have someone in office who can cross party lines and get something done. Our gun violence crisis, the climate crisis, etc. can’t wait.

A candidate who spends their time trying and failing to implement these lofty goals might result in a similar stagnation we are seeing under the Trump presidency. Warren would disagree with me, as she stated that –

“People told me, go for something little, go for something small, go for something that the big corporations will be able to accept. I said, no, let's go for an agency that will make structural change in our economy.”

That was a powerful statement that was hard not to ignore. Warren still holds my potential vote, as I worry to waste it on a candidate who doesn’t have a shot at the presidency.

But she is smart, she has raced ahead in the polls, and she held her own against substantial attacks from her fellow candidates at this debate.

Tulsi Gabbard is a young and inspiring veteran candidate from Hawaii. While she did not quite get a foothold in this debate, her military experience resulted in some very insightful ideas about the future of our military engagement in the middle east. She also had a wonderful quote in response to the recent restrictions placed on Planned Parenthood:

“Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.”

 I think that is a statement that highlights where pro and anti-choicers overlap.

We all want less abortions, but she was very frank about how we can achieve that.

 Julian Castro also did not impress with his performance but he did share how growing up in a low-income minority neighborhood exposed him to the worst of the gun violence epidemic. He did not present clear plans to reform this, but his experience was moving and was his most stand-out moment. 

Let’s not forget about Tom Steyer, oh wait we can’t forget him because nobody knows who he is. Steyer is a self-made billionaire…yes I said billionaire. I would say that it was a stumper as to how he was able to appear on that stage but it isn’t – he is a BILLIONAIRE. He could buy TV ads to tell the nation that his Crunch Wrap Supreme is giving him diarrhea, if he wanted to. His most significant moment was when he supported Bernie and Warren’s propositions to tax the highest income brackets.

He emphatically agreed – and a billionaire supporting taxes on the rich is definitely an impactful statement. But then again…he already has oodles of money, so I am not quite sure what his real motives for the presidency are. I didn’t take many notes on him honestly, he basically contributed as much as a scarecrow would have on that stage.

He did a great job of scaring away all the crows…I definitely didn’t see a single crow on the stage the entire night.

Most likely he contributed little to nothing other than astounding Bernie into silence – most likely a much needed break for his vocal cords.

I intentionally didn’t talk much about Beto,

and it’s mostly because he is super annoying. I feel like when he doesn’t have a good answer to the question, he just starts speaking Spanish and it seems so transparently pandering to the community he wants to appeal to. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is a white affluent male and watching him leverage the Spanish language only further convinces me that he is singularly appealing to white voter ignorance, who find it ‘impressive that he speaks Spanish.”

Most Spanish speakers have said they don’t like his targeted use of bilingualism to appeal to a demographic that he is not a part of. I think Beto was so productive and inspirational at the state level – inspiring a growing democratic movement and youth participation in Texas politics.

But his choice to run for the presidency has ruined his accountability at both levels. Also he is real annoying with all his talk of Metallica and plans to re-possess and destroy all assault level rifles - it makes him a joke compared to candidates who have plans with legitimate potential to translate into future policy.

BETO – shut up about Metallica, you grew too big for your britches this time. Get off the stage and go back to affecting change on the city and state level. Also stop cursing on air, you aren’t coming off as passionate or edgy, just immature.

We didn’t talk about Sanders much but you could probably watch any of his past campaign speeches and that’s pretty much what he spouted at this debate.

He sat back quietly during the gun epidemic questions as well as the opioid crisis discussion. As in the past, his campaign is too singularly focused on his health care plan that is much too partisan to turn into law. He took a few hits at Biden, but mostly spent his talking time on very emotional talking points around health care reform.

Lots of bark, very little bite.

However, he was posed with a pretty awkward question by one of the moderators – she tried to ask him about how is age and recent heart attack might affect his fitness for presidency. She seemed so uncomfortable about the question that she posited the same to Tulsi Gabbard, asking if she was too young for the presidency. I don’t think Gabbard is about to drop dead of youth and vitality, so that got awkward. Sanders pretty much just said that his emotional passion will keep death from knocking on his door – as his neck veins bulged and he gestured wildly.

I’ve never been more convinced that the dude is about to drop dead at the next breaking Trump tweet.

That’s the low-down. It all matters because this stage of the election can sometimes be the most transparent. While many of these smaller candidates who stood out tonight aren’t in a realistic place to receive a presidential bid, I think it is very important to see where the Democratic party could evolve. We hear alot in the news about like 3-5 different radical Dems and we forget about the rest of the party. The Andrew Yangs and the Amy Klombuchars – who have extensive knowledge, seek rational decision-making, and present comprehensive plans with the singular goal of improving this country. It is refreshing and inspiring and I believe it is important to hear ideas from candidates like them. It helps us diversify our opinions and fight the raging division in our country.

Listen to the moderates

learn from the people within your own party who are challenging the very edges, reach, and capacity of the future of your political party.

It is important to pay attention right now, this is when substance matters.

AND THAT’S THE WHOLE SCHLONG

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THE CANDIDATE BREAK DOWN

Click the candidate you want the dish on!

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JOE BIDEN

So unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of Biden because he had a previously scheduled appointment to make-out with the backstage curtain.

However, he was able to pop into the debate just long enough to interrupt Warren mid-sentence and inform her that she was best suited for her current position. Behold this misogynistic gem:

 “You did a hell of a job in your job.”

 A literal dead silence fell on the crowd. Warren picked up the slack with a small chuckle and a “Thank you…”. Biden immediately had to return to his passionate necking with the back stage curtain.

Okay, Biden wasn’t making out with any curtains back stage, but he was conspicuously absent in most of the debate. He got in a few talking points and was definitely targeted by some of the impeachment related questions.

But for the most part he took a step back and chose not to comment on many questions or make many definitive statements. Ironically though he still ended up with the second highest amount of on-air speaking time, just behind Warren. Honestly he just talks really slow – in one of his responses he spent a good 15 seconds coughing up a hair ball. Or maybe it was curtain fiber.

 Either way Biden didn’t come in with many home-runs, he seemed to rely on boasting his past experience and established political precedence. Most of his statements began with something like this, “I am the only one who actually has experience in this…” or this, “My past experience has allowed me to understand…”

Very few of his statements involved policy plans, action statements, or even a vague reference to what he would do with HIS presidency.

When asked a complicated question about his specific legislative plans, he mumbled, coughed, and then talked about how “you gotta level with people.”

 That didn’t exactly have me on the edge of my seat.

He seemed MIA for most of the debate, when he was talking he was mostly referencing the past, yet somehow he dominated most of the on-air speaking time. I think this is an important note – even though I like many others, am comforted by his steady and experienced tone, at this debate he was all fluff and no substance. That put a major ding in my trust in him as a level-headed candidate. He was like a bag of good ole Lay’s potato chips – that you open and only has like 5 chips in it.

COREY BOOKER

Amongst the hilarious and ridiculous moments in this debate, this one might have been my favorite. There was that moment when Cory Booker claimed his expertise on health and dietary regulations with this gem,

 “As the only vegan in the room…”

 Okay Corey, you are better than all of us because you shove broccoli up your butt or whatever. WE GET IT. Even though he proceeded to condemn Trump’s dietary habits (which are in fact, despicable) it was a super random comment and he came off like a total dick.

 He wasn’t the joke of the whole night however, as he did have a few solid statements on women’s rights and claimed we must resist the “global assault on women.” It was compelling and believable, even from my female perspective.

But he failed to stand out in the crowd with policy plans, this singular win for him was based on an emotional statement that definitely resonates but didn’t elevate my ideas of his competency.

Pete Buttigeig

Pete did a mostly stellar job at the debate, he was very well spoken and showed forceful determination when necessary – except for the truck thing. There was a moment when Pete Buttigieg turned into Jason Aldean for a second and performed a touching soliloquy about Chevy trucks. Pete, you sound like me trying to get my college chemistry professor to give me a passing grade. You might as well put your hands on your knees, close your eyes, and think of * insert celebrity sex icon here *Here’s the monologue,

 “I didn't even realize it was unusual to have empty factories that I would see out the windows of my dad's Chevy Cavalier when he drove me to school, I didn't know that wasn't every city until I went away to college. Now I drive my own Chevy. It's a Chevy Cruze.”

 Pete, relax, we are all cool with you being gay, you don’t have to aggressively tell people you drive a truck anymore.

 We survived Pete Chevy Buttigeig beating us over the head with the fact that he is from blue collar mid-west.

Other than that, he really performed quite well for the rest of the debate. While he didn’t really stand out as a forerunner, I think he ended up at least holding his place as a competitive and intelligent candidate.

He condemned the liberal idea that once Trump is gone we can get “back to business as usual” – stating that we can’t and shouldn’t return to the past but must set new standards for our country’s future.

His military experience really stood out when other candidates fumbled on their responses about the Turkish invasion in Syria.

His most unique comment was during the gun control topic – he was the only candidate to bring up the epidemic levels of suicide in our country and how gun availability is affecting that.

That statement combined with his military knowledge, his understanding of the working class, and his experiences as a closeted homosexual in politics and the military, had him standing out as one of the most capable candidates on stage.

As he has had a tendency in the past to come off as a tad ‘elitist’, he chose to not be too aggressive with how much he spoke in this debate. He wasn’t MIA like Biden, and he didn’t over do it, he just happened to say the right things just when you wanted him to.

 Julian Castro

Julian Castro also did not impress with his performance, he spoke only 2-3 times overall. His most notable comment was that we would like to adjust the supreme court justice appointment system and limit terms.

For the rest of his speaking he vaguely talked about infrastructure reform, and showed a very emotional support of the impeachment inquiry. I did however like his response when the moderators asked him if the impeachment work was a distraction to our policy-makers from focusing on our country’s pressing issues. He said:

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time. And all of us are out there every single day talking about what we're going to do to make sure that more people cross a graduation stage, that more families have great health care, that more folks are put to work…”

Didn’t have me hooting and hollering, but was his most compelling statement.

 Kamala Harris

So it wasn’t publicized much for whatever reason but Kamala Harris wasn’t able to make the debate, and instead they sent ­­Amy Adam’s mom from Sharp Objects.

She seemed like she was having a hard time stringing words together, and got fixated on some very weird and trivial points.

The highlight of her talking points was when she bitched at Elizabeth Warren for not joining her campaign to get Trump off Twitter. She cut across Warren, grabbing that mic like she was Kanye about to dump on Tayler Swift, and yelled at Warren for not joining her campaign to shut down Trump’s twitter account. Warren literally couldn’t have cared less and fired back with -

“I want Trump off of Twitter, I want him out of the White House…”.

Kamala wasn’t satisfied and shouted over Warren like she was Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor

 “WILL YOU NOT JOIN ME?!”.

 Warren literally just goes….”no.” and keeps talking. And to be honest I couldn’t agree with her more. Working to take down Trump’s twitter account is like when you are moving and all the dudes are lifting your massive dresser up three flights of stairs and you hop in there like, “Here, I’ll guide it…”

And as Trevor Noah said about the topic – “We need Trump on Twitter, how else are we going to monitor what he is up to?”

 Other than Kamala’s vendetta against Trump’s Twitter account, and Warren swiping a HARD left on that – there were still some other candidates embarrassing themselves up there.

Amy Klombuchar

One of the ‘smaller’ candidates who stole the show was Amy Klobuchar.

She is a moderate candidate whose ideals really bounce back and forth across the aisle. Her experience with an addict father has inspired her to fight hard for drug and alcohol addiction reform. She is an incredibly well spoken and fearless debater, who frequently went head to head with the biggest candidates without a flinch.

She directly called out Warren for not having a legitimate tax plan to fund her plans to erase student debt and provide Medicare for all.

 “But, again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done. And we can get this public option done. And we can take on the pharmaceutical companies and bring down the prices.”

 We again got to see how the more rational propositions don’t always feel as grabby, and don’t usually captivate voters. But Klobuchar had such a fiery and confident tone that made her very moderate plans sound like a Coach Taylor half-time speech.

This is why she repeatedly stood out…

from the other lesser known candidates. In fact she made one my favorite points of the night – she addressed an issue very near and dear to many women in this country – one that I’ve never personally heard talked about by politicians.

She directly called out the availability of legal gun purchase for domestic violence offenders. It was a chilling moment, and gave her a ton of points in my book.

She definitively claimed her intentions to ban assault rifles and high capacity magazines, but simultaneously said she wanted to avoid political division and just ‘wanted to get something done’.

Words that echoed previous Republican candidates promising to cross the aisle in the name of forward movement. In the case of guns and the NRA’s chokehold on our government,

I think we need more creativity than that.

BETO O’ROURKE

I intentionally didn’t talk much about Beto, and it’s mostly because is super annoying.

I feel like when he doesn’t have a good answer to the question, he just starts trying to speak Spanish and it seems so transparently pandering to the community he wants to appeal to. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is a white affluent male and watching him utilize the Spanish language only further convinces me that he is singularly appealing to white voter ignorance, who find it ‘impressive that he speaks Spanish.”

Most Spanish speakers have said they don’t like his targeted use of bilingualism to appeal to a demographic that he is not a part of. I think Beto was so productive and inspirational at the state level – inspiring a growing democratic movement and youth participation in Texas politics.

But his to choice run for the presidency has ruined his accountability at both levels.

Also he is really annoying with his talk of Metallica and plans to re-possess and destroy all assault level rifles make him a joke compared to candidates who have plans with legitimate potential to translate into future policy.

BETO – shut up about Metallica, you grew too big for your britches this time. Get off the stage and go back to affecting change on the city and state level. Also stop cursing on air, you aren’t coming off as passionate or edgy, just immature.

 Bernie Sanders

We didn’t talk about Sanders much but you could probably watch any of his past campaign speeches and that’s pretty much what he spouted at this debate.

He sat back quietly during the gun epidemic questions as well as the opioid crisis discussion. As in the past, his campaign is too singularly focused on his health care plan that is much too partisan to turn into law. He took a few hits at Biden, but mostly spent his talking time on very emotional talking points around health care reform.

Lots of bark, very little bite.

However, he was posed with a pretty awkward question by one of the moderators – she tried to ask him about how is age and recent heart attack might affect his fitness for presidency. She seemed so uncomfortable about the question that she posited the same to Tulsi Gabbard, asking if she was too young for the presidency. I don’t think Gabbard is about to drop dead of youth and vitality, so that got awkward. Sanders pretty much just said that his emotional passion will keep death from knocking on his door – as his neck veins bulged and he gestured wildly.

I’ve never been more convinced that the dude is about to drop dead at the next breaking Trump tweet.

 Tom Steyer

Let’s not forget about Tom Steyer, oh wait we can’t forget him because nobody knows who he is. Steyer is a self-made billionaire…yes I said billionaire. I would say that it was a stumper as to how he was able to appear on that stage but isn’t – he is a BILLIONAIRE. He could buy TV ads to tell the nation that his Crunch Wrap Supreme is giving him diarrhea, if he wanted to.

His most significant moment was when he supported Bernie and Warren’s propositions to tax the highest income brackets. He emphatically agreed – and a billionaire supporting taxes on the rich is definitely an impactful statement.

But then again…he already has oodles of money, so I am not quite sure what is real motives for the presidency are. I didn’t take many notes on him honestly, he basically contributed as much as a scarecrow would have on that stage.

He did a great job of scaring away all the crows…I definitely didn’t see a single crow on the stage the entire night. So most likely he contributed little to nothing other than astounding Bernie into silence – most likely a much needed break for his vocal cords.

 Elizabeth Warren

So let’s talk about Elizabeth Warren. She was very hit or miss at this debate. She seemed to rely on her canned talking points and hit them with strength, but when the more minor candidates pressured her on them, she seemed to falter.

As the debate went on it became clear that she was the ultimate opponent for every other person on that stage. She is has risen above Biden in the polls and has raced into the frontline position in this early stage. I believe Biden might be intentionally letting her take the lead and the heat that comes with that.

But either way, she had a target on her back at this debate.

Every single candidate on that stage attacked her and her policies. She held her own for the most part, but naturally ended up looking a little desperate as she was constantly forced into a defensive position. She faltered on some of the more hard hitting questions about her tax policies – when she was directly asked about whether or not her tax policies would raise taxes for the middle class, she wasn’t able to answer definitively and Buttigieg called her the hell out on it –

 “Well, we heard it tonight, a yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer. Look, this is why people here in the Midwest are so frustrated with Washington in general and Capitol Hill in particular. Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything.”

 He outlines the frustration that plagues the Democratic party – they all know what isn’t working, but they continue to promote plans that aren’t likely to pass into law.

The Democratic front-runners seem to have an idealistic plan for everything, but no actual ideas of how to turn those ideas into laws in collaboration with their conservative counterparts. They are lacking in compromise and it showed. That is why, as is typical of early and highly competitive presidential candidacies, those with succinct plans stand out and those with idealistic and ‘pretty’ sounding ideals get lost.

 This is why I find this phase of the candidate selection process so vital, because down the line when we are watching 2-3 candidates spout their romantic ideas, we all start to forget about how they plan on getting these things done. Warren touted structural change, and breaking up all of big tech and big oil, forgiving student debt. These are incredible ideas that I also want to come to pass – but I think at the very heart of this upcoming election, Democrats know that we have to have someone in office who can cross party lines and get something done. Our gun violence crisis, the climate crisis, etc. can’t wait.

A candidate who spends their time trying and failing to implement these lofty goals might result in a similar stagnation we are seeing under the Trump presidency. Warren would disagree with me, as she stated that –

 “People told me, go for something little, go for something small, go for something that the big corporations will be able to accept. I said, no, let's go for an agency that will make structural change in our economy.”

That was a powerful statement that was hard not to ignore. Warren still holds my potential vote, as I worry to waste it on a candidate who doesn’t have a shot at the presidency. She is smart, she has raced ahead in the polls, and she held her own against substantial attacks from her fellow candidates at this debate.

 Andrew Yang

I loved watching some of the underdogs steal the show – Andrew Yang made astoundingly succinct arguments, his knowledge of the economy is unparalleled, and he was easily the smartest person on that stage. He was able to cite economic data and projections but then draw a line from the numbers to how they are effecting issues like national debt and healthcare. When asked if he supported the impeachment inquiry, he quietly waited for a few of the candidates to attempt to sever their own vocal chords (*cough cough* Bernie), and then presented what ended up being my favorite response of all -

 “I support impeachment, but we shouldn't have any illusions that impeaching Donald Trump will, one, be successful or, two, erase the problems that got him elected in 2016.”

 And he is right, it cannot be assumed that this impeachment process will be successful even if the Democrats believe firmly that the truth will out. The truth WILL out, but I worry that with the state of our country right now, the truth might not be enough. And THAT is the very issue that Yang refers to – and he again presented data on how our economic issues beget these sociopolitical issues.

“Amazon alone is closing 30 percent of America's stores and malls, soaking up $20 billion in business while paying zero in taxes. These are the problems that got Donald Trump elected, the fourth industrial revolution. And that is going to accelerate and grow more serious regardless of who is in the Oval Office.”

Yang, like many of the other candidates, is not a career politician. He is an entrepreneur with extensive economic knowledge, and revolutionary ideas that unfortunately are probably about 4-8 years ahead of his time. He is actually capable of creating the job climate that Trump promised by promoting industries that are built to last and controlling big tech – but America, and especially Democrats, aren’t ready for a candidate who is so hyper-rational.

Right now both parties are tilting towards their extremes, and they want to hear their candidates feeling the same way as them. It’s just like trying to calm a screaming toddler with calm discussion – they aren’t going to hear it. This is a toxic undertone in the upcoming election, and will inevitably lead to both parties supporting extremist candidates who will both be equally unable to inspire progress in a stalwart congress.

 Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard is a young and inspiring veteran candidate from Hawaii. While she did not quite get a foothold in this debate, her military experience resulted in some very insightful ideas about the future of our military engagement in the middle east.

She also had a wonderful quote in response to the recent restrictions placed on Planned Parenthood:

 “Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.”

 I think that is a statement that highlights where pro and anti-choicers overlap. We all want less abortions, but she was very frank about how we can achieve that.

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THAT’S ALL FOLKS