The first Democratic Presidential debate took place this past Tuesday, October 13th, and we have a lot to talk about.
Let's start with the candidates themselves. The debate could have been called "The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Show with Special Appearances by Martin O'Malley." In this scenario, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee would just be hecklers in the audience. Anderson Cooper gleefully pitted the two candidates polling outside the margin of error against each other. There's plenty of controversy over who won, and a distinct disparity between media reports and online polls and postings on social media. I don't want to make presumptions based solely on my own opinion, so I'll just say this: both Clinton and Sanders had great performances, and even Martin O'Malley was a pleasant surprise. O'Malley proudly touted his past successes in Maryland, Sanders fervently advocated his populist agenda, and Clinton reassured the voters that she was a progressive -- one who can get things done.
On to the issues: The most interesting thing about the debate was what they talked about. Compare it to the Republican debates, in which they talked about foreign policy, immigration, the failing welfare state and too-high taxes, and abortion and Planned Parenthood. The Democrats talked about foreign policy, capitalism's potential evils, gun control, climate change, and race relations and police violence. It's laughable, really, how little cohesion there is in the issues this time around in a presidential election. Except the ever-present foreign policy concerns, there is not one single domestic issue unifying the American public right now, and it has been plainly obvious in the first three debates. The Democratic debate was refreshing to watch because, unlike the Republican debate, very few of the candidates attacked each other, and even came together on many issues, like reigning in capitalism and challenging the status quo.
And of course, the debate provided plenty of entertainment. Jim Webb acted like a petulant child because he wasn't getting a chance to speak, which was hilarious, But then he very slyly admitted to killing an enemy soldier in Vietnam, and suddenly he wasn't all that funny anymore, which didn't stop the Internet from ridiculing him for it all. Poor Lincoln Chafee had to take Anderson Cooper's scathing criticism of his voting for Glass Steagall "without knowing what he was voting on." And finally, thank you to Bernie Sander for what was without a doubt the best part of the night: someone finally saying the American public is really quite "tired of hearing about [her] damn emails!"
