I’m glad I watched the Democratic Debates even though, at first, I didn’t think I had learned anything new. I week later, I’m not so sure about the not learning anything new part.  Elizabeth Warren was the standout for me on Wednesday, both in the completeness of her answers, almost if she had thought about the subjects, and her passion (I also agreed with most of her answers so that influenced me, I’m sure). I’ve had several people say that she comes across as a scolding schoolmarm but I did not get that impression.

More than a couple of the candidates, both Booker and O’Rourke come to mind, evaded answering specific questions, instead, they talked about how we have to do the right thing and they would be the ones to do it. About the time I thought O’Rourke was all fluff, one of the moderators asked what was the single biggest threat to the United States in one or two words. The first candidate said “China”, then the second said “Russia” and the answers went back and forth in that vein until it came to O’Rourke who said something like “Global Heating” and completely changed my impression of him. I thought Julián Castro was surprisingly impressive and my hopes for Tulsi Gabbard were crushed (although I have since read that Google searches for her have gone way up). Ditto for Governor Inslee. 

At one point John Delaney and Ohio Congressperson Tim Ryan each went off on a sort of rant on how the Democrats have to go back to the party of working people instead of the party of Coastal Elites. It sounded strangely out of place and I think they are dead on. Somebody, Julián Castro, I think, brought up abortion rights for transgender people and I thought, “Come on, talk about how the lives of average people are going to be improved.” One of the things that I most admire about AOC is that, as she puts it: I’m not running “from the left.” I’m running from the bottom. I’m running in fierce advocacy of working-class Americans. With the notable exceptions of Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard – and maybe DeBlasio from the way he raised his hand for Single Payer – the candidates in the first group seemed more Socially Liberal than Economically Liberal. Most of these people got here with, among other things, the help of some rich benefactors, and siding with the working class puts the candidate in opposition to the biggest Democratic donors who are definitely not working-class.

The next night, the heavy hitters were Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, with supporting roles by Harris, Buttigieg, and Gillibrand. Bernie, in my opinion, is the most influential candidate up there, pulling almost everyone else left, still, I don’t think he will get the nomination. It just feels as if his campaign has peaked and I think that’s why Harris went after Biden first, thinking he is the top dog. Speaking of which, watching Kamala Harris eviscerate Biden reminded me of Trump taking on Jeb! only much more nuanced. Whereas Trump made an ad hominem attack, saying something like “Look at him, just low energy, he won’t get anything done”, Harris went after Biden’s actions and made them personal. As an aside, when somebody starts out with, “I don’t believe you are a racist, but…”, it probably won’t end well. End aside. The thing is, I think Biden is a racist, almost all of us are. It is how we react to that innate racism, acknowledged or not acknowledged, that sets us apart. In Biden’s case, I think he reacted defensively which is why Clarence Thomas’ accusation of “High-tech lynching” was powerful enough to get Biden to close those long ago hearings. I suspect Harris saw that weak spot and pounced. Biden said he didn’t see the attack coming, which he should have, but, even so, I can’t think of a worse defense than states rights.

South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg, was charming but he has a race problem that will not be easy to minimize. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Colorado Governor Hickenlooper were there but I don’t think either helped their cause much. Both Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang conducted themselves well, but I can’t see any scenario that results in either of them becoming president.

If the Democrats go with an Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders Progressive, they will lose some rich people to Trump, probably more than in 2016 because of his tax cuts for the rich but, if they don’t run a candidate who inspires voters from the bottom, they might lose even more. It is a dilemma that should be terrifying for the Democrats because the party reliance on the money bundlers and big donors contrasts with the reality that This election will ONLY be won by convincing more people like me to vote for you. according to a reTweet by Rashid Talib, who goes on to say 90,000 MI voters left the top of the ticket blank, meaning they didn’t vote for either Trump or Clinton. He won MI by only 10k votes. Let that sink in.