There couldn’t have been a more dramatic contrast on display between Donald Trump and the 10 Democratic candidates for president who debated on Tuesday night in Detroit.
It was almost entirely about ideas, issues, plans, solutions — things about which the president has shown little interest, but which consume the Democrats.
Which was both the point and the problem.
As Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota put it: “Do you want to win the argument, or do you want to beat Trump?”
This was the hinge on which the debate swung, and for policy wonks, it swung widely.
It was round one of the second debate for the Democrats vying for their party’s nomination. And there were deep divisions over points that, to voters who see defeating Trump in 2020 as the overriding issue, might seem trivial.
Particularly since, despite some raised voices and eyebrows, there was little in the way of disagreement over such momentous issues as, immigration, gun control and climate change.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana “seized the opportunity to argue that since the candidates’ aims were so similar on climate, the question came down to who was most likely to win in 2020,” says the Washington Post. “We will deal with climate if and only if we win the presidency,” Buttigieg said.
Health care was another matter, and one brought up at the very beginning of the debate by the CNN moderators.
On this, there were glaring disagreements between the progressives — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Bernie Sanders (VT) — and the more-or-less moderate and pragmatic candidates, like Klobuchar and former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado.
Sanders and Warren are old friends who agree on many issues, including “Medicare for All,” which would dump Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) and all but eliminate private or employer-paid health insurance.
Sanders, never one to hold back, shouted and went all but bug-eyed as he claimed his plan would virtually solve the the nation’s prolonged ideological struggle to make health care available and affordable to all Americans.
Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana fired one of the more searing denuciations of that: “It used to be Republicans that wanted to repeal and replace [Obamacare],” he said. “Now many Democrats do as well.”
“Those disagreements set a combative tone,” says the New York Times. “The health care arguments underscored the powerful shift the Democratic Party is undergoing … illustrated in a substantive debate that also included trade, race, reparations, border security and the war in Afghanistan.”
All the candidates (all white, for this debate) weighed in on the race issues that have intensified in the two and a half years of the Trump presidency, citing the demonstrated challenges faced daily by African Americans. But none offered straightforward solutions to the long-term consequences of slavery, segregation and discrimination that have plagued the nation for centuries.
In the end, it was left to the least conventional candidate on the stage to sum up the proceedings and put the others — and their party — to a test.
“If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country,” said New Age author Marianne Williamson, “then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days,”
Former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California will be on stage Wednesday night with eight other candidates, again broadcast by CNN.
