{"id":1761,"date":"2015-10-15T18:33:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T02:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2015-10-15T18:34:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T02:34:08","slug":"democratic-debate-discusses-the-issues-not-the-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/democratic-debate-discusses-the-issues-not-the-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic debate discusses the issues, not the candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Conner Williams \r\nEditor-in-Chief<\/pre>\n
The first Democratic debate of the 2016 Presidential Election aired on CNN Tuesday night as the five candidates took the stage to hash it out over some of our nation\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
The debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper and saw a record-high 15.3 million viewers, shattering the 2008 record when Barack Obama debated Hillary Clinton towards the end of the primaries.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what made the debate such a joy to watch: it was actually about the issues, rather than about exchanging personal attacks and calling people losers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this stage \u2026 You didn\u2019t hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants \u2026 You didn\u2019t hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious beliefs \u2026 What you heard on this stage tonight was an honest search for the answers that\u2019ll move our country forward,\u201d said Martin O\u2019Malley (D), former Governor of Maryland.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley then went on to commend millennials by saying \u201ctalk to our young people under the age of 30, because you\u2019ll never see among them people that want to bash immigrants, or people that want to deny rights to gay couples. That tells me that we are moving to a more connected, generous and accomplished place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also addressed millennials, saying, \u201cIf we want free tuition at public colleges and universities, millions of young people are going to have to demand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we have the power to demand it. We make up the largest denomination of people in the United States, and we need to make our voices heard.<\/p>\n
Every American needs to be concerned about the state of our crumbling infrastructure, our disgustingly broken for-profit student loan system, the notion that we have more people currently incarcerated than any other country on earth, and the fact that tens of millions of Americans currently do not have healthcare coverage.<\/p>\n
Unlike the Republican debates, which centered on socially divisive and economically insignificant issues like abortion, illegal immigration and gay rights, the Democratic debate actually addressed some of the economic issues facing the American public, including income inequality, affordable college tuition, closing tax loopholes for the ultra-rich, and providing affordable healthcare.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not downplaying the validity of discussions that center around social issues, but let\u2019s be real, should we really be asking candidates if they would or wouldn\u2019t attend a marriage between two gay people if they were invited, as was the case in the Republican debate? Are those kinds of questions really going to help us tackle some of the great issues facing us right now?<\/p>\n
Probably not, but they tug at the emotions of the Republican audience and sound like they\u2019re important issues. After all, campaign finance reform isn\u2019t as flashy or divisive of a topic as, say, abortion or immigration, which Republicans use to hold negotiations hostage and that tend to become polarized discussions, meaning that they divide people rather than bring them together over serious issues that need addressing.<\/p>\n
There are serious issues that need discussing, not the state of Donald Trump\u2019s hair or Hillary Clinton\u2019s \u201cdamn emails,\u201d as Sanders so bluntly put it on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
In addition to defending his fellow candidate and treating her like an actual human being instead of attacking her character, Sanders also decided to explain his stance on our economic system of capitalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I consider myself part of the casino-capitalism process by which so few have so much and so many have so little, by which Wall Street\u2019s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don\u2019t,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the horrible tragedy that occurred at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., Clinton decided to take a risk and call out one of the largest lobbying powers in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time the entire country stood up against the [National Rifle Association],\u201d Clinton said.<\/p>\n
Clinton also called out the Republican Party\u2019s sense of hypocrisy when it comes to denouncing the scope of the federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always the Republicans or their sympathizers who say \u2018you can\u2019t have paid leave, you can\u2019t provide healthcare,\u2019 they don\u2019t mind having big government interfere with a woman\u2019s right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood, they\u2019re fine with big government when it comes to that, I\u2019m sick of it,\u201d Clinton said.<\/p>\n
When it comes down to it, our greatest social and economic challenges will not be solved by closing the border and deporting hard-working people. In fact, we would be amiss to say that we are not dependent on the cheap labor that is supplied by a largely Latino-based workforce, like agriculture and service-based jobs that are essential to growing and supplying crops that feed the populace.<\/p>\n
We will not fix the spiraling-out-of-control issue of income inequality by debating the Constitutional validity of the federal legalization of gay marriage, or the potential federal legalization of recreational marijuana use.<\/p>\n
We will not change the broken higher education system that sends thousands of young people into crippling debt every year by threatening to shut down the government if a women\u2019s healthcare organization is not defunded.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got to focus on the real issues at hand, not the click-bait surface material that the outlandish Republican Party so loves to provide the media.<\/p>\n
Each one of us needs to properly educate ourselves about the issues facing all of us, and we need to make sure that we choose to elect a candidate that represents our interests, and not the issues of a few super-rich individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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