Democratic Debate #2 Thread (Night 1)

I think Sanders and Warren did an excellent job tonight defending their positions and fighting back. I will continue donating to both the campaigns because their vision is pretty much the same and both would make me proud to have as a President.

Amy Klobuchar lost me when she talked about free college for everyone but the wealthy, just as Pete Buttigieg did for me at the last debate. You cannot say education is a right if you put a qualifier on that right. That is classism based on wealth. If Donald Trump's kids wanted to go to Virginia Tech like me, I say go for it. It is a government institution, funded by taxpayers. We do not close off roads, fire stations, police departments, or a high school, based on how much money you have in the bank. Period. When 2024 rolls around, I want a president who include colleges and doctors on that list.

Tim Ryan lost me talking about unions and healthcare. The bargaining of healthcare in companies is additional leverage that a company has to use on the bargaining table. And to be charitable, that is because health care is also expensive to the companies as well! It is disingenuous to say that union workers love their insurance. I grew up on union health insurance, and on the one hand, I was more fortunate than many of the kids I grew up with because my parents could take me to the doctor whenever they needed to, but on the other hand, I had health care through an insurance company that would leave doctor's offices frustrated towards me because they had to spend sometimes hours negotiating with the insurance to pay the bill. Healthcare in this country is completely broken. My fiance slashed her leg open in three different parts in Italy 10 years ago, she paid nothing at the Italian hospital's ER as an American citizen. Last year, she had insurance and had to go to the ER for a scratched cornea with insurance. She paid nearly $2,000! It is so disingenuous to say because someone can bargain for health insurance, that is a good thing and we should keep it that way.

Don't get me wrong, I like and respect most of the candidates running for President. I will vote for any of them over Donald Trump in the general election and volunteer for them. However, if the next President isn't courageous and willing to fight against special interest groups, they will pave the way for the next Trump-like President the next go around.

We have been fighting for better health care for so long. If a Democratic candidate can't think as big or bigger than we did 60 years ago, I will be extremely disappointed.

Just read this small debate transcript from 1960:

I'm not satisfied to have fifty percent of our steel-mill capacity unused. I'm not satisfied when the United States had last year the lowest rate of economic growth of any major industrialized society in the world. Because economic growth means strength and vitality; it means we're able to sustain our defenses; it means we're able to meet our commitments abroad. I'm not satisfied when we have over nine billion dollars worth of food - some of it rotting - even though there is a hungry world, and even though four million Americans wait every month for a food package from the government, which averages five cents a day per individual. I saw cases in West Virginia, here in the United States, where children took home part of their school lunch in order to feed their families because I don't think we're meeting our obligations toward these Americans. I'm not satisfied when the Soviet Union is turning out twice as many scientists and engineers as we are. I'm not satisfied when many of our teachers are inadequately paid, or when our children go to school part-time shifts. I think we should have an educational system second to none. I'm not satisfied when I see men like Jimmy Hoffa - in charge of the largest union in the United States - still free. I'm not satisfied when we are failing to develop the natural resources of the United States to the fullest. Here in the United States, which developed the Tennessee Valley and which built the Grand Coulee and the other dams in the Northwest United States at the present rate of hydropower production - and that is the hallmark of an industrialized society - the Soviet Union by 1975 will be producing more power than we are.

These are all the things, I think, in this country that can make our society strong, or can mean that it stands still. I'm not satisfied until every American enjoys his full constitutional rights. If a Negro baby is born - and this is true also of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in some of our cities - he has about one-half as much chance to get through high school as a white baby. He has one-third as much chance to get through college as a white student. He has about a third as much chance to be a professional man, about half as much chance to own a house. He has about uh - four times as much chance that he'll be out of work in his life as the white baby. I think we can do better. I don't want the talents of any American to go to waste. I know that there are those who want to turn everything over to the government. I don't at all. I want the individuals to meet their responsibilities. And I want the states to meet their responsibilities. But I think there is also a national responsibility. The argument has been used against every piece of social legislation in the last twenty-five years. The people of the United States individually could not have developed the Tennessee Valley; collectively they could have.

Carter in 1976

We've got to have a firm way to handle the energy question. The reorganization proposal that I've put forward is one first step. In addition to that, we need to have a realization that we've got about 35 years worth of oil left in the whole world. We are going to run out of oil. When Mr. Nixon made his famous speech on operation independence, we were importing about 35 percent of our oil. Now we've increased that amount 25 percent. We now import about 44 percent of our oil.

We need a shift from oil to coal. We need to concentrate our research and development effort on coal-burning and extraction that's safe for miners, that also is clean burning. We need to shift very strongly toward solar energy and have strict conservation measures and then, as a last resort only, continue to use atomic power.

I would certainly not cut out atomic power altogether. We can't afford to give up that opportunity until later. But to the extent that we continue to use atomic power, I would be responsible as President to make sure that the safety precautions were initiated and maintained. For instance, some that have been forgotten: We need to have the reactor core below ground level, the entire powerplant that uses atomic power tightly sealed, and a heavy vacuum maintained. There ought to be a standardized design. There ought to be a full-time atomic energy specialist, independent of the power company, in the control room full-time, 24 hours a day, to shut down a plant if an abnormality develops. These kinds of procedures, along with evacuation procedures, adequate insurance, ought to be initiated.

So, shift from oil to coal; emphasize research and development on coal use and also on solar power; strict conservation measures-not yield every time the special interest groups put pressure on the President, like this administration has done; and use atomic energy only as a last resort with the strictest possible safety precautions. That's the best overall energy policy in the brief time we have to discuss it.

Dukakis 1986:

Peter, I care deeply about people. All people. Working people, working families. People all over this country who in some cases are living from paycheck to paycheck. In other cases are having a hard time opening up the door of college opportunity to their children. In other cases don't have basic health insurance which, for most of us we accept as a matter of course, and assume we are going to have in order to pay the bills that we incur when we get sick. I'm somebody who believes deeply in genuine opportunity for every single citizen in this country and that's the kind of passion I brought to my state. I was a leader in the Civil Rights movement in my state and in my legislature. I cared very deeply about that war in Vietnam...I thought it was a mistake, I thought it was wrong, and I was one of the few legislators early in that war that took a stand against the war. I think it was the right stand at that time and I think history has proved us to be correct. But I have learned over time. I served one term...I was defeated as you know, and defeat sometimes is an important lesson. I think I am a much better governor today...I think I am a much better person...a much better listener. I think I'll be a much better president for having gone through that experience. But the things that we have done in my state to bring opportunity to people on public assistance -- over 50,000 families on welfare that we've helped to move from welfare to work and to become productive citizens -- the universal healthcare bill that we just talked about which will guarantee health care for all of our citizens. The opening up of opportunity to minorities in my state, affirmative action, minority contracting. The fact that we have a three percent unemployment rate and more jobs than people to fill them which gives us a tremendous opportunity to reach out to everybody and make them a part of this wonderful nation of ours with the opportunity that we create. These are things that I believe in very, very deeply. I may be a little calmer than some about it. I may be a greater consensus builder these days than I used to be, and I think that's a good thing, but I'm running for the presidency of the United States. I've been in public service for 25 years because I believe deeply in American goals and values and the people of this country, and that's the kind of president I want to be.

Its just somewhere along the way, the Democratic party lost its vision on working class people. Look through the transcripts of the last 15 years of Democratic debates and find keywords like "climate change", "special interests", "unions", or "campaign finance reform". The Soviet Union is mentioned more after the year 2000 than unions themselves.