Photo courtesy of Pete Buttigieg for President
About a half hour into the third debate by Democratic presidential candidates, Mayor Pete Buttigieg probably spoke for many viewers when he declared: “This is why presidential debates are becoming unwatchable.” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar was more ominous, warning: “A house divided cannot stand.”
That totally idiotic low point was an ugly schoolyard squabble with everyone sniping at each other’s incremental differences regarding what is definitely the Democrats’ strongest political issue going into 2020. That’s health care, which less than a year ago was the driving force behind Democrats winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterms. The good news for Democrats is that, after embarrassing themselves with that juvenile spat, the candidates pulled back, and viewers finally got to see what they’ve been waiting for: The top Democratic challengers together on one stage presenting positive ideas to restore competent national leadership.
Many Americans regardless of ideology are exhausted by a chaotic, erratic president constantly making, then reversing, ill-informed, contradictory decisions. We’re a nation on edge, because no one—least of all an unstable president with a tenuous grasp on reality—has any idea what he’ll do next.
With the field cut in half, there were fewer inconsequential candidates slinging knives at the front runners. Once the serious contenders stopped disparaging each other, they all came off looking better. Occasionally, they even gave credit to each other for leadership on critical issues, and they finally honored former President Barack Obama’s popular establishment of access to affordable health care as a human right.
What’s Working for Democrats and What Really Isn’t
The ultimate goal of every Democratic presidential candidate is universal health care. That’s lost when they argue over arcane details of transitioning to single-payer government health care. Republican repeated attempts to kill government subsidies providing health care for tens of millions of Americans were extremely unpopular. Republicans are still trying to get their own appointees on the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. If Chief Justice John Roberts ever reversed his constitutional support for government health care under Republican pressure, it would destroy the court’s legal reputation and end a lot more Republican political careers.
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Voters are so concerned about defeating Donald Trump they’ll turn against any candidate who damages another Democrat who could be the nominee. California Sen. Kamala Harris’ boost from confronting former Vice President Joe Biden over busing was fleeting. Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro drew boos for asking whether Biden had forgotten something he’d said two minutes earlier. It didn’t help that Castro was completely wrong about what Biden had said. Like many long-winded speakers, Biden has rambling moments that look pretty funny written down. (Trump transcripts look certifiably insane.) But it appears Biden’s supporters will consider him the safest choice to beat Trump until someone proves he isn’t. Those who remember Hillary Clinton as the safest choice in 2016 will continue to worry.
With mass murders becoming commonplace, Democrats are free to outlaw civilian access to military assault weapons and enormous ammunition magazines designed to kill hundreds of human beings in seconds. Republicans passing minimal measures on background checks will never be enough for most Americans.
The highest-polling candidates may continue to be Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for some time. Debates may change little until people start casting real votes in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. Then change could come fast and furious. Within weeks, the New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina primaries will be followed immediately by the possibly decisive, 14-state primaries on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Few can endure three hours of televised political debate, which is too bad. Anyone who failed to stick around for the last half hour of the third debate missed some of the most moving, personal moments in the lives of the candidates.
Instead of arguing over often meaningless policy conflicts, candidates described moments of resilience in their lives. Biden’s well-known loss of his wife and daughter and seeing two young sons seriously injured in a car accident at the start of his career was humbly told. “There’s still a lot of people who have been through a lot worse than I have who get up every single morning, put their feet one foot in front of another, without the help I had.” We may have forgotten other stories. That before Warren was a Harvard professor, she grew up poor and could only afford community college, beginning her adult life as a “special needs” schoolteacher and struggling single mother.
Such real, human demonstrations of character are important in a presidential election. We’ve learned from the current occupant of the Oval Office that the total absence of character and human decency really matters.
