In presidential elections, the home of the fourth Democratic Presidential debate, the state of Ohio is known as a kingmaker. Candidates were quick to point out that Ohio and the Midwest has lost jobs while the President has been in office. Nevertheless, Ohio is pivotal.
For the first time, billionaire Tom Steyer was on stage, Steyer was the first spear to launch the call for impeachment of POTUS. Steyer says that a criminal is in the White House and no one is above the law. Pelosi, Speaker of the House has come to take this position.
Steyer is courageous and unrelenting as evidenced by his statement that billionaires such as him are getting away with murder by grabbing more of the national wealth and paying less of the tax burden. When you are born on second or third base, it is difficult to condemn a social class that you live in and be unrepentant about calling for a wealth tax.
The debate occurred during the time of perhaps the biggest blunder in modern foreign policy history. POTUS in his matchless wisdom impulsively withdrew American troops from Syria and left our allies, the Kurds to face slaughter at the hands of the Turks. The Kurds were our allies and played the major role in defeating the Isis caliphate. The toll in human lives was stunning. 10, 000 dead and 11,000 wounded. I think it was Madison who said, “we are only as strong as our allies”. After betrayal of an ally, who will trust you?
Texan Beto O’Rourke and Mayor Pete had a scoring play as they laser focused on not wasting the lives of 18- and 20-year olds in senseless wars. Only two candidates, Gabbard and Mayor Pete have combat experience.
Gabbard of Hawaii, Vulcan and Cyborg like in her demeanor and TV temperament stated, the present POTUS is what unfit looks like. All Democrats on the stage were eager to point out that they were for impeachment.
Somehow the Biden doctrine on not abandoning the Obama legacy held. All candidates in their remarks or lack of remarks reflected that they supported the Obama legacy good, bad or indifferent. This had to be hard for Booker, Harris and Castro.
Biden covered for his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter and the Bidens’ were tainted by crony capitalism but at this time there is no evidence that he did anything illegal. Certainly, colossally bad judgement but not criminality.
Bernie Sanders is expected to be endorsed by Rep. Ocasio (D-NY), this week. He appeared to be very robust following his recent heart attack, even joking that he was not high on marijuana at the moment.
If the national polling is accurate and Warren is the front runner, she repeated what she proclaimed in Houston- a half billion dollars for Historically Black Colleges and Universities HCBU’s. Along with this commitment, Warren hit the mark as she highlighted the need to extend the solvency of Social Security. This is important because if social security collapses, the welfare state collapses and the manifesto for a political revolution punches us in the face.
Booker pointed out that our country has more child poverty than any other country in the world. Sanders drove home the point that the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. These facts underlie the heated debate generated around Medicare for all. How does a broke country pay for Medicare for all? After being pressed to the mat by Klobuchar, Warren would not yield by admitting that the middle class might have to be taxed. Sanders pointed out that the health care companies made $100 billion last year. An emerging force that cannot be denied is Klobuchar from Minnesota. She insisted on ObamaCare plus the public option.
No issues are so raucous as how do we get guns, especially war styled assault weapons out of the hands of Americans? Mandatory or voluntary buybacks.
All of this will require massive financial expenditures. Where will the money come from?
Everyone can’t be in the wagon, somebody must get out and push. Let’s negotiate who gets out and push so that we can move forward!
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