CNN's first 2019 Democratic debate in Detroit.

The debate is over and it is the battle of the progressives vs. the moderates. The moderates did their best to promote their visions of status quo, capitulation, deceptions, and omission. Delaney was slick in saying that the private sector can just collaborate with the government and everything will be cool. History teaches us that private-public partisanship benefits the rich including the upper middle class, exacerbates gentrification, and contributes to redlining in American cities, towns, and other locations. Delaney hypocritically talks about things being impossible to pay for, but he supports policies requiring billions and trillions of dollars (from infrastructure to climate change). Delaney has praised the TPP, which has been condemned by people from across the political spectrum. Williamson's defense of reparations was powerful. She is right to advocate for reparations, since America has not compensated black Americans for slavery, Jim Crow, the prison industrial complex, etc. Bernie Sanders answered many questions. The debate showed a clash between progressives and moderates. Warren wanted big, structural change.

Tim Ryan focused on labor issues. Tim Ryan did a good job on discussing his economic views in terms of manufacturing, etc. Klochubar was center-left. The other candidates expressed their ideals. Buttegieg did better than Beto O'Rourke, since Buttegieg used more details. Detroit praised Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on many issues. Bullock from Montana did his thing. The progressives in the stage said that they aren't afraid of big ideals since the far right spend billions of dollars to the super wealthy but do nothing to working class people. The debate talked about race, programs to help HBCUs, and other policies. The candidates called Trump a racist. Most of the candidates want diplomacy with allies to be the main foreign policy position. Bullock is wrong to desire preemptive U.S. nuclear strikes.

Many of the corporate media (from some in MSNBC and some in CNN) criticized progressives in their views. The lie promoted by the moderate candidates is that they believe that progressives want free everything. Bernie and Warren never said that people should have free everything. They did mention that people should have the opportunity to survive and a robust federal government involvement ought to be part of the solution making process. People like Scarborough and McCaskill showed off as being in promotion of the moderate status quo. McCaskill is the same one who said that you can't get things done since the legislative wouldn't allow these things. Decades ago, many in Congress didn't want civil rights and voting rights legislation. Yet, grassroots people organized and took over many seats to get those legislation passed. The composition of Congress can change. You can look at 2018 to see the House change into a mostly Democratic Congress. She talks about free stuff from the government, but benefits given to the American people is not about free stuff. It is about resources sent to help human beings that people have earned via work. Social Security, Medicare, etc. aren't free stuff. We work to receive these benefits. In a single payer system or a non-single payer system, you still pay for your health care. Also, it is part of federal law for undocumented workers to have emergency room health care. Even people will pay in an expansion of health care. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes. The poor getting SNAP isn't easy either. These are programs sent to help people not "free stuff." These moderate hypocrites support free stuff for Wall Street oligarch, oil giants, the weapons makers of the military industrial complex (in the form of tax cuts, subsidies, and other tax breaks), but refuse to invest the equivalent amount to housing, healthcare, education, and living wages.

The moderates talk about the revolution can wait. Tell that to the civil rights heroes who fought for change. Tell that to the homeless now who are struggling to survive. Tell that to others who desire revolutionary change. The fact is that real change requires structural, comprehensive change. Rahm Emanuel criticizing progressive is disgraceful since he ruined parts of Chicago by representing the interests of the 1 percent (his disrespect of poor Chicagoans, and and representative responses to policing issues). The debate didn't mention anything about impeachment, the Supreme Court, and other issues. The debate didn't see many candidates talking about the African American influence in Detroit. Detroit is a majority black American city.

They discussed about health care and immigration. Some candidates wanted decriminalization of border crossings. The health care debate was about Medicare for all vs a public option addition to the ACA. Tomorrow, the debate will be intense too. No one took Warren down, so Elizabeth Warren won the debate by default. Also, Warren expressed details. She eloquently defined the agenda of making sure that corporations who did nefarious activities are held accountable for their actions. In other words, corporations have no God-given right to do whatever it wants excluding accountability. Bernie Sanders is right to criticize the greed and corruption found in the ruling class. My view of the debate is that at the end of the day, a moderate goal will not be comprehensive change (since, it's piecemeal and will benefit some people not all people as history and economics teaches). A progressive path leads into a more comprehensive solution.



By Timothy