After writing a column defining the nonsense stated at the June debates, a responsible person would have thought that they washed themselves out of anything from future discussion. Yet the July debates generated a whole new crop of mystifying statements.
Let’s first discuss the single worse comment made at the debates that was repeated a few times on night one and then tried on night two by Senator Kamala Harris. Senator Warren said “We should stop using Republican talking points.” Then she repeated it and Senator Sanders used it.
It does two things. First, it totally demeans the person to whom it is directed. This is a Democrat debate. All the people on stage are either Democrat-elected individuals or committed Dems. To say they are using Republican talking points is saying to someone “you are so stupid you do not even understand the policies you are supporting.” Second, it is arrogant. It says the only real Democrat policies are mine. Yours are not welcome in my party.
We will see more of this being used because the party of tolerance is actually the party of intolerance.
It was fascinating to watch two things in particular — one small (but telling) and one large:
1. Viewers could discern that only three of twenty candidates sang the national anthem. Really folks — you are in front of America and you can’t even fake it?
2. There was only one candidate openly endorsing Obamacare. A decade ago, this country had a huge fight over adopting this public policy which Democrats made us believe was an essential right for all Americans. The one candidate still supporting the law (Biden) was seen telling President Obama in public “This is a big f—- deal.” It is particularly interesting watching Mayor de Blasio completely tear apart our healthcare system while ignoring the people on the stage who helped to adopt that plan.
Now that Republicans no longer have to trash Obamacare since Democrats are doing it, we are relieved of another thing. We don’t have to trash President Obama. How many times have you told someone that you, like they, felt it was the end of the world due to the current President? For most Republicans it was Obama, but we chose to act like adults and not like hysterical children. Not so for many Democrats.
We don’t have to do that anymore. All we must do when they trash Trump is point to the presidential candidates and say “See, even they think Obama was a bad president.”
Elizabeth Warren certainly is not my favorite. She is hectoring. She actually admonished the audience. But I have come to a conclusion. She is not a socialist. She is a Communist. She says she supports capitalism, then goes out and vehemently attacks every industry and everyone who runs a company. She may like her local drycleaner, but there is ample evidence she thinks anyone who participates in our capitalist system is a crook.
A chorus of candidates want to make college a free thing. One, former Congressman John Delaney, totally out of step with everyone else wants just two years free. Not one of them spoke of controlling the costs at the colleges. The ridiculous explosion of administrative positions at colleges was not discussed. They don’t seem to understand the growth of federally funded student loans has escalated costs for colleges by putting more money into the system allowing the colleges to ratchet up their fees. These candidates carp about the escalating expense of prescription drugs which, over a period from 1990 to now, have gone up 51%. During a similar period, college costs have gone up 311%.
Senator Sanders talked about the wonderful healthcare “just five minutes away” in Canada. He did not mention that in 2017 (according to the Fraser Institute) 63,459 Canadians went elsewhere (mainly USA) for medical procedures. And that is only the people they know about who went outside the country. Think what the real number might be. That might be because in 2018 the average wait was 19.8 weeks to see a doctor. It takes an average of 10 weeks to get a MRI. In America you can have one the same day. If that is your model system Bernie, then you go live in Canada. I will stay here in the USA.
The candidates announced to the world that the most important country in the world — the one with the largest economy and is looked to as the defender of freedom — is no longer a country. Every other country in the world has rules declaring who can enter and stay in their country. That is what makes each one a country. If we listen to this group of candidates, who were falling over each other to declare how we must change our rules to no longer criminalize illegally entering our country, we will no longer have a country. They asked you to believe there is no difference between civil penalties and criminal penalties. Boy, they really think we are stupid. Oh, but “open borders” is just a Republican talking point.
Senator Booker, in his continuing mission to show he is down with the Black people after living an extremely privileged life, came up with a whopper. He claimed Black voter suppression was the cause of President Trump winning Michigan in the 2016 general election. Booker needs to review history. Hillary Clinton lost Michigan to Sanders in the primary. Maybe he should spend some time walking Black neighborhoods so he can find out the real reason they did not vote for Clinton. It was very simple: they did not like her, so they stayed home. The senator should stop making totally unfounded claims like this and apologize.
The biggest lie of the debates is about the public option. There is no such thing as a “public option.” Let’s define the public option. The government will be determining pricing for health insurance with a total disregard for the cost of administration and the underwriting of losses. Those figures will never be disclosed so the American people will never know how much they paid to create an insurance option that does not have to compete with the insurance companies. Then, when people sign up and pay less for insurance, the Left will tell us how much better government insurance is than private insurance because they just underwrote the policies with billions of tax dollars and thousands of government employees who get paid more than private industry employees.
I cannot leave this without commenting on our dear Senator Gillibrand. She stated it was not the burden of the Black candidates to address the issue of racism. She thinks it is her obligation to take the message to white Americans. I would love to be in the room when she starts educating housewives and mothers in Iowa and New Hampshire that they are the root cause of racism. I would love to see their reactions. Yes, Senator, please go out there and cure the imaginary racism that you see radiating from ordinary citizens.
Guy Benson summarized the Democrats’ message of the debates so well, “This is a party that wants to take away my private health insurance and give taxpayer funded health insurance to illegal immigrants whose illegal crossing they want to decriminalize.” Now there is a winning election message if you have ever seen one.
I could go on, God knows I could go on, but I don’t want you to have too much fun. The Democrat candidates might catch on and start proposing laws to stop it. I can’t wait until the next debate when Uncle Bernie and Aunt Lizzie start yelling at us again.