The Second Democratic Debate: “That Little Girl Was Me”
Dog fight! Sword fight! Last night’s gabfest makes the first Democratic debate look like a sad tea party. You have to admit, this one has a sexier cast of characters, from front-runner Joe Biden to coming-in-second avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, who are seated literally center stage, flanked by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Kamala Harris. And then there is Kirsten Gillibrand, and further afield, Senator Michael Bennet, Representative Eric Swalwell, former Governor John Hickenlooper, and tech executive Andrew Yang—who has the nerve to not to wear a tie, and whose platform is to give every adult American $1,000 a month. (Now wouldn’t that be fun?) Even new-age author Marianne Williamson is in the house, proving just what an insanely huge, flappy tent the Democratic Party truly is.
Big night for Kamala Harris! “America doesn’t want to witness a food fight; they want to know how we’re going to put food on their table,” she declares, hushing the other candidates, who have begun screaming over each other. Then, in a commanding voice, she says, “As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak...on the issue of race.... I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly.” She fixes Joe Biden in her crosshairs and continues: “I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe, and it’s personal—and I was actually very—it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
It is a riveting moment, and it makes Harris a star—at least for the night. Biden, who must have known this kind of attack could come, was nevertheless flummoxed, answering that his positions are being mischaracterized and that he did not praise racists, and that furthermore, “If we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I’m happy to do that.”
It is the major, but not the only, conflagration of the night. Hickenlooper, who one suspects may be gone by the next debate, says that he thinks the bottom line is that if we don’t clearly define that we are not socialists, the Republicans are going to come at us every way they can and call us socialists! To which Sanders thunders, “…the American people understand that Trump is a phony, that Trump is a pathological liar and a racist, and that he lied to the American people during his campaign.… That’s how we beat Trump: We expose him for the fraud that he is.” Then Gillibrand, who has taken the DeBlasio role for the night of interrupting and sticking her two cents in whenever she can, attempts to draw a distinction between nice capitalism and greed.
Bennet—will he disappear shortly as well?—says he agrees with Bernie on the economy, but he doesn’t like Medicare for all. Swalwell, who is 38 and whose number one issue is gun control, recounts that when he was six years old, a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic Convention and said it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans, and that candidate was then-Senator Joe Biden. “Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans 32 years ago. He is still right today.” He talks about this torch so much that moderator Jose Diaz-Balart asks, “Vice President, would you like to sing a torch song?”
Buttigieg also touts his impressive youth, saying, “…when I get to the current age of the current president in the year 2055, I want to be able to look back on these years and say my generation delivered climate solutions, racial equality, and an end to endless war.” He mentions his husband in his very first response, and he also reminds people that he is a practicing Christian, saying, “We’ve got to talk about one other thing because the Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion.… we should call out hypocrisy when we see it. And for a party that associates itself with Christianity, to say that it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.”
Everyone on stage agrees that incarcerating migrant kids will stop the very minute they set foot in the Oval Office. They will also end privately-run detention centers; they will re-institute DACA; they will open up a pathway to citizenship. Buttigieg adds that he is in favor of undocumented people getting health insurance; Hickenlooper wants to reform ICE and make them more humanitarian. Even Williamson gets into the act saying that this is collective child abuse; these are state-sponsored crimes.
Can two hours have passed already? Biden tells you for what seems like the 100th time what a great team he and Obama were; Sanders reminds you that he did not vote for the Iraq War. You suddenly realize that any one of these people—even Hickenlooper, whose socialism bashing you find annoying; even kooky Marianne!—would be far superior to the current occupant of the White House, and you would be thrilled—gleeful!—if any of them (even Marianne!) won. Each of the presumptive candidates is given 45 seconds for a closing statement, and, no surprise, Sanders uses his as a call to action: “I suspect people all over the country who are watching this debate are saying, these are good people, they have great ideas. But how come nothing really changes? How come, for the last 45 years, wages have been stagnant for the middle class? How come we have the highest rate of childhood poverty? How come 45 million people still have student debt? How come three people own more wealth than the bottom half of America? And here is the answer: Nothing will change unless we have the guts to take on Wall Street, the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the military-industrial complex, and the fossil fuel industry. If we don’t have the guts to take them on, we’ll continue to have plans, we’ll continue to have talk, and the rich will get richer, and everybody else will be struggling.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
