1st Debate, Part II

Thursday night, the second ten of 24 candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination took the floor to debate. The first ten debated on Wednesday night. If the math doesn’t add up, please read my post of yore, link below.

*Let me add this disclaimer here before you read too much into my post— I will vote blue, no matter who. Every candidate would be a vast improvement over Trump, every candidate.

Although debate 1 was a bit awkward at times, and there were one or two artificially passionate moments, some showing off, an unequal division of time, and a couple of interruptions that were immediately shut down by the moderators, it was civil.

There were no clear winners. (Warren and Cruz)

Debate 2 was nothing at all like 1. Shortly after it began, two of the candidates, began speaking over others. This escalated and others joined in making it difficult to hear anyone at times. The moderator’s requests for the participants to wait until they were called on to speak were ignored. This set the tone for the night.

At one point, Kamala Harris tried to stop the chaos by saying “America does not want to see a food fight; they want to know how we are going to put food on the table.” Brava.

The angry, aggressive vibe was too thick to dissipate with one reprimand.

Without naming names, young Swalwell was rude. He needn’t have bothered telling us he’s young, which he did, more than once; shouting questions and comments at candidates who were speaking gave his immaturity away.

Kristen Gillibrand was under the misapprehension that it was her turn to speak almost invariably.

Bernie Sanders never answered the questions asked, even when moderators followed up his answer by repeating the question, and giving him another 30 seconds to answer.

— And Marianne Williamson, who is she and why is she there? She seems to have escaped the pages of a Tennessee Williams play.

The debate did have consequences.

When Ms. Tennessee Williamson said something with regards to the rampant racism in the country, Kamala Harris asked if she could comment to that, because she was the only person of color represented on stage.

Kamala spoke of her childhood experiences, friends subjected to profiling, a little girl telling her they couldn’t be friends because she was black, and then she addressed Joe Biden personally.

She said she knew he was not a racist, but (the rule that one should ignore anything said before the word but is correct here) exposed Biden’s history of voting against bussing, his work with two racist Republicans on the matter, and said she was one of the children bussed at that time.

Biden angrily denied her accusations, but (there is that but again) fact checkers proved she was correct.

LISTEN: Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To End Mandated Busing In 1975 – NPR

The reactions I’ve seen on social media:

• Kamala Harris was the winner of the night. Pete Buttigieg’s calm demeanor and clear answers gave him second place.

• Some people said Ms. Harris shouldn’t have ”attacked Biden” like that.

• One man said she was too aggressive. (Although she was far less aggressive than many. Maybe he would have dismissed that thought if she had smiled more.🙄)

• More than one woman on Twitter criticized her makeup.

(Yes, sometimes we are our own worst enemies, which is one reason we have a rapist in the White House.)

Kamala’s only crime was that she’s a woman and she kicked ass. She must have done well, because trolls are attempting to spread birther theories, claiming she was born in Canada, and they’re trying to spread a rumor that she isn’t black. (Her mother is Indian and her father black.)

No one mentioned Andrew Yang’s missing tie.

A valid concern is that we elect someone who can beat Trump in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It’s too early to decide who that might be. Unless we do something to secure, our elections, none of this will matter.

Please forgive me if I was a bit harsh on some of the candidates. They will have my vote and my tireless support if they win the nomination.

The next debates are scheduled for the end of July. I HOPE a few candidates will have been weeded out by then.

https://alotfromlydia.com/2019/06/27/the-first-ten-candidate-debate/

Here is the only link I could find with the entire debate. You’ll have to fast forward through the commentary. 👇🏼