Democrats Debate

                                          

Things move very quickly in American politics. While in the process of reviewing the recent Democrat Presidential debate, Jim Webb, one of the candidates has dropped out of the contest, apparently realizing after the debate that he wasn’t a Democrat. Also, current Vice-President Joe Biden has indicated that he will not make a run to succeed President Obama.

I watched most of the recent debate and here is a report. Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady and, most recently, Secretary of State, was the star of the show and her lead in the polls must have earned her center stage.

To her right was Bernie Sanders, the 74-year-old self-styled Democratic-Socialist from the State of Vermont, who is giving Secretary Clinton a surprising run for the money. On Clinton’s left was Martin O’Malley, the former mayor of the notorious city of Baltimore as well as the former Governor of the State of Maryland.

Literally on the fringes of the debate were two real dark horses. Lincoln Chafee, a former liberal Republican from the tiny state of Rhode Island, stood off to Clinton’s left. He seems to have been repudiated by the voters of that tiny blue state even though he now calls himself a progressive Democrat. James Webb, a former Marine veteran of Vietnam and Secretary of the Navy, stood off to Clinton’s right both literally and politically, and seemed to be uncomfortable standing on the same stage with four liberal partisans who were trying desperately to appear as the most left-leaning Democrat of all.

With the exception of Webb all accepted the current Democrat party line of which Sanders is the most blatant advocate. Despite seven years of a Democrat President, Sanders insisted that the government and Congress were controlled by fat cats on Wall Street. All took for granted the fact that income inequality has increased dramatically in the past years, even though Democrat President Obama has been in office for the last seven years.

Also, despite an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) running wild with unprecedented and often illegal rulings, Sanders insisted that Climate Change was the greatest problem facing the country. All ( I’m not sure about Webb) agreed that renewable energy must replace fossil fuels in the coming decades.

As if these two issues were not enough, all agreed that the minimum wage must be increased and Sanders even called for almost doubling the Federal mandate to $15 per hour. He also called for universal “free tuition” at public colleges and universities throughout the country. What could be more popular with young voters? Clinton agreed but she did opine that students should have to work a little to contribute something toward the cost of their higher education.

I’m not going to discuss these issues here and now, but I would just like to make a couple of observations on the way that Democrats approach government and politics. They identify a problem; devise a plan to fix it; but then look for someone else to do the work. None of the candidates ever said what sacrifice they or their supporters would make to solve these problems.

Income inequality is a good example. Sanders and the others could only demand that the top 1% of income earners do the heavy lifting. They never suggested that Democrat politicians or their public service union supporters make any financial sacrifices. Nor did they suggest that high government salaries and generous pension benefits be cut to help the poor.

It was the same with minimum wage increases. Employers, large and small, would bear the burden of almost doubling the salaries of unskilled or entry level employees. It never occurred to them that employers would just have to pass along the increased expense to consumers, or else lay off many employees to just stay in business.

Finally, when it is obvious that the Democrats themselves have created the problem, they just laugh it off. “What about your emails and your secret server, Secretary Clinton”? Senator Sanders did not give a damn about the emails, and allowed Clinton to just laugh the whole thing off. Ha, ha, ha! “What about Benghazi, Secretary Clinton”? Oh, that’s just partisan politics. Ha, ha, ha! “What difference does it make”?

I guess that she’s right. She and her husband can do no wrong. Ex-President Clinton can be paid $500000 per speech by foreign potentates but his wife can still get away with complaining about income inequality.

Even Saturday Night Live could not take the hypocrisy of the Democrat debate and put together a great parody featuring Larry David as Bernie Sanders. Click on the link or view the video below.

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