The Democratic Debate, analyzed


Miss the debate? Here is are some important notes from our News Department Staff!
Bernie Sanders
– Annie Marion – Asst. News Director
Bernie Sanders wants to take back the government from the billionaires, make public college free, and extend social benefits.
He’s also pretty damn tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.
Sanders said the biggest threat to national security is climate change, taking a different route than other candidates who mentioned nuclear warfare and the Middle East.
“We have a moral responsibility to switch from fossil fuels,” said Sanders.
Overall, he’s critical of incarceration, adamant about education, and wants to be a middle class hero.
When many Americans hear Sanders described as a socialist, they automatically rule him out as a serious candidate. He explained his brand of politics as the defense against the top 10 percent and the promotion of benefits for working people.
Moderator Anderson Cooper asked Sanders about his electability. Sanders dismissed it, saying that if voters turned out, he’d win the election.
The kind of voters Sanders relies on are young idealists raised largely in post 9/11 world, fed up with the Iraq war and the constant stagnation of U.S. politics.
Bernie described Syria as a quagmire. He cited his position as former chairman of the Senate veterans committee as evidence for his foreign policy beliefs. Sanders called the Iraq War the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of America.
“When our country is threatened, or our allies are threatened, I believe that we need coalitions to come together to address the major crises of this country,” said Sanders.
His anti-war sentiments in the past have brought him udner fire, and Cooper asked Sanders if he could be a credible Commander in Chief since he opposed the Vietnam War.
Sanders pointed out that he supported military action in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Syria. While he’s no pacifist, he does view war as a last resort.
Cooper also posed a question about former Secretary of State Clinton’s email scandal.
In an impassioned outburst, Sanders condemned media for their hyperfocus on Clinton’s email scandal.
“Enough of the emails. Let’s talk about the real issues facing America,” said Sanders to uproarious applause and affirmation from Clinton herself.
These issues, in Bernie Sanders’ eyes, are combating Wall Street, focusing on jobs and income inequality, and getting Medicaid for everyone.
Sanders also claimed that on Wall Street, fraud is a business model. His proposal for these corrupt millionaires to finance public university education sounds good, but in practice might not be so easy.
While Sanders has college kids eating out the palm of his hand because of his extreme progressivity on social issues, he might miss the support of Generation X simply because he lacks the kind of experience Hillary touts.
One heavily liberal issue that Sanders falls on the right side of is gun control.
Sanders has historically voted against limiting gun legislation, including the Brady Bill. He defends his votes by saying the gun issues were complex, contrasting Clinton’s vehemently anti-gun sentiments. Sanders cited his rural Vermont upbringing for his gun views. He will push for stricter background checks and mental health programs.
While Sanders lacks Clinton’s naturalistic debate posture and quips, that’s probably because he’s spent most of his life behind the scenes. His popularity with millennials was reaffirmed when he made his famous declaration that all college tuition should be free. However, it’s hard to imagine 40-somethings latching on his primarily socialist policies.
Hillary Clinton
– Devon Lynch – News Dept. Staff
Democratic supporters around the country had long been anticipating the showdown that the first democrat debate of the presidential campaign season promised. This debate was the first opportunity   for Democratic frontrunner and former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton to emphasize her views and hold her lead. Clinton has been under fire in recent months for the FBI scandal involving her emails, and her seemingly altered beliefs on various issues.
Candidate Martin O’Malley raised this when the focus of the debate moved onto the banks, stating that Clinton had changed her positions on Keystone and Shadow banking. Clinton responded passionately, “I never took a position on Keystone until I took one!” referring to the announcement she made just before the debate regarding the Keystone pipeline. Hilary Clinton says that her plans for presidency will reign in the banks and big businesses of Wall Street and stop the risk of the economy crashing badly as it did in 2008.
“I’m not taking a backseat to ANYBODY!” Clinton says.
When moderator Anderson Cooper asked, Hilary Clinton claimed that she is a progressive, rather than a moderate.
Of the issues addressed in the debate, one of the most passionate for all the candidates was that of paid maternity leave. None of the candidates opposed this idea, and the room rippled with applause when Clinton said, “We need to join the rest of the advanced world in having it!”
Hilary Clinton held to the views she professes on her campaign website in the debate. As the only woman of the bunch, and a well-known political figure in America, Clinton received a great deal of air time and stood by all her decisions of the past. It is unclear as to who ‘won’ the debate, but it is unlikely that Clinton will drop significantly in the party polls.
Martin O’Malley
– Kaylin Burris – News Dept. Staff
Martin O’Malley, former Mayor of Baltimore and previous Governor of Maryland, came into the presidential running with fifteen years of experience under his belt. Ready to take America by storm, O’Malley is currently in third place with the Democratic polls and hopes to climb higher through the 2015 Democratic Debate. In his opening remarks, the former governor says, “urgent work needs to be done right now” to reform America, and that the people, not those leading them, are the way to bring about this change.
Having been a prominent legislator and leader in the state of Maryland, Martin O’Malley approached many of his political standings through his past experiences as a mayor and governor of a high-crime state. Under his direction, arrest rates in Baltimore fell from extremely high rates to just 38 percent, until the “Black Lives Matter” campaigns began taking hold last year. To accomplish this amazing feat, O’Malley passed gun legislation in Maryland and seeks to do the same in the rest of the United States of America. Fellow candidate Bernie Sanders countered O’Malley’s bold statement, claiming that gun legislators are harsher in urban cities, such as Baltimore, than Sanders hometown in Vermont. “It’s not about rural and urban,” O’Malley says, then concludes his argument, saying, “it’s time to stand up and pass gun legislation.”
Not surprisingly, gun legislation is not the only political issue the former governor feels strongly about. During his days as Mayor of Baltimore, O’Malley witnessed firsthand the brutality of racial discrimination and injustice. This raw exposure to racially-biased culture and its deteriorating effects on society led him to sponsor the “Black Lives Matter” campaigns, saying that it is an undervalue of black lives that has led to tense racial relations in this country – an issue he hopes to address during his presidency.
Martin O’Malley, however, is much more than just a former leader in the state of Maryland. He cares about the people, and addressed many issues during the debate that are most prevalent in American society today. He wants to prevent a repetition of the 2008 economic crash, and to do so wants to implement a “modern Glass-Steagall” to protect the common man from the greediness of Wall Street. O’Malley is also a big supporter of accepting undocumented immigrants into American society, saying, “We’re a nation of immigrants.” Not only does the former mayor and governor want to give free in-state tuition to these minorities, but he wants to make good healthcare available for them as well. By opening up these possibilities to a broader spectrum of people, O’Malley hopes to usher in a more “generous, compassionate America.”
In one of his final political statements, Martin O’Malley addresses the dire need, in his opinion, for a green revolution. By lessening the use of environmentally harmful substances, and increasing solar and wind use, he predicts that America will have a “one-hundred percent clean grid by 2050.” In fact, he even says that his first order in office will be dedicated to this principle.
With the “need to speak the goodness of America” in mind, candidate Martin O’Malley closes the Democratic Debate stressing the need to include more people in the economy, and to employ more Americans.

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