Reflections on Last Night’s Democratic Debate
Where was Mayor Pete when we needed him? Or Andrew Yang?
Honestly, I thought last night’s carrying on’s about who voted for or against what and when were utterly ridiculous. The issue is laying out a vision for the nation and how you might go about getting there.
Bernie Sanders has laid out his visions over his last two runs for the Presidency, and they have attracted and galvanized many Democrats in his direction. In my opinion his rants have shown that he is completely unable to move beyond his visions to serve as President. He is stuck in a time warp on how to achieve his visions so he just rambles, pontificates, prophesies and throws out terms like “political revolution” and the “youth vote”.
Joe Biden has shown that he has the leadership skills and the common sense to get the job done. He has shown the essential decency and empathy so lacking in our President. He lacks, however, the ability to lay out the vision, to inspire us to dream and then to act.
President Trump has shown that he has no vision for the nation, no leadership, no common sense and a careless disregard for facts, truth, the law or much of anything beyond his whims from moment to moment and his unshakeable certitude about his own self-importance. If he cares about anyone beyond his immediate family and their net worth, he has failed to show it.
We need an understanding of the present and future of our economy. We need accumulated business wisdom and acumen to battle through the looming recession. We will need the ability to put our challenges and solutions in clear, concise and inspirational rhetoric. We need to unflinchingly explain where capitalism has gone off the rails and led to vast economic inequality and the necessary fixes through anti-trust and federal tax reforms. We need basic Midwestern common sense and pithy grasp of political reality. We have to embrace our diversity and welcome the strengths of our differences. We have to listen to and heed science, and most importantly we must deeply hear each other and heal. We must dig our way out of the deep tunnels of isolationism, racism and nativism into which we have blundered – a journey of many years in the making. We must value, imagine and achieve a nation for our children and grandchildren and dedicate the hard work and sacrifice to make it happen.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 3/16/20