Who Won the Debate? Who's Asking?

     Wednesday’s Democratic Debate had no clear winner, though it clearly had two losers, Senator Webb and Senator Chafee.  The two frontrunners, Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders, both gave performances people expected.  Secretary Clinton spoke of her foreign policy experience, commitment to social programs geared toward families and strong gun control stance with the elegance of seasoned politician.  Senator Sanders used his tried and true talking points of 1% excess and greed, support of the working and middle classes, free healthcare and free public college tuition using his same fervor that gathers crowds of thousands for his rallies.

     It’s hard to see devoted Clinton or Sanders’ supporters switching sides due to eithers performance.  Most pundits and corporate media claim Hillary’s cool, calculated and Clinton patented triangulation gave her a decisive victory over Sanders.  Online polls and Google searches give Sanders a commanding lead over Clinton.

     These results serve as a proper view into this Presidential primary season.  Secretary Clinton finds her support from cable news, major online publications and other established media sources.  This comes as no surprise from the politically well accomplished Clinton, serving as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State.  Sanders finds his support from grassroots organizations and smaller alternate online news sources and blogs.  Though not scientific, the huge leads in online polls show how Sanders left wing populism appeals to younger internet savvy voters.  And both sides will contend that their candidate won.

     What are we to take from this?  The Democratic Party, like the Republican Party, is fighting with itself to stay relevant in 21^st Century America.  The black vote is now challenging the Democratic establishment, forcing the candidates to face issues that confront only black Americans, evident by the Black Lives Matter movement’s influence.  Socialism, once a damning reproach, was given a proper defense from Senator Sanders and pure capitalism was challenged.  These discussions are forcing the Democratic Party to change in a good way to shifting American politics.

     Compare this to the Republican Primaries.   Instead of new ideas and solutions being discussed, the GOP nomination race has devolved into demagoguery and ignorance.  People like Trump and Carson use groupthink to whip up a furry of hate against undocumented immigrants or Muslims to propel themselves to victory.  Their party further regresses into a mockery of the Party of Lincoln.

     So, to answer the question, who won the debate? Democrats, and the American Left in general won the debate.  The Democrats showed themselves to be a modern party open to new ideas and new movements, in stark contrast to their bigoted opponents.