Between a 40 hour a week job, a busy news cycle, and some family obligations, I'm a little late to the party on the Tax Reform Debate. After having it brought to my attention by the wonderful people at the Daily Wire, I was aware of it the day after it happened and I actually took the time to watch it the day after that thanks to YouTube. Since I waited to write about it for two weeks, I do admit that just about everything that needs to be said about it has already been said and this should be a pretty short article. However, there are a couple of little points I haven't really heard brought up that I do think bear attention.
The first thing that I noticed with this debate, and the healthcare debate for that matter, is the personnel. On the right was Senator Ted Cruz, who would seem to be the most obvious choice. Senator Cruz is the Republican Party, in spite of who the country elected as President. He is a classic Christian Conservative who gained the majority of his national fame by running for President. His platform was End Obamacare, Flat Tax, Put God back in the Government, and Stimulate job creation by getting the government out of the way. While these ideas may be far to the right of the recent centrist Republican converts, they are definitely in line with the voters who have been Down-the-Line Conservative since Reagan was in Office. On the other hand, his opponent was Independent (Socialist) career senator Bernie Sanders. While the vast majority of Democrat Politicians follow a similar, if not the same, political ideal, the ones with a D next to their names at least make an attempt to hide it.
Bernie being the Democrat representative to the string of televised debates shows is highly representative of the leftward movement of our politics that put a lifelong Democrat in the Presidency as a Republican. I feel that the debate would have easily been better served had the Democrat in the room been Biden, or Harris. It could have possibly even been Warren or Feinstein. Even Hillary would have seemed to be a more appropriate debate opponent, in spite of the fact that she holds no office currently. Any of them would have been more representative of the Democrat Base that comprises the majority of the country outside of colleges across the Nation.
Bases bring us into the other point that may have been partially touched on. Louder With Crowder host Steven Crowder touched on a part of this, but it could be taken a step further. On his show the Following night, Crowder mentioned that people like Chenk Uygar was probably over on the Young Turks proclaiming that Senator Sanders was the be all, end all champion of the Debate. Personally, I think that Mr. Cruz won. Nearly all of Bernie's points were able to be handily refuted with facts and statistics, and he was not able to reciprocate with anything but anecdotes and emotions. However, this debate may still have been a huge gain for Sanders. While Cruz was busy rebutting him, Bernie was raising the same catchphrases and buzzwords that infuriated his base. Between Ted beating up on him, and mentions of basic universal income, the Kochs and the Waltons, and the upper 1/10 of 1%, the Vermont Senator was able to draw pity for the underdog, and simultaneously advertise his brand to another group of Democrats. He also has a new series of videos for college students to cut and past into social media and caption with demands for the rich people to pay for everything. Cruz may have won on content, but Sanders walked away with billions of dollars worth of free advertising.
If you have any further thoughts on the debates that haven't been beaten to death on either side, or if you want to take any of this further, feel free to comment here, or over on Twitter. It's @edsblogtw1tter. If you like what you've read, please like and share on social media, and get the word out. Remember: Don't take the words of bloggers, podcasters, and the media as gospel. Always find all the facts and draw your own conclusions.
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