LINCOLN Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Bernie Sanders and Jim Webb.
These five Democrats – these five leaders – took the stage in Nevada last week for the inaugural Democratic Party Presidential debate.
The elevated substance and classy style of the debate reminded me of a favorite bit of wisdom from iconic American author Mark Twain:
“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”
The Democratic debate stage is far less crowded than the kids-versus-adult-table-format that the fifteen Republicans running for President are forced to contend with.
The record of achievement – at every level of government – embodied by the small but mighty Democratic field of presidential candidates was on full display last week as well. While the Republican candidates claim to know how to get things done, Democrats actually produced results for the American people.
Results such as 13 million new jobs and 67 consecutive months of private sector job growth, health security for millions upon millions of Americans who previously couldn’t afford it, and expanded opportunities for every branch of the great, diverse, multi-cultural American family.
Democrats’ accomplishments are in striking contrast to the Republicans’ empty bluster about how they might lead our nation from the Oval Office. Remember the last time a Republican resided in the White House? Wall Street ran amok and trampled Main Street, millions of jobs were lost (around 750,000 a month), countless families lost their homes, and a reckless, go-it alone foreign policy made America less safe and less respected in every corner of the world.
However, no Democrat, particularly the Democrats running for President, is content with these achievements. Democrats know there are still too many of our friends and neighbors who are struggling to realize their share of the American dream. That’s why the Democratic candidates all laid out economic plans to strengthen and expand the middle class.
What Democrats understand – and sadly what Republicans fail to recognize – is that the steel in the spine of the American economy is the middle class. We can’t lead the 21 Century global economy with a shrinking middle class; America needs a booming, growing middle class to prosper.
That’s why these Democrats running for President are fighting to make college more affordable, so the dream of a college degree and the economic opportunities that come with it aren’t fading away but are expanding from sea to shining sea.
That’s why Democrats are also fighting to create millions of new, good-paying jobs by rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and by investing in the green energy revolution that’s already powering the economies in Germany and China.
And for those Americans who are moving into retirement? The Democrats are united in the bedrock belief that our solemn responsibility to our seniors means not only protecting but also strengthening Social Security for decades to come.
These Democratic ideas are far different than what you hear from Republicans – what you can hear actually, in between their churlish insults of one another and their demonizing of Hispanic and Asian Americans as well as American women.
Republicans’ central claim about how to get things done is unfortunately stuck in their own disastrous past. A tax giveaway to millionaires and wealthy corporations (giveaways paid for by hard-working families) is exactly how the last Republican in the White House began to create the conditions that crashed our economy.
Based on the values and vision put forth by the Democratic candidates last week, the real winners of the debate were the American people. Honest, hardworking folks who think our nation is stronger – economically and morally – when we set out to tackle big challenges like reforming our immigration system and addressing the increasingly grave health and economic impacts of climate change.
As one writer from the Washington Post put it, the difference between the Democratic debate and the Republican debates was “like moving from kindergarten to grad school.”
As Mr. Twain would have put it, there are people who claim to get things done and then there are those who can.
I’m proud to be a Democrat. I’m proud that the next President of the United States will be a Democrat and I look forward to working with him or her on the mission to make our nation healthier and safer, more just and more prosperous.
In this great task, to make our American union more perfect, last week’s Democratic debate was an undeniable step forward.
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In 2014, Ted W. Lieu was elected to an open seat for the 33rd Congressional District, succeeding retiring 40 year incumbent Henry Waxman. He was elected president of the Freshman class of Democrats by his colleagues and serves on the House Budget Committee, and the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. Ted is a former active duty officer who currently serves as a reservist in the United States Air Force.
