Debrief on the First Democratic Debates: An Empty Stage-d Performance

The ‘performance’ was shown on NBC news, the largest media network owned by Comcast, one of the most hated companies in the nation. I must note that we regrettably pay a company that we do not trust every month to dispense election information. Along with that NBC sets debate participation eligibility, eliminating many candidates from introducing or defending their ideas on this national stage. This is why I’m hesitant to deposit my trust into the debate. However, I understand that this is the only National Stage that the world has to present these conversations and when looking at the coverage by corporate media I feel responsible to reflect on and share my thoughts on the underrepresented issues that were glazed over during the debate.

Police Accountability Cannot Be Achieved without Systematic Transformation

Though Yang wasn’t given very much space to speak he was the first to mention the potential of savings on incarnation on Day 2. Warren was also the first to mention the role private prisons play in the economic divide less than five minutes into Day 1’s debate. I commend those two who brought the devastating effects of incarceration onto the presidential stage, “[the economy] is doing great for people who want to invest in private prisons, just not for the African Americans and LatinX whose families are torn apart, whose lives are destroyed and whose communities are ruined”. Many especially popular politicians fail to see the connection between the way that we treat incarcerated citizens and immigrants who are both suffering from physical and psychological abuse by our nations criminal justice system which is in need of a major overhaul. Without a transformative change we will continue to see these abuses, including abuses to young immigrant children, citizen children, men and women legally held in our juvenile detention facilities.

We cannot transform our criminal justice system without holding executive forces accountable. During the debate Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana since 2012, listed all of the failed attempts that were taken to enforce police accountability including officers wearing body cams, bias and de-escalation training which he admitted, “these didn’t save the life of Eric Logan” who was recently killed by a white officer that did not have body cam on. Many candidates agree with Buttigieg’s statement that  “until we move policing out of the shadow of systemic racism…we will be left with the bigger problem, the wall of mistrust…it threatens the well-being of every community”. Sadly, no candidate provided actual solutions of how to expel systematic racism from policing. John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado, added that a civilian oversight board was established under his jurisdiction 10yrs ago and that also didn’t work.

We’ve come to a critical point in our nation in understanding the direct relationship between policing and systematic racism but we fail to reach a conclusion on how that relationship can be severed. I honestly, do not think that it can be which is why grassroots organizers have been calling for a complete overhaul of the system entirely, but this is of course too radical for the NBC stage. 

Defending Democratic Socialism by Expanding Healthcare Access

John Hickenlooper was firm in his stance against democratic socialism. However, socialism is what draws many marginalized citizens to the Democratic party. The majority of the masses, flock to the Democratic party because they believe that it is much more likely than the Republican party to cater to the needs of underserved, impoverished communities. It’s unwise to diminish the attractive qualities of socialism that contribute to what draws people to the Democratic Party.

The vast majority of the democratic candidates on both days agreed that universal healthcare should includes undocumented immigrants. I wondered whether those candidates would have been as eager to include incarcerated citizens in the promise of sufficient care for all people. Currently prisoners have no choice but privatized healthcare companies whose goal is to price them out of receiving the care that they need in order to survive. The phrase, “death by incarceration” is a dangerously reality for citizens who have no choices in food, mental health or medical care. This includes detained immigrants and immigrant children at the border.

Our nations prisons are a hyper-intensified reflection of the condition of our society as a whole. In the same way that we see how the conditions of the prison environment is contributing to degrading healthcare in our prisons, this is the case for the whole of our nation. Interestingly, Williamson was quickly cut off when her response to the question of universal healthcare, includes the need to make changes to chemical, environmental, and drug policies that contribute to the critical health condition of the American population. However, holding large companies who contribute to the health crisis accountable was discussed. Both Biden and Booker advocate for holding insurance and pharma companies criminally liable for their misleading ads as well as for their contribution to the opiod crisis. Democrats on Day 2 agreed that companies should not be able to dodge the consequences of their impact to the opiod crisis, Booker emphasized, “ We can’t arrest people out of addition”, but it should also be noted that in the same way we cannot criminalize addiction we should not criminalize poverty. Booker expanded on this saying, “there are too many people profiting off of the pain of Americans from the pharma companies to the insurers”. Warren added to this saying, “insurance companies last year alone sucked $23 billion in profits out of the healthcare system”. This astronomical number proves for a need  for the overhaul that majority of candidates advocate for. Most believe that universal health care with a public option, such as Obamacare, that one could chose to opt into if needed. In contrast, Sanders strongly advocates for completely scrapping the privatized system. 

Addressing the lack of Economic Mobility, but Dodging the Reparations Question

The candidates voiced their concerns about the widening wealth gap, many unafraid to blame big companies and the 1%. However, none of them address the government’s role in contributing to the wealth gap between Blacks and whites with the refusal to pay out reparations over the past 154 years. Like Hilary, the candidates advocate for a solution to bolster the entire economy. This is why the Democratic party is not our own, they refuse to stand firm on defending our case for individual reparations payments for the descendants of slaves. If they did in even the slightest, we would have had it by now.

Of course Yang discussed his base monthly income payment of $1,000/month. My hope is that those payments would also include those impacted by incarceration. Bill De Blasio, currently the mayor of New York city, voiced his plan to address the city’s astronomical income gap with a commitment to break up big corporations. John Delany added to the discussion, sharing his plan to double earned income tax credit, raise minimum wage and create paid family leave. 

Aside from all of these wider solutions, which would be great to have incorporated for all people, we cannot provide true equality in peoples’s access to the basic necessities if humanity without addressing the needs of those who have been left behind in the economic fabric of America for centuries, the descendants of the enslaved African people who built this country. This is why I was disappointed, but sadly not surprised, to see that the reparations discussion was not brought to the national stage, especially with H.R. 40 making progress in congress less than a week a go. Williamson did note that systematic racism and police bias are a couple of thermions why we should be supporting reparations.

Being the only Black candidate represented on the Day 2 stage, ‘reparations’ never left Harris’ lips though she did frequently use her Black card throughout the debate to snatch more talking time. But, she didn’t even need to seeing as how she was placed right next to center stage. Harris called out Biden on his position on integration and segregation. Harris,  who served as the attorney general of the second largest Dept. of Corrections in the U.S. in the state of California, praised her enforcing the use of body cams. Biden swiftly called out harris saying, “I was a public defender not a prosecutor”. Biden was slick in his response, I myself am not fooled by Harris’ performance. My vote is not only determined by what candidates are saying now but on their track record and Harris’ track record shows a contribution to the mass incarceration era. 

Beto O’Rourke from Texas noted that the population of 2.3 million incarcerated people was due to the failure of our criminal justice system, saying its imperative that we help those help those who continue to be victims of this system. O’Rourke stressed the need for treatment and longterm care to those suffering from addiction but made no reference to retroactive steps to reverse impacts of incarceration for those who continue to sit behind bars. O’Rourke also mentioned the expansion of voting access with the passing of the new voting rights act, sadly there was not reference to restoring the voting rights of those impacted by incarceration, not even from Senator Sanders. Booker noted that, “our country is profiting off of incarceration and immigration lockups…our country has made so many mistakes criminalizing things…immigration, mental illness, addition…this is not the way to deal with problems, there is a human way that affirms human rights and human dignity that will actually solve this problem”. At this point the state level discussion is insufficient. Harris noted in her defense of bussing and desegregation with Biden that, “there are moments in our history where states failed to protect the rights of all people”. Well we are now at the point with Corrections Departments that the federal government must be required to step into this civil rights issue that includes failing to protect prisoners voting rights (in states other than Maine & Vermont), conditions in prisons, reversing truth-in-sentencing month several other issues that prisoners brought to the surface during the National Prison Strike. Current civil rights legislation has failed to be protected for decades. Today there are many who suffer behind bars who are citizens whose rights must be lifted and protected civil rights act. 

Final Thoughts: We Need a Leader of the Coming Decarceration Era 

It’s obvious that certain candidates, Biden, Sanders and Harris were given more direct questions and much more time to speak during the debate seeing as how they were placed at center stage on finally Day 2, NBC wanted these three to be our center focus. Biden’s referenced a commitment to, “Restore the soul of this nation” which he said was degraded by Trumps dangerous lack of morality. For me, the soul of this nation is dangerous and has never been healthy, it is what brought Trump to power and has continued to demonize and exploit people. Bernie’s commitment to defeat the Military Industrial complex was comforting, however he failed to explain how the Military Industrial complex, also known as the prison industrial slave complex, negatively impacts Americans. Finally, I’ve never been attracted to Harris as a candidate. I hope that the Obama syndrome, a desperation to see a certain type face in office, isn’t what leads to her being elected. She is a prosecutor who oversaw the California’s exploding incarceration rates. Yang (with what he could get our), Warren, and Williamson were the most vocal about the negative effects of incarceration. Williamson even noted how caging is a form of abuse, a state sponsored crime. One that not only happens to incarcerated immigrant children but to millions of United states citizens. Kristen Gillibrand, a New York Senator, also mentioned the the money being contributed to for-profit prisons.

If I were to say who won based off of qued clapping and generalized popularity it would be tied between Castro and Warren for Day 1 with Harris for Day 2. Though the hosts emphasized that the stage placements were random but it’s obvious that wasn’t the case.

My expectation for the election is for a candidate that will be committed to resolving the collective issues with our criminal justice system that contribute to the conditions suffered by the entire incarcerated population in the United States once they take office on Jan 20, 2021 . Candidates also mentioned the need for decriminalization, surprisingly even Biden demonized the method that are executive forces depend on far too much saying, “we should not be locking people up we should be changing the circumstances of why they would [leave] in the first place”. Of course Booker could not go without mentioning his living in the inner city and his role, along with candidate Amy Klobuchar, in pushing the empty and virtually meaningless First Step Act to criminal justice reform through congress. Klobuchar mentioned her commitment to passing the Second and Third steps in the future. Beyond the surface level need for change that we can all agree on, the question I hope will be asked of candidates is, How will you lead the coming decarceration era?

We cannot have a Mass Incarceration Era that failed millions of people with discriminatory police bias, ineffective pretrial conditions (from over worked public defenders to very unsteady trials) and dramatic over sentencing without bending the fold back in the opposite direction to restore the lives of millions who were impacted and continue to sit behind bars waiting for the voices to be heard. How would you address this critically sensitive national issue? Without directly asking this candidates will continue to skate around the issue and we’ll cast our vote making assumptions on what we hope to see someone do once they’re in office, but the position is much too powerful for presumptuous decision making.

In the next debate we must insure that this issue is addressed, until then my ballot awaits a name to cast.  As for representation, Candidates I wish I could have seen share the stage are Anita Belle, a longtime reparations activist from Detroit, MI and Wayne Messam, the current mayor of Miramar, Fla, but it seems as though only one token Black candidate can share the stage each day, especially for fear of an actually meaningful discussion on the need to pay out reparations and protect civil rights. 

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