Tonight’s Debate Really Drove Home the Bernie vs. Hillary Dilemma

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Here’s roughly how the first hour of tonight’s debate went:

Bernie: Free health care for everyone!

Hillary: Let’s not overpromise. Maybe we can get partway there. You know, one percent at a time.

Bernie: When I’m president we’ll have free college for everyone!

Hillary: But we have to get the policy right. All the stakeholders need to buy in. It’s tricky.

Bernie:  We need radical transformation of our criminal justice system!

Hillary: A commission had some good ideas recently and I endorse them.

Bernie: Let the children in!

Hillary: Yes, but first we need an appropriate process.

OK, I’m kidding. Sort of. But this is the bind Hillary Clinton is in. Bernie Sanders delivers all these big, stemwinding proposals and doesn’t really have to explain how he’s going to pass any of them or get them paid for. But he sure is visionary! Hillary, conversely, is just constitutionally incapable of talking like this. When a problem is raised, her mind instantly starts thinking about what works and who will vote for it and where the payfors are going to come from. And that means she sounds like an old fuddy duddy patiently explaining why your bright idea won’t work. No wonder young voters don’t care much for her.

This has been true the entire campaign, of course, but I thought tonight’s debate brought it into much sharper relief than usual. Did it hurt her? I’ve pretty much given up trying to divine the reactions of the studio audience to these debates, so I don’t know. I guess that if you think we need to dream big dreams and the fuddy duddies ought to stand aside, you’re more convinced than ever that Hillary is part of the problem, not part of the solution. If you have some respect for how hard the political process is, and how slowly progress is made, you’re more convinced than ever that Bernie is talking through his hat and Hillary is the only reasonable choice.

And for those who are undecided? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Debate transcript here.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

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