Let the Democrats cut each other up in the debates

I hear my friends who are Democrats complaining that the candidates in these debates are cutting each other up and it’s bad for the party. I say, let the blood flow, cut as cut can and go for the jugular. Let’s find out right now who can dish it out and who can take it. Because, let’s be honest, when it comes to the general election the presumed Republican candidate will have no problem cutting and stabbing and doing whatever he pleases because, according to his own words, he could kill someone on Fifth Ave. and get away with it.

The Democratic National Committee obviously wants Joe Biden to be its candidate. Hard to imagine Joe Biden being a good foil for his Republican opponent. I can see Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Castro, Booker, Harris, easily taking on the Republican and being able to hold their own, fire back and make good points. The Dems will need a candidate who can take it and dish it.

So, let’s see right now which of the Democrats can hold their own against “friendly fire” before he or she tries to take on someone who has no rules or moral compass.

If anybody has skeletons in the closet let’s hear about them now. Although, I personally think, it’s a bit harsh to hold some of the older candidates to issues they supported decades ago. After all, they are just politicians and what is politically correct one decade may not be so the next. Politicians will say what they think their constituents want to hear. It is our job to make our voices loud and clear so the politicos will know what we want.

When these politicians speak we also have to listen closely. Politicians have learned to speak in buzz words, to coin phrases, to create slogans and campaign banners. In today’s vernacular, politicians know how to brand themselves.

But just because they say it doesn’t mean it will become a reality. The current president said he was going to “Drain the swamp.” If he did it was simply to fill it in with his own swamp dwellers.

Two things I keep hearing that ring untrue: Free college and Medicare for all. They ring untrue for me because we don’t care about education in this country. Forget free college how about improving the system we have? How about doubling the amount of teachers in every school and doubling teacher pay? Let’s put that free college money into pre-schools, after school programs, better equipped facilities. Let’s make the current public school system so fantastic that teachers won’t have to buy their own supplies. When colleges have to offer remedial learning classes to incoming freshmen something is wrong. If one can’t read, write or do math correctly how does one even graduate from high school let alone get into a college?

Free college may get votes but is it truly helping people to be better educated?

As for the Medicare for All, I think we’d need to start with more medical schools, training more doctors and nurses and physicians assistants. Let’s build more hospitals and urgent care centers. Let’s start teaching everyone about nutrition, the benefits of exercise, learning stress reduction techniques like yoga or meditation. Saying Medicare for All sounds great but right now we have to wait months for doctor’s appointments. How will that improve if we add millions more patients but no new doctors?

So, let the Dems carve each other up. Maybe it will force some to plan better. Maybe if the guts are spilled, then maybe healthier candidates, ones with plans that are real, will survive. We need more than rhetoric.

Gabriel A. Fraire is the copy editor of the Carolina Peacemaker. He has been a writer more than 45 years. He can be reached through his Web site at: www.gabrielfraire.com.