A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019
Sanders, Warren clash with moderates
By STEVE PEOPLES
and SARA BURNETT
Associated Press
DETROIT — The signature domestic pro-
posal by the leading progressive candidates
for the Democratic presidential nomination
came under withering attack from moderates
in a debate that laid bare the struggle between
a call for revolutionary policies and a desper-
ate desire to defeat President Donald Trump.
Standing side by side at center stage on
Tuesday, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth War-
ren slapped back against their more cautious
rivals who ridiculed ”Medicare for All” and
warned that “wish-list economics” would
jeopardize Democrats’ chances for taking the
White House in 2020.
“I don’t understand why anybody goes
to all the trouble of running for president of
the United States just to talk about what we
really can’t do and shouldn’t fi ght for,” said
Warren, a Massachusetts senator, decrying
Democratic “spinelessness.”
Sanders, a Vermont senator, agreed: “I get
a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big
ideas.”
A full six months before the fi rst votes
are cast, the tug-of-war over the future of
the party pits pragmatism against ideological
purity as voters navigate a crowded Demo-
cratic fi eld divided by age, race, sex and ide-
ology. The fi ght with the political left was
the dominant subplot on the fi rst night of the
second round of Democratic debates, which
was notable as much for its tension as its
substance.
Twenty candidates were spread evenly
over two nights of debates Tuesday and
Wednesday. The second night was to feature
early front-runner Joe Biden, the former vice
president, as well as Kamala Harris, a Cali-
fornia senator.
While much of the debate was dominated
by attacks on the preferred liberal health care
policy, the issue of race emerged in the sec-
ond hour. The candidates, all of whom are
white, were unifi ed in turning their anger
toward Trump for using race as a central
theme in his reelection campaign. Sand-
ers called Trump a racist, while others said
the president’s rhetoric revived memories of
the worst in the country’s history, including
slavery.
“The legacy of slavery and segregation
and Jim Crow and suppression is alive and
well in every aspect of the economy and the
country today,” said former Texas Rep. Beto
O’Rourke, adding that he supported the cre-
ation of a panel to examine reparations for
the descendants of slaves.
The marathon presidential primary sea-
son won’t formally end for another year, but
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Democrats take the stage for the fi rst of two debates hosted by CNN.
there was an increasing sense of urgency for
many candidates who are fi ghting for sur-
vival. More than a dozen could be blocked
from the next round of debates — and effec-
tively pushed out of the race — if they fail to
reach new polling and fundraising thresholds
implemented by the Democratic National
Committee.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is
working to keep her campaign alive, aligned
herself with the pragmatic wing: “We are
more worried about winning an argument
than winning an election.”
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, in his fi rst
debate appearance, took a swipe at Sand-
ers: Working people “can’t wait for a revo-
lution,” he charged. “Their problems are here
and now.”
While he avoided any direct confronta-
tions with his more liberal rivals, Pete Butt-
igieg tried several times to present himself
as the more sober alternative in the race. He
rejected extreme positions, quoted scripture
and abstained from calling out his opponents.
The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend,
Indiana, also subtly emphasized the genera-
tional difference between himself and Sand-
ers, the candidate 40 years his senior stand-
ing to his side.
Perhaps no issue illustrates the evolving
divide within the Democratic Party more
than health care.
Sanders’ plan to provide free universal
health care, known as Medicare for All, has
become a litmus test for liberal candidates,
who have embraced the plan to transform
the current system despite the political and
practical risks. Medicare for All would aban-
don the private insurance market in favor of a
taxpayer-funded system that would cover all
Americans.
In targeting Medicare for All, the more
moderate candidates consistently sought to
undermine Sanders and Warren. The moder-
ates variously derided Medicare for All as too
costly, ineffective and a near-certain way to
give Republicans the evidence they needed
that Democrats supported socialism.
“They’re running on telling half the coun-
try that their health care is illegal,” said for-
mer Maryland Rep. John Delaney.
“We have a choice: We can go down
the road that Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren
want to take us, which is with bad policies
like Medicare for All, free everything and
impossible promises,” he continued. “It will
turn off independent voters and get Trump
reelected.”
Yet Sanders and Warren did not back
down. While they are competing for the same
set of liberal voters, there seemed to be no
daylight between them.
“Health care is a human right, not a priv-
ilege. I believe that. I will fi ght for that,”
Sanders said.
Buttigieg called on his party to stop the
infi ghting.
“It is time to stop worrying about what the
Republicans will say,” Buttigieg declared.
“It’s true that if we embrace a far-left agenda,
they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy
socialists. If we embrace a conservative
agenda, you know what they’re going to do?
They’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy
socialists. So let’s just stand up for the right
policy, go out there and defend it.”
A new set of candidates, none with
more to lose than Biden, was to face off on
Wednesday.
There, Biden was expected to fi ght to
prove that his underwhelming performance
during last month’s opening debate was little
more than an aberration.
It won’t be easy.
The 76-year-old Democrat faces new
questions regarding his past policies and
statements about women and minorities —
both key constituencies he needs to claim
the Democratic Party’s nomination and ulti-
mately defeat Trump.
Trump’s Twitter feed was uncharacteristi-
cally silent until Wednesday morning, when
Trump declared that the Democratic candi-
dates would “lead us into an economic sink-
hole the likes of which we have never seen
before.”
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