On Tuesday the
Democratic National Committee’s first debate aired on CNN. Featuring Democratic
candidates; Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Lincoln Chaffee, Martin O’Malley
and Jim Webb. The debate was in fact surprisingly heavy on actual issues and
less on “political fluff”, despite the lack of in depth discussions on many topics
that are important to many voters.
The
presentation by CNN had an initial feel of a heavy-weight boxing fight. CNN had
a “pre-game hype” video positioning Hillary Clinton as “The Defending Champion”
trying to hold off “The Seasoned Veteran” Bernie Sanders and even had a “pre-debate”
National Anthem sung by a rock star. At
this point I was all ready for another beauty pageant like showcase similar to
the GOP debates of the summer.
The moderator
Anderson Cooper did his job to try and stir the debate away from nuance discussions
on issues such as the economy, racial tensions and foreign policy. The candidates
for the most part were able to clarify their positions on substantive issues but
a real attempt to contrast the positions of the two front runners; Hillary
Clinton and Bernie Sanders did not happen.
Senator
Sanders and Secretary Clinton did spar briefly on the differences between what
Bernie Sanders calls “democratic socialism” and “capitalism” as well as what
would be the best method of dealing with the largest financial institutions
that many would agree need more regulation. Clinton’s position is that government
should regulate Wall Street more aggressively while Sanders approach was to
simply break up the banks.
Wall Street
speculation is one of the most pressing issues of our time but CNN missed an opportunity
to not only clearly define the space between Clinton and Sanders but the
differing philosophies in general in regards to free trade, monopolistic tendencies
of corporations and our global economic position by ignoring for the most part
the looming Transpacific Partnership.
The only
mention of the TPP came when a question was poised to the former first lady on
if she has a history of being a “flip flopper”. Clinton has changed positions on
issues such as the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Transpacific Partnership. The moderators choose at that moment to pivot
to Bernie’s record on gun control and “socialism”.
The TPP was recently
approved by a delegation of 12 nations and is now awaiting congressional
approval before it will become law. The agreement includes the United
States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand,
Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Authors of the deal say it will cut trade
barriers, set labor standards, and protect multinational corporations. Proponents of the TPP and The Obama
administration claim that the deal will increase jobs, wages and stimulate the
economy. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state helped to Sheppard the TPP
through the process of ratification and is on record of supporting the deal up
until recently.
Opponents including Bernie
Sanders however point to the history of past global trade deals such as NAFTA, as
well as leaked drafts of the TPP that many journalists, labor specialists and
attorneys have said will do the opposite of what has been promoted.
The TPP will make changes to Intellectual property law this would
threaten a rise in prices of generic pharmaceuticals and potentially end net neutrality.
The agreement also offers incentives for off shoring of jobs but
and has no protections for countries to place barriers on
corporations when they want to leave to cheaper labor markets. Among the
most dangerous provision of this deal is the Investor State Dispute provisions
allows corporations to sue in the World Court a state or a country if a law or
regulation is passed that may limit the profits of a corporation.
Senator Sanders sees the TPP as expansion NAFTA which he believes
is one of the major reasons why millions of American jobs have been shipped
overseas since 1994, exasperating American unemployment.
Last week Hillary Clinton
came out in opposition to the Transpacific Partnership Agreement, however many
observers wonder if she is only pandering to the base of the Democratic Party
who are for the most part in strong opposition to the deal. While in contrast
Bernie Sanders has voted against International trade deals in the past
including North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); which was passed by Bill
Clinton in 1991. Many believe it was Sanders who has forced Clinton to come out
against the TPP but critics say she has left herself enough room to change her
mind on the deal if she were to take The White House.
Cooper and the other moderators missed a chance to really flesh
out both candidates as well as the O’Malley, Chaffee and Webb’s positions on
the TPP and trade in general. Before the debate CNN promoted that thousands of Facebook
users sent in video questions however only two were used. I am sure that at
least one question was related to the potential dangers of the TPP.
It is obvious that CNN choose not to have an in-depth discussion
on free trade and the TPP, my question is why? The answer for me is the
corporate interests. During the debate an ad aired from Citibank promoting international
investment in Africa and other places then shortly after another commercial ran
from consultation business for mergers and acquisitions. The commercials were
aimed at the donor class not at mainstream America. Aside from two political
movies “Suffragette” and “Our Brand in Crisis” none of the other ads was
selling anything an average person would have interest or ability to engage in.
This is precisely why we must move to public funding of elections
and get money out of politics. Although the debate did begin the conversation of
many bedrock issues such as Healthcare, Campaign Finance, Income Inequality,
BlacklivesMatter, police brutality and the economy. The fact that the most
important trade agreement was not discussed proves that the “powers that be”
are able in many ways to limit the scope and parameters of the political
discourse in this country.
If the American people are fully engaged and understand what the
TPP is all about they will force congress not to ratify the deal. The DNC
debate was limited to future policy changes and not current ones and that to me
is a shame.
-
J-Didda
