The first ten Democratic candidates to the White House to participate in the debate that begins the electoral race in the United States. They attacked on Wednesday the migratory policies, the fiscal reform, the diplomacy and the retreat in the fight against the climatic crisis of president Donald Trump.
In the hope that this Thursday ten other candidates will take the podium in a second installment of the debate of the NBC network in Miami, the Republican was hardly mentioned, but he did criticize directly the main measures of his Government.
The summary of the Democratic message was made in his final speech by the former Secretary of Housing Julián Castro, who said in Spanish that they will do everything possible to “say goodbye” to Trump in the November 2020 elections.
The only Hispanic among the aspirants was not, however, the only one to speak in Spanish, a language in which former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Senator Cory Booker expressed themselves on several occasions.
While Trump made his trip to participate from this Friday at the G20 summit and said how “boring” the debate was, the ten aspirants criticized much of the heart of his Presidency.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the only candidate among today’s top five poll favorites, opened this historic debate because for the first time there was more than one woman, three in particular along with Congress members Amy Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard.
The debate began focusing on the economy, the point that Trump most presumes, with an annual growth rate of 3.1% in the first quarter and unemployment of 3.6%, at levels not seen in almost half a century.
But Warren attacked for the inequality that is maintained in the country with a “smaller and smaller portion” that enjoys the bonanza, thanks to the tax reduction for large companies, while it is not doing so well for the rest of the countries. Americans. “
The critics to this situation were common between the aspirings, like O’Rourke, that surprised to all when saying in Spanish that is necessary to include to all in this economy.
In the same sense was the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who said that “there is a lot of money in the world, but it is in the wrong hands”.
Congressman Tim Ryan stressed the need for Democrats to connect and provide solutions for the working class.
In this regard, former Congressman John Delaney said that the Democratic Party should focus not so much on Trump and the possible Russian interference in the 2016 elections, but on the daily problems of the population, such as employment or quality of life.
The most progressive proposals of this democratic campaign, such as universal health care, jumped on health, something that until recently was unthinkable in the country.
Both Warren and Gabbard assured that health is a “basic human right” and, with nuances, the idea of public health care for the entire population was supported, although O’Rourke and Delaney were more in favor of allowing people to continue with your private health plans.
Another point in which the moderators did not achieve the discrepancy was abortion, a topic in which he received a notorious Castro ovation when saying that he does not believe only in “reproductive freedom”, but in “reproductive justice”.
Castro once again took center stage when he spoke about immigration, highlighting with passion that he was the first of all to present an immigration plan that would avoid cases like the death of Salvadoran father Óscar Alberto Martínez and his young daughter this weekend on the Rio Bravo .
Their deaths, and that of many other immigrants, are due, according to the Democrats, to Trump’s harsh immigration policies.
This theme was the reason for the first big confrontation of the night, between Castro himself and O’Rourke, specifically by a section that criminalizes the illegal crossing of undocumented immigrants, which makes it difficult for them to stay legally in the US.
His proposal is to stop being a crime because you can not “criminalize the desperation” and threw in face the Texan who has shown against this measure, to which O’Rourke said that this possibility could encourage the traffickers of people .
Gabbard was the most resounding when the issue came to the escalation of diplomatic tension with Iran, saying all Americans should “get up” to reject a possible war with Iran “, which, in his opinion, would be more devastating than the War of Iraq (2003-2011) and would exacerbate the refugee crisis in the area.
Booker was the only one who did not agree that Washington should not retire last year from the nuclear agreement with Tehran and explained that while it was a good deal, he would take the opportunity as president to achieve a better one.
Gabbard said later that the main challenge facing the country is a possible nuclear conflict, while the governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, pointed to Trump as the main “threat”, idea that Klobuchar reinforced by saying that Trump is ” 10 minutes “and” a tweet “to involve the country in an armed conflict with Tehran.
While the first round of this debate was being held, which on Thursday will have ten other candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, who lead the polls, outside the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami a group of Cubans protested with posters of “No to communism” and slogans in favor of capitalism.
Álvaro Blanco
