Hillary Provided Progressive Answers On Issues That Have Long Favored The GOP

The progressive agenda has finally filtered into the mainstream of the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton's answers to the first four areas of questioning in Wednesday night's debate illustrate that clearly. The first discussion point was about the Supreme Court and Clinton's answer was a strong defense of a Court that viewed the Constitution as a living document and the importance "that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade, that we stand up against Citizens United, we stand up for the rights of people in the workplace."

The discussion then segued into the Second Amendment and, basically, gun control. Clinton said she supported the Second Amendment but also pointed out that the Supreme Court had also ruled that the right to bear arms could be limited by reasonable restrictions. And she framed those restrictions as an effort to save innocent lives, pointing to Washington, DC which tried to regulate that guns be safely stored as an effort to save the live of young toddlers. The Court ruled against the District and Clinton stated clearly that she believed that was a mistake. This strategy of defending the right to bear arms but implementing restrictions to save the lives of innocents is exactly the tactic needed to combat the NRA's claim that "they will take away your guns". Clinton ended the segment by saying, "Of course we're going to protect and defend the Second Amendment. But we're going to do it in a way that tries to save some of these 33,000 lives that we lose every year."

Wallace then move on to abortion and Hillary gave a full-throated defense of abortion rights and the rejection of government interference in the decisions a woman makes. She spoke of the increasingly harsh restrictions states are placing on abortion providers and the defunding of Planned Parenthood despite its provision of a myriad of other health services as reasons Roe v. Wade must be upheld. Wallace then pursued her on partial birth abortions and here Hillary was even stronger, saying she opposed the ban "[b]ecause Roe v. Wade very clearly sets out that there can be regulations on abortion so long as the life and the health of the mother are taken into account" and the proposed ban did not do that. She later pointed to the negative consequences of government interference, referencing China where they forced abortions and Romania where they forced the mother to have the baby. She ended with, "And I can tell you: The government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith, with medical advice. And I will stand up for that right."

The conversation then moved on to immigration and Hillary was clear on her desire for comprehensive immigration reform that will allow the millions of hard-working illegals to come out of the shadows and into the legitimate economy. She promised to introduce comprehensive immigration reform in her first 100 days.

Later in the debate, the tax issue came up and Hillary declared that she would raise taxes on the wealthy in order to fund the economic projects she has in mind. "And we're going to work hard to make sure that it is, because we are going to go where the money is. Most of the gains in the last years since the Great Recession have gone to the very top. So we are going to have the wealthy pay their fair share. We're going to have corporations make a contribution greater than they are now to our country." Wallace then delved into Medicare and Social Security with an incredibly slanted question about the options we need to take to "solve the crisis". Hillary was very clear that she is looking to expand Social Security by increasing the money flowing into the fund either through a raise in the cap on Social Security or by other methods. She declared, "I will not cut benefits. I want to enhance benefits for low-income workers and for women who have been disadvantaged by the current Social Security system."

The first four questions of the debate were softballs that Republicans knocked out of the park for years while Democrats were only hitting singles at best. The Supreme Court, gun control, abortion, and immigration are all issues that Democrats have spent years waffling on. In all four cases, Hillary provided pretty strong, definitive, and progressive answers. And even on the tax question, she totally rejected trickle-down economics and showed a determination to raise taxes on the wealthy. I don't think we would have seen that a decade ago. Whether Hillary accomplishes anything on these issues is obviously in doubt. But there is no doubt that these are now the clear policies of the Democratic party.