How the Populist Moment Will Shape the Debates

How the Populist Moment Will Shape the Debates

How the Populist Moment Will Shape the Debates

The moment and the movements shaping it.

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Tuesday night, Democrats will finally hold their first presidential debate. Already ideas for the drinking games are piling up. Take a drink for any question mentioning Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, the FBI or Benghazi. A sip for every time Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee are asked how they expect to win given their lack of support in polls or in money. A drink when the candidates are asked what they think about Vice President Biden getting in the race. Another for every time the candidates are invited to attack someone else on the stage.

And if you want to get plastered quickly, two shots for all if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is asked in the first five minutes if he really thinks Americans will vote for a socialist. A drink for every time he’s called an outsider or he’s asked if his proposals are “realistic.” A full shot for questions on his writings from decades ago, cheap titillation utterly divorced from his qualifications.

The media narrative on the Democratic race has already congealed. Clinton, the prohibitive favorite, has been sliding in the polls, burdened by the scandals over her private server and her “character.” Sanders, the insurgent, is rising but can’t win because he’s a “socialist.” The remaining three are too far behind to count. Joe Biden, the media wait for you.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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