What Went Down In The Third Democratic Debate

Some of O’Rourke’s strongest moments have been on race. That line about the true founding of the country being on the date that the first slave came to America was very strong, IMO.

I think this is somewhat inevitable in primary debates, but this one, given the importance of electability and the fact that there’s been several hours of debates already, has a really meta quality. What is the party doing? How should it conduct itself? What’s the right balance between purity and pragmatism, unity and debate, etc.?

Historically, there is evidence that a divided party struggled to win in the general election. However, I’m not sure it’s credible to say that the Democratic Party is going to be divided even if people get feisty on a debate stage, given how incredibly polarized the country is.