Step Right Up: The Democrats Did Ohio

By Robert Wenzel

Twelve Democratic Party presidential candidates took the stage Tuesday night at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

The takeaway: The contest to run the advance of American totalitarianism is a lot like watching a contest between carnival barkers trying to get you to spend time (and money) at their sideshow.

Step right up, step right up, step right up,
Everyone’s a winner, prizes galore

It was 12 power freaks pretending to be nice people who will give everything to everyone.

Tulsi Gabbard was pretty good on war and did manage to slap around Pete Buttigieg on the issue but she also endorsed the nutty universal basic income scheme of Andrew Yang.

And although she said the US should be out of Syria, she did say that President Trump had Kurdish blood on his hands for the manner in which he ordered the pullout.

The Trump pullout from the Kurdish section of Syria was a typical Trump ham-handed operation but to declare that Trump has Kurdish blood on his hands is a bit much. Compared to what? The military operations she was a part of that resulted in thousands of dead Americans?

At least Trump had the personal savvy long ago to declare bone spurs rather than get sucked into a war of the Empire and now he is doing for American soldiers what he did for himself, getting them the hell out of harm's way.

It was good to see there were sporadic attacks on Elizabeth Warren. More than one debater exposed her for dodging the question of whether she will raise taxes on the middle class if she became president (Of course, she would!).

Buttigieg also did a nice job of attacking her on her universal healthcare program which would eliminate all private-sector health insurance.

They were all for the impeachment inquiry into Trump though Gabbard gave an odd answer saying she was against it until she was for it. The only conclusion I could reach from that comment was that she probably lost Trump supporters and Trump haters with one answer!

Bernie Sanders came out with what was for me the thigh-slapper of the evening when he said that if the House impeaches Trump, the Senate, controlled by Republicans, must run a fair and transparent trial---the exact opposite of what the House, run by Democrats, is doing as far as its impeachment inquiry. They haven't even called a vote yet for an impeachment inquiry.

Warren spilled the beans on another of her moves to go avant-garde Fascist. She said she would introduce "accountable capitalism" by requiring that corporations have 40% of member board seats held for members who were elected by company workers.

Joe Biden claimed his contacts with Ukraine during the Obama Administration were to eliminate corruption in the country. No one asked him what he thought his son Hunter was doing to earn $50,000 a month while Joe was fighting corruption.

Billionaire Tom Steyer managed to somehow get on stage for this debate. The self-hating billionaire said that he would reverse every tax break provided to the rich over the last 40 years.

Biden countered by saying he would double the capital gains tax.

Yang opposed Warren's wealth tax but said he wanted a value-added tax instead.

Kamala Harris called for Twitter to ban Trump and asked Warren if she would also call for the ban. Warren danced around the issue. The dance was obvious, and it surely reminded viewers that she had earlier danced around the issue of a middle-class tax hike. Maybe the dance is an American Indian thing.

There's a possibility Warren was damaged a bit last night.

Sleepy Joe looked pretty good. I think his doctors have finally figured out the right dosage of testosterone I am told he is given before each debate.

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.comand Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bankand most recently Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. More about Wenzel here.