The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2016 season was a passive-aggressive spit-fire show and a stark contrast to the Republican circus with Donald Trump for a ring-leader.
The most iconic moment was when Bernie Sanders said what we were all thinking regarding Hillary Clinton’s bogus email controversy:
“The American people are sick and tired of reading about your damn emails,” Sanders said.
He and Clinton shook hands, and the audience ate it up.
Clinton seemed dominated the debate last night, rising far above her falling approval ratings. She lived up to her role as the Democrat frontrunner and made her opponents look like children. As a Sanders-supporting socialist, that’s one of the hardest statements for me to admit.
Anderson Cooper, the moderator, asked Clinton if Sanders was tough enough on gun control.
“No,” Clinton said.
Then, Clinton’s momentum evaporated on college affordability. Sanders wants to make college tuition-free for all students to erode America’s classist society. Clinton’s plan wants a debt-free college, making tuition more expensive for the wealthy students and cheaper for those less-fortunate.
Her plan isn’t necessarily bad. If Clinton’s college plan were implemented today, I’d be jumping for joy and celebrating at Tigerland tonight. But her plan isn’t as good as Sanders’.
For starters, she wants students to have to work at least 10 hours a week to help pay the cost of school. I have philosophical problems with this. Clinton’s plan treats education as an end product rather than what it should be, a human right.
We all have more education and technology than at any point in history. Saying everyone is not worthy of free education is inhumane. People shouldn’t have to work for what others can get without working.
Also, Clinton’s plan makes students rely on their parents for an education. This can be problematic for students with unhealthy or abusive relationships with their parents. We shouldn’t be at the mercy of other people for an education.
Sanders’ plan cuts the financial ties between students and parents by making higher education a human right. Parents wouldn’t be able to hold education as leverage against their children. For LGBT students, this means they could come out sooner without fearing parents would cut them off financially.
For women in more traditional households, this means they could go to school despite their fathers’ efforts to convince them that school is for men only.
Clinton came out victorious in last night’s debate despite her college plan, but I still #FeelTheBern.
Cody Sibley is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Opelousas, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter at @CodySibley.