• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. presidential debates>

Republicans called out at the Democratic debate, and not in a bad way

David Hawkings
October 16, 2019
Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders at the Democratic presidential debate in October

Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders all identified Republican senators when asked to reveal a surprising friendship.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

For those who view the restoration of cross-partisan friendships as genuinely key to making democracy work better, there was a glimmer of hope at the very end of the latest presidential debate.

Each of the Democratic candidates was asked Tuesday night to speak about a friendship that would be a surprise, and nine of the dozen talked exclusively about bonding with Republicans.

The downside, however, is that only two of them mentioned Senate GOP colleagues who will still be in public life after the next election.

Kamala Harris gave a shout-out to Rand Paul of Kentucky, her partner on legislation to reduce excessive bail for criminal defendants. And Cory Booker singled out a fresh companionship with Ted Cruz of Texas while talking up the benefits of his efforts to have dinner with every Republican senator, also mentioning attending Bible study and working on legislation to improve foster care with Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Time and again, congressional veterans and students of the Capitol Hill culture volunteer that the slide into legislative gridlock, punctuated by polarizing rhetoric, has accelerated thanks to the steep decline in such bipartisan bonding — borne of a combination of tribal-style demands for partisan loyalty and scheduling pressures that stress fundraising far more than connecting with colleagues.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter


"This is reassuring in the fact that we've all acknowledging that we have to reach across the aisle, to get things done. No other way to get anything done in this country," said former Vice President Joe Biden, recapping his rivals' GOP-heavy roster while crisply encapsulated the core rationale of his own candidacy.

And yet Biden, the last of the candidates to name an unlikely friend, was in the majority naming somebody who is no longer available for collaboration.

He chose the late John McCain, the maverick Republican from Arizona who was one of Biden's most frequent bipartisan collaborators when both were in the Senate. And so did two other senators: Bernie Sanders, who worked with McCain to write an overhaul of veterans health care policy, and Amy Klobuchar, who joined him on several fact-finding trips to global hot spots.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren volunteered Charles Fried, the solicitor general in the second half of the Reagan administration, who later helped her get a teaching job. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii went with former Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who in recent days was briefly considered for a spot on President Trump's impeachment legal team. Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke talked about the companionship and trust forged during a cross-country road trip (livestreamed on Facebook) with colleague Will Hurd of Texas, but he's leaving Congress at the end of next year.

The final question of the debate — inspired by the recent online dustup about the personal bond between talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and former President George W. Bush — prompted other candidates into different tacks: Andrew Yang rhapsodized about a conservative trucker named Fred, Pete Buttigieg talked about the people he met in the military from different walks of life, Tom Steyer referenced a conservative environmentalist in South Carolina and Julian Castro spoke fondly of his childhood teachers.

"While we have had major debates about policy, we have to remember that what unites us is so much bigger than what divides us," said Klobuchar, who's also sought to propel herself into the top tier of candidates by positioning herself as a repairer of the partisan breech. "We have to remember that our job is to not just to change policy, but to change the tone in our politics, to look up from our phones, to look at each other, to start talking to each other."

For those worried about democracy's challenges, the discussion was a slightly heartening coda after almost three hours in which the candidates once again gave the issue only minimal attention.

Several of them tangentially lamented the corrupting influence of corporate political donations on policy-making. But only Warren, who now stands with Biden as a polling front-runner, confronted the issue more or less head on — seizing an opening to tout her just-released campaign finance plan, in which she promised to reject big-dollar donations and corporate funders through the general election if she is the nominee and challenged her rivals to disclose who's helping them raise money.

More transparency about these so-called bundlers is a top goal of "good government" groups, but so far their efforts to pressure the 2020 candidates to disclose the identities of their helpers has been largely ignored.

Warren also reiterated her desire to end the minority party's ability to filibuster legislation in the Senate, knowing that attaining 60 votes for any Democratic president's agenda will be extremely difficult in 2021. Her Senate colleagues in the presidential field have been less emphatic about making such a radical change to the way the chamber has operated for more than a century, and some democracy reformers are wary that such a change — already instituted for all confirmations — would drain the last vestiges of bipartisanship from Capitol Hill.

Several of the candidates rehearsed their ideas for Supreme Court changes — term limits, rotating seats or adding additional seats in hopes of making it less polarized (or at least less conservative) — as part of their answer to questions about the future of abortion rights.

From Your Site Articles
  • Where the presidential candidates stand on the top issues of ... ›
  • Groups ask DNC to hold debate on political reform plans - The ... ›
  • Dear presidential candidates: Use your manners - The Fulcrum ›
  • Podcast: The crucial role of political centrists - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • 5 takeaways from Ohio's Democratic presidential debate - Axios ›
  • What you missed while not watching last night's Democratic ... ›
  • ABC News Democratic Debate - WATCH THE FULL DEBATE (2019 ... ›
  • Debate rivals assail Warren as she joins Democrats' top rank ›
presidential debates

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

Milind Thakar
16h

Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Benjamin Clary
16h

Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Our Staff
16h

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Our Staff
03 February

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Rabbi Charles Savenor
03 February

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
03 February
Videos

Video: What does it mean to be Black?

Our Staff

Video: The dignity index

Our Staff

Video: The Supreme Court and originalism

Our Staff

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Our Staff
16h

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
03 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
01 February
Recommended
Video: What does it mean to be Black?

Video: What does it mean to be Black?

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

Government
Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Government
Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Podcasts
Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Your Take
Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Remembering the four chaplains eighty years later

Civic Ed