Sunday School 8/2/26

With all of the focus on the Democratic Socialists competing in Democratic primaries across the country, I thought I'd spend time with the OG DS, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who chatted with Kristen Welker in NBC's Meet the Press classroom yesterday. While some of Welker's questions were long, almost all of Sanders' answers were, so be prepared.  

Welker started by referencing a new poll showing that "one third of Democratic-leaning voters now identify as Democratic Socialists (DS)," and noted that, "quite frankly," DS candidates have been winning their primaries. And she asked Sanders if he was confident they could win in purple states. I'm going to try and break up his 470-odd word response into sections so you can catch your breath reading it.

Well, I am, but I’m mostly confident that the American people know that our country today is moving in a very, very bad direction at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than we’ve ever had in the history of America. What’s going on now makes the Gilded Age of Rockefeller look like an egalitarian utopia. What’s going on now is that millions of our people, right now, in the richest country on Earth, they’re struggling to put food on the table, pay for health care, pay for their rent, pay for their mortgage.

You got half of all the workers who have nothing in savings as they face retirement. Or you’re facing seeing kids unable to afford to go to college in the richest country in the history of the world. So people all over America are looking around, they’re saying, “Hey, wait a minute. The very richest people are becoming richer. Elon Musk himself, one man, owns more wealth by far than the bottom half of American households. What in God’s name is going on?”

And people look at the Republican leadership and Donald Trump, and they say, “You know, this guy’s worried about a Reflecting Pool. I can’t afford my retirement. He’s starting a war in Iran, costing us huge amounts of money, killing innocent people. 18 American servicemen are dead. What are they doing?”

And then you look at the Democratic Party leadership, which also gets their money, like the Republicans, from very wealthy people, and people are saying, “Is the Democratic leadership representing ordinary Americans?” And I think people look at the Republicans, they say, “No, they’re out of touch,” look at the Democratic leadership, say, “No, they’re out of touch.

We need a government, a radical idea, that works for all people and not just for wealthy campaign contributors.” And that’s why, from New York City with (Zoran) Mamdani, and in Colorado, and in California, and in Montana, and I think you’re going to see it in Michigan, people are saying, “Enough is enough. You know, let’s get a government that represents all of us.”

And I’ve got to tell you something, Kristen, that part of the exasperation that the American people are feeling, it’s not just an economy which is rigged. They’re looking at a corrupt — underlying corrupt campaign finance system. And what you’re seeing in Michigan right now is AIPAC, other billionaire-funded super PACs, putting tens and tens of millions of dollars against Abdul El-Sayed. In Minnesota against Peggy Flanagan, same thing.

So we’ve got billionaires buying elections, government working for the billionaires, and ordinary people saying, “We want change.” And that is why progressives, democratic socialists, are doing so well all over this country. They’ve got an agenda that speaks to the needs of working families. They’re prepared to stand up to the oligarchs.

Since Sanders mentioned Michigan, she wondered how confident he was that his endorsed candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, could "pull out a victory" in Tuesday's primary against the establishment candidate, Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

Look, he has taken on –I’ve never - you know, I’m not a political scientist. I cannot recall where a major candidate was outspent so much by super PACs. I mean, they’re spending tens and tens of millions of dollars against him. The polling recently looks good, but polls don’t win elections, people do. So I would hope that, in Michigan and later next week in Minnesota, people understand the importance of this election. What’s it about?

It’s not just whether Abdul can win or not, beat Haley Stevens. The question is whether or not we live in a democratic society where a candidate fighting for working people can take on tens and tens of millions of dollars of AIPAC money, special interest money. And I hope very much that Abdul is - and I’ll tell you why, and a kind of selfish reason. Everybody in America understands that our current health care system is totally broken. We’re spending unbelievable amounts of money, twice as much per capita as the people of any other country. 85 million uninsured, underinsured. Prices way high.

Dr. El-Sayed is somebody I need in the Senate as he fights for Medicare for All. He’s a doctor. He has seen the broken health care system. We need him to make sure that every man, woman, and child in this country has health care as a human right, as is the case in every other major country on Earth.

Welker noted that Sen. Gary Peters, whose seat is up for grabs, has backed Stevens to replace him, saying

You have to have a candidate who understands that winning a general election doesn’t mean just turning out Democrats. You also have to appeal to a broader cross-section of your state, and Michigan is a true purple state.

To Sanders, she posted this question: "What do you think Dr. El-Sayed will have to do in order to turn out moderates and independents to win a general election if he does win on Tuesday?" In a nutshell, Sanders explained El-Sayed can win because working-class Republicans are in the same boat as all working-class people, and they know the system is broken.

You are struggling to figure out how you’re going to retire with dignity. You understand that the current campaign finance system is broken. You understand that workers need decent wages, and El-Sayed is fighting for a livable minimum wage. And by the way, if you’re a Republican, you know maybe we should be investing our money into Michigan, into Vermont, into America rather than giving the extremist government of Netanyahu and Israel tens of billions of dollars to continue their atrocities against the Palestinian people - I think if you’re a working-class - ok - if you’re a working-class Republican in Michigan, I think you’re going to listen to what El-Sayed says. You’re gonna - and I think many of them will end up voting for him. Independents as well, of course.

Welker asked if El-Sayed should "speak with the same clarity" as Sanders has on the issue of Israel as a Jewish State. El-Sayed has said he "often struggles with the question of whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.”  Here's the non-answer:

Look, I think right now the immediate issue of the moment is whether or not we continue to put tens of billions of dollars into the extremist Netanyahu government, which has killed 75,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, wounded 150,000, destroyed their infrastructure. And what the American people are saying overwhelmingly, Democrats, many independents - the majority of independents, and many Republicans, especially younger Republicans, “We’ve got better things to do with our money than to continue to fund the military of Israel.”

They talked a bit about the Maine primary, where Troy Jackson was chosen to replace Graham Platner after widely-reported scandals. Sanders knows Jackson; he'd endorse him if he was asked, and said "I look forward to working with him in the US Senate." And, on comments from Sen. John Fetterman (Kinda D- PA) about Sanders supporting Platner, Sanders suggested that Fetterman "was reflecting the views of about 19% of the Democrats" in PA and is "way out of touch with the people of America."  And, when she asked if he had any regrets about endorsing Platner, he turned to his standard lines:

I’ll tell you, you know, I think right now we’re looking at a campaign in Michigan, we’re looking at a campaign in Minnesota. The people of this country right now are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment policies. They want change and I and other progressives are going to do everything that we can to bring about those changes.

Finally, they talked about who could carry the progressive banner into the next presidential race, which will be the first without him since 2016.

Kristen there are — one of the untold secrets in Washington is in the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, you have many, many really strong progressives. Many of them are young. Many of them are women. Many of them are people of color. And we have elected many of them. And I think as a result of this election cycle, you’re going to see a lot more coming to Washington. I think as a nation, and by the way, with all due respect, the media spends too much time worrying about who’s going to be a president in two and a half years.

Right now, we have enormous problems facing this country. We’re looking at heat waves all over the world. You’ve got climate change. We’re looking at the big tech oligarchs pushing AI and robotics down our throat. Congress is doing very little to protect working people in that. We’re looking at massive levels of income and wealth inequality, a corrupt campaign finance system. My suggestion is, as a country, as a Congress, as media, let’s focus on the important issues facing working people. Two and a half years from now is a long time to a presidential election. I’m sure it will unfold itself.

I had hoped there'd be more questions about the Democratic Socialists of America platform, and to what extent the DS candidates support the platform. We'll have to wait to see if any of them win in November before anyone starts asking about that. 

For his part, Sanders was Sanders - his answers, in my opinion, were entirely predictable. What do you think?

Sunday School 8/16/20: Extra Credit

In yesterday's Sunday School, we heard from Mark Meadows and Robert O'Brien, the president's 4th National Security Advisor and 4th chief of staff, along with NJ Senator Cory Booker. 

I promised  then that I'd devote your Extra Credit to That Guy From Vermont, Bernie 'I'm Not A Democrat' Sanders, and I'm going to do just that, starting with his appearance in the MTP classroom, where Chuck Todd was very fixated on the US Postal Service, like a stamp on an envelope or something. Here are a few of the questions - there were more. 

• What are we witnessing here, legitimate reform of the USPS, or sabotage?

...what you are witnessing is a president who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote... Look, I happen to think, as you know, that Trump is a pathological liar. He lies all of the time, but I've got to say, I’ve got to admit that the other day he was very honest. He said, "Look, we want to kill mail-in balloting. We don't want millions and millions of people to be able to cast their ballots through the mail, so we'll destroy the Postal Service. We'll defund it. They can't vote." ...And it is an outrage, Chuck, because this campaign is more than healthcare, it's more than education, it's more than the Postal Service. It is democracy and he is sabotaging our democracy.

• Do you really believe Congress can act to hamstring the president here?

We're going to do everything that we can, in every way that we can. And different states may respond differently, but this is an issue. This really is an issue where ideology should not get in the way. I don't care if you're a conservative, moderate, whatever you are. If you believe that people have a right to vote and in a pandemic should not have to put their lives on the line to go into a ballot -- into a polling station, you know what, you have to support the full funding of the Postal Service and make sure that people can participate.

• And give us a preview of your speech, if you don't mind.

 Number one, what I just referred to, is that this is a campaign about whether or not we maintain American democracy...but I'll tell you what else it is. Right now, as we speak, Chuck, and we don't talk about this enough, with 30 million people having lost their jobs since the pandemic, and since those $600 checks have ceased to come, what you are seeing all over this country is people in economic desperation. You're seeing people who today, in America, the richest country on Earth, unable to feed their kids, worrying about being evicted from their homes. You're seeing people who cannot pay their bills, who have no health insurance. What we are looking at is an absolute horror show...

• How do you feel overall about the party platform? And do you feel like you've got enough of your views represented in it?

Well, Chuck, as you may be aware, I am not the candidate, so my views are not the dominant views. But what I will credit strongly the Biden campaign for is that Joe and I talked about this and he and I agreed that we should have task forces dealing with some of the major issues facing this country, including the economy and healthcare, climate change, immigration, education, etc. And the people on those task forces worked very, very hard. And I'm not here to tell you, as a strong advocate for Medicare For All, that we got everything we wanted. We surely did not. But I think if people look at the outcome of those task forces, they'll find the reality that if those task force proposals are implemented, you know what, Joe Biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that, in this moment, is what we need. 

• Kamala Harris - is she a future progressive leader of the Democratic party, in your mind?

...all that I can say is that I think what almost all progressives understand, that in this moment we have got to do everything we can to come together to defeat Donald Trump, who in my view is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, and elect Joe Biden. But as I have said many, many times, the day after Biden is elected, we're going to be working with the grassroots in this country, with working people, with people of color, with young people, to stand up and fight for an agenda that works for working families, not just the 1%. And that most certainly includes Medicare For All. So, we're going to rally the American people around an agenda. And I look forward to doing that the day after Biden is elected.

• I just want to confirm that that is not you, sir, that signed a petition in Wisconsin to get Kanye West on the ballot (Mickey Mouse signed, too).

I cannot confirm Mickey Mouse. That I’m not -- don't know about, but I can tell you I certainly did not sign that petition.

And, here are highlights from his visit with George Stephanopoulos in the This Week classroom, where Sanders did even more to promote his agenda than he did on MTP, even though, as he noted, it was not the winning agenda. That's kind of why, for the second convention in a row, he'll be speaking as the non-winner.

• The party has been moving your way on many of the big issues. So will you declare victory tomorrow night? 

Well, one of the points that I will make is that the progressive movement has been making enormous progress not only in electing candidates to Congress, not only in electing candidates to state legislatures but also electing candidates who are running for district attorney, who are transforming criminal justice in America. And also, George, I think, as you've indicated, on all of the ideas that we have been campaigning, the right to understanding that health care is a human right, the need to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, the understanding that climate change is an existential threat and that we can create millions of jobs transforming our energy system, you know what, we have made enormous progress in bringing the American people in our direction, especially the younger generation. 

• What's your message to those of your supporters who are not happy with the platform? 

Well, my message is that we're going to continue the fight for Medicare for all. We have a healthcare system today that's dysfunctional; too many people are uninsured; too many people are under-insured; too many people are going bankrupt because of medical bills. We pay almost twice as much per capita as the people of any other country. The function of health care is to guarantee health care to all, not make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. That fight continues the day after Joe Biden is elected president. 

• Kamala Harris endorsed Medicare for all during the primaries. Do you believe she's an ally in this fight for Medicare for all?  

Well, I believe that Kamala is somebody who is -- I've known for a number of years -- incredibly smart, incredibly tough. And I would not like to be Vice President Pence in a debate with her. I think she's an asset for the Biden campaign, and I think she's going to do great on the campaign trail.

• Your former press secretary says "The contempt for the base here is, wow." referring to the Democratic Platform. What do you say to that? 

Well, I would say that the overwhelming majority of progressives understand that it is absolutely imperative that Donald Trump be defeated, that we have a president who is trying to undermine American democracy, a president who has turned his back on the working families of this country, a president who has done a horrible job in terms of the pandemic, does not believe in science, is not dealing with the existential threat of climate change... A lot of my supporters are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden, you know why? I ran against Joe Biden. But I think there is overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated, Biden must be elected, and that the day after he is elected, we're going to do everything we can to create a government that works for all of us and not just the 1% and wealthy campaign contributors. 

And finally, let's see if there was anything different in his CNN State of the Union classroom appearance with Jake Tapper. 

• Did Mark Meadows say anything that reassures you that the election will be free and fair and the way you want it to be conducted? 

Before we get to the post office, I'm glad that he thinks that Kamala Harris is eligible to run for president. And he dismisses it. He said, oh, sure, of course she is. Then why is the president of the United States engaging in a racist, xenophobic attack against her by suggesting she is not eligible? This is what this campaign is about.   

Jake, what we are fighting for here is not just the post office that I want to talk about. It's not just whether Trump will succeed in throwing 32 million Americans off the health care they have. It's not just whether workers will continue to get the $600 supplementary checks they desperately need, when their unemployment -- or the $1,200 checks. It's not just climate change.  

It is in fact whether we're going to have a pathological liar staying in the White House who lies every single day. I think there have been documented there have been some 20,000 lies that is told that have been documented already.  

So, when Meadows says, oh, yes, Kamala Harris, she's eligible to run for president, then maybe you got to talk to the White House of why they tweet out stuff that is terrible and lying. 

• Are you frustrated that these positions will not be represented on the Democratic ticket? And how do you tell your voters to support a ticket that, in their view, might be more moderate than progressive? 

Well, Jake, two things. Our movement, as I'm sure you know, is doing really quite phenomenally well. All across this country, in New York state and elsewhere, in Missouri, we have elected extremely progressive member -- people who will become members of Congress who are going to stand up and fight for working families and take on the 1% and the greed of the corporate elite. 

We are electing district attorney candidates all over this country, people to the state legislature. So, our movement has real momentum. And we are doing just fine. Now, in terms of disagreements with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, yes, of course we do. I ran against Biden. 

And my message -- my message to our supporters is, we have got to do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump... I view as the most dangerous president in American history. And then what we have to do the day after we elect Joe Biden as president, we've got to rally our people to stand up and fight for an agenda that works for all, and not just a few. And that absolutely includes Medicare for all. I think most working people understand today that health care must be a human right, not simply a job benefit because, if you lose your job, then you lose your health care. That's crazy. That's not what we want. And we have got to take on the pharmaceutical industry... so much higher prices than any other country on Earth, sometimes 10 times more for the medicine that we need.  So, we're going to do everything that we can, A, to elect Biden, and, B, after he's elected, move this country in as progressive a way as we possibly can. 

• If Wall Street breathes a sigh of relief with Kamala Harris being named to the ticket, what does Bernie Sanders do?  

So, what Bernie Sanders is going to do is do everything that I can to defeat Donald Trump, to elect Joe Biden. And after the Democrats have control of the Senate and the House, and Joe is the president, we're going to do all that we can to mobilize people for a progressive agenda. But this is not a complicated issue. Donald Trump must be defeated. Biden must be elected. And after that election, we're going to do all that we can for a progressive -- to fight for a progressive agenda.

I don't know about you, but it sure seems like Bernie Sanders is going to do exactly the same thing the day after the election, no matter who the winner is. He's going to push his agenda, a twice-losing agenda, whether the Democrats like it or not. 

And I guess I'm the dumb one, because I kind of thought that maybe he would realize that his extreme positions are not mainstream positions in the Democratic party, yet. Maybe they will be after all of those progressives take over all of the local and state offices, but they aren't, yet. 

I only hope that he can convince his supporters, who are already whining about the platform, that starting somewhere is better than ending up nowhere, and that they'll make sure they work to pass legislation that moves us in the right direction, rather than holding out for their version of perfection. If not, we're screwed. 

That's your extra credit, and my mini-rant, for this week.  See you around the virtual campus.

Sunday School 12/29/19

Today, Andrew Yang was the only one of the 2020 Dems making the rounds in the classrooms, so his conversation with Jonathan Karl on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos gets my undivided attention today.

Our Sunday School Extra Credit will cover the discussion on Meet the Press about "our post-truth society" and the spread of information, misinformation, alternative facts, and the like. That's going to be fun, I'm sure!

But today, it's all about Andrew. Here's the clip Jonathan Karl played to open the segment, of Yang talking about money and diversity at the last debate.

Why am I the lone candidate of color on this stage? Fewer than 5% of Americans donate to political campaigns. Do you know what you need to donate to political campaigns? Disposable income. I guarantee if we had a Freedom Dividend of $1000 a month, I would not be the only candidate of color on this stage tonight. 

I remembered that from the debate, and how it made me stop and think. I've donated small amounts to three of the candidates - but I've never really thought about my ability to do that, or more importantly, about someone else's inability to do that. And, honestly, I'm curious about where the conversation's going to go.

Karl presented the clip as Yang "making his pitch for his universal basic income plan" and noted that  "a dozen governors, mayors and members of Congress have already dropped out."  His first question to Yang was on the meaning of his campaign slogan, "Not left, not right, but forward."

Well, Jon, to me it's clear the reason why Donald Trump is our president today is that we automated away four million manufacturing jobs that were primarily based in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa, the swing states he needed to win. And what we did to those jobs is what we are now going to do to the retail jobs, the call center jobs, the fast food jobs,  and eventually the truck driving jobs. 

He's right -- who among us hasn't started a call with pretty much any customer service department by going through a bunch of automated prompts before we ever get a chance to talk to a person? And, with the increasing minimum wages we're seeing at the state level, can you remember the last time you walked into a fast food place or Panera and didn't see "order here" kiosks? Or signs outside Dunkin' suggesting you order from your phone and have it ready when you get there?

Here's the last bit of his answer.

We have to have a way forward that works for all Americans independent of (their) political affiliation, so that's what we mean by not left, not right, forward. These problems are technological and apply to us all. 

Karl asked if what he means is that the major parties are too tied to ideology, too far left or right.  Yang pointed out that he was an 'ambassador' (little A, not big A) in the last administration, and added

...to me Democrats still have not asked themselves the hard questions as to how Donald Trump won in 2016 where if you look around the country, you see 30 percent of stores and malls closing. You see record high levels of stress, financial insecurity, student loan debt, even suicides and drug overdoses. These are the problems that voters talk to me about when I'm out there every single day.

And he hit on another of his key points, which I think Elizabeth Warren has added to her repertoire:

And the Democratic Party, unfortunately, is acting like Donald Trump is the cause of all of our problems. He's a symptom and we need to cure the underlying disease.

Karl moved to the details of the Freedom Dividend, which will give everyone over 18 who opts in $1000 a month, free to use however they want. And he wondered about the 'Math' of allowing a Jeff Bezos or a Donald Trump to get the Universal Basic Income (UBI).Yang thanked him for noticing the MATH tagline, which stands for 'Make America Think Harder.' And he explained that his UBI plan is modeled after what they've been doing in Alaska for nearly 40 years - the petroleum dividend that gives everyone in the state the same amount of money, no questions asked. That's what takes away the stigma and makes it truly universal, Yang explained. 

And back to Bezos?

And my way to pay for this is by taking a toll from every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad. So we'd be getting hundreds of millions, even billions, from Jeff Bezos. So if we try and send him $1,000 a month to remind him he's an American, it's essentially immaterial. 

Turning to his newly released health care plan, Karl confessed to having some confusion about where Yang stands and played a couple of clips, one of the candidate and one of an unidentified woman, presumably a supporter. Both clips mentioned Medicare for All. His plan, Karl said, "does not call for Medicare for all. In fact, it doesn't even have a public option. So why the dissonance here?"

We need to move towards universal health care that's high quality and nearly cost free for Americans around the country. But reality is, we have millions of Americans who are on private insurance right now and taking those plans away from them very quickly would be untenable for many, many Americans. 

And he suggested the goal should not be to shut down private insurance, but instead

To me, the goal of the government has to be to demonstrate that we can out-compete private plans and then push them out of the market over time. And that's -- that's what we're proposing.

Karl pushed back, saying "...but-- again, I'm confused. Your ad is explicit. Your ad says, Medicare for all. Your plan is not Medicare for all. It's not even 'Medicare for some' because in your plan there -- there's not even a public option."

Our plan is to expand a universal health care system to all Americans. Medicare for All is not the name of a bill. Medicare for All -- is universal health care for all Americans. And that is our vision.

I give Jon Karl credit for pressing on this question, because it does seem confusing. He asked again, "But Medicare for All is Medicare for all, right? I mean --" 

Well, our -- our health care plan would be -- would be based on Medicare and expanding it over time to more and more Americans. You'd lower the eligibility age and then you make it widely accessible.

Karl gave up, saying he "didn't see that" in Yang's plan, but moved on to talk about Yang's campaign.

Reiterating that he's "been the surprise break-through candidate" and that no one expected him to still be in the race or on the stage for the last of the 2019 debates. But, he noted, Yang's yet to break 5% in the early-state polls, and wondered what he has to do "to actually break through to the next level?"

Yang was upbeat in his typically self-deprecating way, saying he loves being described as a "surprise break-through." He also noted it's been a while since there's been an early-state poll - over a month, he said, and so he

can't wait for some new polls to come out that show how much we're growing, how much the energy and enthusiasm and the crowds are getting bigger every time I go to any of the early states. I'm on my way to New Hampshire a little bit later today to celebrate New Year's Eve. And you're going to see, when the polls come out, we'll be at 5 percent or higher. I think significantly higher.

Moving to impeachment, Karl noted that Yang says no one ever asks him about that, and he's also said that Dems spend too much time talking about it. So, he asked Yang to confirm whether he supported impeaching Trump.

Yes, I do support the impeachment process, but voters don't ask me about impeachment, they ask me about health care and child care and education and climate change. And the fact is, we need 20 Republican senators to have a change of heart or a change of mind in order for impeachment to be successful.

So this strikes many Americans like a ballgame where you know what the score is going to be. And until that changes, to me, we need to be focused much more on presenting a new and positive vision that Americans will get excited about. That's how we win in 2020.

Karl tried to turn that into specifics, asking if Yang would advise Dems to "just forgo the Senate trial," noting that Trump's already been impeached and if, as Yang says, we already know the score in the Senate, why spend "the better part of a month, maybe longer" on a trial that Yang says voters don't care about.

Well, we -- we've impeached him. And if you're going to have the trial, you should make it happen as quickly and expediently as possible. I've already said that I think that the other candidates who are in the Senate, Senators Warren and Sanders and Booker and Bennett should feel free to continue their campaigns during the trial because the fact is, we have an election to win later this year and a case to make to the American people.

Karl noted that Yang has suggested he'd "be open to pardoning Donald Trump if (he) were elected" which is something I had not heard before. Karl asked if that was something Yang would do, and if any Democrat won in November, should a pardon be issued?

My focus is on solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected and moving the country forward. And if you look around the world, unfortunately, it's developing countries that have fallen into a pattern of the new president or the new leader prosecuting and sometimes imprisoning the former leader. That's not a precedent that’s been set here in the U.S., and to me, that's something that I would be interested in maintaining. It's not in the country's interest necessarily to look backwards. We need to look forwards.

Hitting this one more time, Karl wondered if Yang would "not want to proceed with prosecuting Donald Trump after he left office" and if he'd be open to a pardon, or if he thought Trump should be pardoned.

Well, we would have to see what the facts were. We’d have to see what the charges were and what the attorney general advises. But my interest is moving the country forward.

That's where they left it, but I did some digging to see what Yang had said about impeachment. Most information points back to the November debate; here's a little more on that from NBC News.

Andrew Yang said he does not think Trump should be facing criminal charges and would consider pardoning Trump if he were in fact prosecuted.

"We do not want to be a country that gets in the pattern of jailing past leaders," Yang said, adding that "there's a reason why Ford pardoned Nixon." 

"I'd actually go a step further and say not just, hey, it's up to my [Attorney General]. I would say that the country needs to start solving the problems on the ground and move forward."

"Would you consider a pardon then?" NBC News asked.

"I would," Yang said.

So - we opened with a clip about diversity and never talked about it again, and we closed with a conversation about pardoning Trump. Interesting way to bookend the interview.

See you around campus.

Sidebar: Poll Watch: The Not-So-Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Yesterday's Poll Watch looked at how registered voters responded to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, focusing on their perceptions of the president and some of those who want to be president.   Today, I wanted to share some of the opinions these voters have on the issues that are currently bubbling to the top, with the caveat that the survey was done before all the news about impeachment took over the media cycles.

A majority of all voters favor DREAMers being allowed to stay legally; an opt-in to Medicare; student loan debt forgiveness after a history of payments; tuition-free public colleges and universities; 100% renewable energy use by 2030; and, somewhat ironically, oil drilling off the US coast.

Smaller percentages of us favor ending fracking, building a wall on the border, getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, implementing Medicare for All (M4A) and getting rid of private insurance, and giving illegal immigrants government health care - which has the lowest level of both overall and strong support.

None of the issues reaches even 45% strong support.

Things look a little different if you look at the opinions of Democratic voters in the survey. Again, there's majority support for DREAMers, for the Medicare opt-in, for repayment and then forgiveness of student loans, tuition-free college, and renewable energy, but then things change.

Health care for illegal immigrants, Medicare for All (M4A), immediate forgiveness of student loans, and ending fracking also have majority support from Dems. 

Only a handful of the issues - DREAMers, the Medicare opt-in, student loan forgiveness tied to a repayment plan, and tuition-free college - have strong support from a majority of Dems; all the rest of the issues fall below 50% on the strength of support.

The key takeaway from this data? Moderate positions have greater overall support among all voters, and among Democratic voters, than do the more 'progressive' positions.

So if you're a fan of the more moderate Dems, including Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar, this may be good news. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the 'burn the house down' theories promoted by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (to a slightly lesser degree), this might not be good news for you.

I know there's a school of thought out there that everyone will be more extreme during the primaries and then they'll move to the center for the general election, but we saw how that worked in 2016, particularly for the Dems. As I recall, among the reasons why people didn't like Hillary Clinton is because they didn't trust her to keep her word, and they couldn't tell where she stood on the issues because it seemed she changed her positions so frequently.

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have a candidate that has convictions and the courage of them, one I can count on to say the same thing to me in October 2019 as they'll say to me in October 2020.