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As an aside: I don't think it is possible to have a debate about the Obama record without also understanding that it was shaped and defined (confined) by structural limitations in our democracy that have only grown worse, not better, since then. #DemDebate #DemDebate2 1/
Structural limitations that, btw, got zero questions during any of the first two series of debates and that will hamper any future Democratic president be it Bernie or Biden or Buttigieg or Warren or Harris. #DemDebate #DemDebate2 2/
The Framers thought that democracy meant having democratic institutions that looked like and were representative of the nation as a whole - in Adams' words that were an "exact portrait, a miniature." #DemDebate #DemDebate2 3/
But gerrymandering, laws designed to suppress voter participation, the corruptive influence of money in politics and more make the Framers' goal harder and harder to achieve. That should be front and center at the next debates. #DemDebate #DemDebate2 4/
I mean Michigan is the epicenter of some of the worst gerrymandering in the country - something *directly* related to the Flint water crisis (as explained in the thread below), but zero mention of it at all in the Detroit debates. #DemDebate #DemDebate2 5/
But Houston will be a great opportunity for candidates & @abcpolitics to fix this - Texas has a long history of discriminating against communities of color through redistricting, through things like voter ID laws, polling place shenanigans & more. #DemDebate #DemDebate2 6/
