Why didn't Corey Booker do better in the primaries?

[Hortensis]

38. If we lose this one, it may have been our last

genuine election. Or perhaps we'll realize in retrospect that 2012 was, and that a RW authoritarian cabal had been consolidating its power.

But, yes, what a great point about the dysfunction of a combative format when people share the same basic beliefs and variations on much the same goals.

I NOW think that these should always include discussion of what the candidates' principles and beliefs are. Not programs, the principles underlying them. What "equality," "pursuit of happiness," "promote the general welfare," "individualism" mean to Democrats, and how they should be applied by government.

We really need that: discussions that help us and everyone else understand who we are and what we believe in by examining our candidates' beliefs. So we can be strong and proud in our beliefs and put a permanent end to our enemies defining us instead.

Really good point, Laura.