We’re halfway through the first Democratic debate of the season. I frame it as a “season” because the networks are already treating it like the UFC, or the NBA draft. Generously, though, there are enough candidates for about five teams—a good start for any organized sport.
And sporting the candidates are: several dudes, including Beto, Booker, and the host guy, have already blown us out of the water with their simply phenomenal grasp of Español, while Julían Castro, making some very good points about reproductive rights and immigration, is no doubt dying inside at the pronunciation. Elizabeth Warren is concise and measured and making most of the other fools up in here look like consummate jokers. Tulsi Gabbard has a cool hair streak. There are five white men I cannot name. Going great!
This is just the beginning of a long, exhausting election and it’s important that all of us practice a little kindness as it unfolds. So I am here to ask: How you doing? What are you feeling? And, as that host guy would say in a weird accent that sounded like he was auditioning for a low-budget commercial and trying to show he was down, “¿CÓMO ESTÁS?”