Reading over some of the right wing sites today is a view into a strange alternate universe where everything is reversed; to these folks, the Democratic debate was a crazy festival of socialism and the only person on the stage who was even remotely sane was… Jim Webb. Yes, the guy who bragged about killing a man.

My main take-away from this debate was that Hillary Clinton did exceptionally well; she came off as relaxed, knowledgeable and even likeable, with no sign of being ground down by the relentless GOP attempts to smear her with one bogus controversy after another.

Another impression: Hillary has a real adversary in Bernie Sanders. Sanders showed he’s not going to be someone who just vanishes from the scene or produces a gaffe so bad it removes him from the running; he was smart and passionate, and very well-reasoned. And he had the line of the night when he said to Hillary Clinton, “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” You said it, Bernie.

Most of all, this debate was a real debate, not a tedious circus act like the Republican debates in which all the candidates have absolutely identical views on everything and have to rely on personal attacks to differentiate themselves. At the Democratic debate, there were real points of contention about issues like gun control, the Iraq War, climate change, the downside of free market capitalism, and more.

Having these different views really shows that the Democratic Party is alive, healthy and engaged with issues that really matter to America in the 21st century; by contrast, the GOP debates have been demonstrations of the moribund and hidebound nature of a reactionary party trying to roll back progress to 19th century levels.