The first of two nights of Democrat debates in Detroit highlighted what some analysts describe as a civil war for the direction of the Democratic Party.

Liberal candidates pushing for radical change including open borders and socialized medicine, were criticized by those urging a more cautious approach.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), leaders of the extreme liberal pack, boldly put forth their ambitious ideas for fundamentally changing the face and nature of the American fabric.

All the while, President Trump and his popularity (higher now than Obama’s at the same time in his presidency) was the elephant in the room though candidates made sure to even blame him for problems that were not previously solved under past Democrat presidents.

Sanders was forced to defend his Medicare-for-All plan, which former Maryland Rep. John Delaney attacked in a point-by-point description of why it will fail.

CNN anchor and Democrat debates moderator Jake Tapper asked Sanders, “Congressman Delaney just referred to it as bad policy, and previously he’s called the idea political suicide that will just get President Trump re-elected. What do you say to Congressman Delaney?”

“You’re wrong,” was the only response from Sanders who is not accustomed to being questioned by what has previously been a very sympathetic media.

Delaney responded that the Democrats have become the party that takes things away from Americans. “We don’t have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country with private health insurance their health insurance is illegal,” he stated.

Sanders became angry when challenged on the details of his healthcare plan which economists have said will bankrupt the nation and cause taxes to rise exponentially on middle class families.

The self-admitted socialist held out carrots to older voters saying, “For senior citizens it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses.”

For Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, it was just too much, as he retorted, “You don’t know that, Bernie.”

Sanders shot back saying, “I do know it, I wrote the damn bill.”

His bill has never gotten traction among most Democrats in the nation’s capitol.

Warren, who is considered the leader of the civil war to take the Democrat party to the dangerous edges of socialism, attacked party moderates for not being ambitious enough.

“I genuinely do not understand why anyone would go to all the trouble of running for president just to get up on this stage and talk about what’s not possible,” said Warren.

After Gov. Steve Bullock criticized her plan decriminalizing illegal immigration and opening the door to millions more people crossing the border each year, she doubled down.

“So the problem is that right now the criminalization statute is what gives Donald Trump the ability to take children away from their parents,” said Warren. “It’s what gives him the ability to lock up people at our borders.”

Warren did not mention that Obama used the same statutes to separate children from their parents at the border.

Bullock echoed the more mainstream view of some Democrats saying, “We can actually get to the point where we have both safe borders, where we have a path to citizenship, where we have opportunities for dreamers, and you don’t have to decriminalize everything.”

On the topic of race, the candidates took the opportunity to bash President Trump, but Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who implies he is Hispanic but is not, publicly owned the radical movement of reparations, saying if elected president, he would embrace reparations for all black Americans, regardless if they were descendants of slaves or not.

In what may have been pandering to the African-American community, Beto promised he would “sign into law Sheila Jackson Lee’s reparations bill so that we could have the national conversation we have waited too long in this country to have.”

Polls show overwhelmingly that Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are against the trillions of dollars in reparations that some are demanding to right the wrongs of 170 years ago.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg referenced the Bible as he took yet another shot at conservative Christians, this time blasting the Senate for not supporting a minimum wage bill.

“So-called conservative Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage, when scripture says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker,” Buttigieg asserted.

Buttigieg was referring to Proverbs 14:31 and has made a concerted effort to court young evangelicals.

And the internet is abuzz over Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio not putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Many question if it was it an oversight or a statement?

Meanwhile, the second half of the Democrat debates comes Wednesday night, pairing up Sen. Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden, the significant front runner who is almost 80 years old.

–Metro Voice and wire services