The presidential candidates were not asked last night about their favorite quote from the bible, yet the Democratic debate, hosted by CNN, came close to the spirit of biblical expressions of justice and compassion. The candidates brought up ideas and programs that promise a more democratic and inclusive society and a vision for the country that is similar to the compassionate America that Pope Francis offered in his address to Congress. While the stage did not display a rich multiethnic representation and there were differences among the candidates, the debate in its totality advanced the idea of a wide-ranging progressive future that was in sharp contrast to the misanthropic America of the Republican candidates.

It was good to hear Hilary Clinton say, “I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.” While Bernie Sanders’ response was clear from the outset, it was important for progressive women to hear Hilary, and yes, we expect her “to get things done” to include women in the American agenda; the ERA, as we know, has yet to be ratified. It was also heartening to hear from both Sanders and Clinton that black lives matter, and we expect not just progressive ideas, we expect them to “get it done,” to tackle with courage the endemic systemic racism.

Many of us were appalled by the Republican Presidential Debate, by the xenophobia, the racism, the misogyny, the personal attacks, and the jockeying for the role of bully. Last night we were reminded that there is a different vibrant American vision. Yet, it is also important to note that the debate last night offered a more progressive plan than the Democratic Party had supported in the past. What a change: the candidates expressed positions of expanding human rights rather than playing to Republican politics that in the 1970s pulled the democrats to the inhumanity of the death penalty, to the harshness on poverty, and to inattention on racism. In the first 2015 debate there were strong and clear ideas about social equality, a critique of deepening economic disparity, the greed of Wall Street, the powerful industries, the drug companies, the NRA; the candidates talked about the need for compassionate immigration reform, for increasing the minimum wage, for attention to the environment, and for a much needed prison and a justice system reform.

On that stage last night Hilary Clinton was the voice of women. Asked by CNN moderator Dana Bash about Carly Fiorina’s rejection of parental leave, Clinton said that California, Fiorina’s home state, has a paid leave program, that contrary to Republican’ dire predictions, has been successful. She went on to remind the audience that the same people who have a problem with issues like paid leave, “don’t mind big government interfering with a woman’s right to choose or trying to shut down Planned Parenthood. I’m sick of it!”

Hilary Clinton at that moment gave hope to millions of women and men who understand that reproductive rights are human rights and that to attack choice is to deny women the right that men have, the right over their own bodies. It was good to hear such a strong public support for the health and wellbeing of women. Since America is the only western democracy that does not have universal health care, millions of underserved women get their medical care at Planned Parenthood that the Republicans are fighting so hard to shut down. On reproductive rights, on women’s health and on numerous social justice issues, the debate last night spread a hopeful canopy of inclusivity and social responsibility.