The first of the presidential debates aired on Tuesday, Sept. 29. As any keen observer would note, the “debating” that occurred was anything but the civil and contained discussions touted by history textbooks. While the vice presidential debate was certainly more understandable and appropriate, I found both debates to be lacking in substance and fairly pointless.
Moments after the first presidential debate started, Donald Trump and Joe Biden gratingly competed to maintain dominance during their designated speaking periods, riling reporters and prompting a flurry of Twitter trends dedicated to the rhetorical mudslinging. I believe the defining moment of the debate was when Joe Biden, upset by Trump’s personal insults, raised his voice and said, “Would you shut up, man?” Sadly, I don’t believe many viewers were surprised.
Afterward, the public lens shifted to the vice presidential debates, which showcased the clash between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. That time, the conversation involved less shouting and name calling. However, Harris’s grimaces and the deadpan, ominous facial expressions of Pence heightened the obvious tension. Media attention peaked when a fly landed on the right side of Pence’s head, distracting viewers.
It was an odd and busy news week to say the least.
Here are a few topics the debates touched on:
Race relations and racial justice
The debates come in the midst of the nationwide protests demanding justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, which highlight the need for police and criminal justice reform across the country. All candidates were asked a range of questions addressing their policy prescriptions and moral fixes to racial tensions and injustice.
Overall, the discussions involving racism and police brutality were dysfunctional. Excluding Trump’s idiotic outbursts commanding white supremacists to “stand by,” I found the Republican side to be lacking in substance. Attacking the Democrats for racist policies while denying that policing is inherently racist is contradictory. To that same point, the Democrats should be criticized for their leadership, as only a handful of Democratic representatives have actually taken action against abusive policing.
As Cornel West says, “Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in Black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse.”
The economy and climate
In both the presidential and vice presidential debates, discussions of the economy largely revolved around Trump’s tax reform, which drastically decreased taxes for the ultrawealthy. Trump and Pence also pivoted the conversation toward Green New Deal legislation and a possible ban on fracking, both of which they demonized as detrimental to jobs and the economy. On the other hand, Harris and Biden condemned the enrichment of the ultrawealthy and emphasized the growing wealth gap, also saying they would not ban fracking.
When the economy was discussed during the debates, I found it to be completely empty in meaning. The Democrats and Republicans seem to be two sides of the same coin. In the last 30 years, there has been hardly any enlargement of the welfare state, no provision of universal healthcare and no serious legislative action to use more green energy. For Harris and Biden to argue that their platform is different from the progressive Green New Deal – that they want fracking to continue – is disheartening, almost as if they were aligning themselves with conservatives.
The COVID-19 pandemic
The most contemporary topic of the debates was the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden consistently mentioned the virus’ current death toll of over 200,000 Americans, claiming that more people will die unless Trump, “gets a lot smarter.” To counter, Trump claimed that millions, rather than hundreds of thousands, would be dead if Biden had been in the White House during the current health crisis. To top it all off, Trump also stated a vaccine would be readily available “very soon.”
In the days after the Sept. 29 debate, reports surfaced that Trump, along with the first lady and many White House staff members, had tested positive for coronavirus. This would prime the vice presidential debate to be centered around the virus, as Harris and Pence went back and forth on comparisons between H1N1 and COVID-19 and the necessity of shutdowns.
I am not a public health expert or an epidemiologist, but these remarks show the total lack of response from the Trump administration. With little to no guidance from the federal government, states are left to fend for themselves – and not well. Conspiratorial Republican propaganda that downplays the deadliness of the coronavirus, along with the denial of a stimulus package, is representative of their lack of compassion for the American people. However, I’m not at all convinced a Biden administration would handle it any better.
