If you are anything like me, you were counting down the days until September 10th for the last month and anticipating the outcome of putting 2 very different politicians in a room together.

Before I begin, I would like to address how important it is for us as citizens to research both candidates and not believe everything we hear/read from others or social media. Fact-checking is serious! More so, the handshake that started the debate shows how important respect is and that differing viewpoints are what sets up the ideals of our democracy.

First, my google form asked students if they could vote in the upcoming election.

Next, I asked the people who can vote if before the debate, they knew who they were voting for.

I then asked, “Are you voting the same as your parents if you can vote/ if you could vote?” 

Following up, I questioned: “After watching do you think you learned something new about each candidate?”

After that, I asked, “If you are voting, who are you voting for and why?”

This open-ended question had a variety of answers.

Some answered with sarcastic statements like “I am voting for Trump because he is the light at the end of the tunnel. He is the reason I get up in the morning. Every day I pray to him to restore peace and greatness to this country. I could not live in America without Donald Trump. He is the perfect, most scrumptious candidate for the job.” This response and others like them lacked actual reasoning and correct grammar, while seeming to be more on the humorous and uneducated side.

One person said, “ I can’t vote, but I wouldn’t vote for either. Both of them just fight each other the whole time and I can’t help but feel like it’s more about defaming the other person than actually debating about politics.”

There were a lot of answers that mentioned the economy, unemployment rates, and border issues listed below.

• “Trump probably because he is the better option out of the two. Strong economy and a low unemployment rate”
• “Donald Trump because he would fix America’s issues and fix the migrant problem”
• “Trump, his policies are more outlined to my ideals and his plans have backing and potential. Plus, the border needs to be closed, which Harris could have done any day for the past 3 and a half years.”

I do find this interesting, as one of the key points in the debate was when Trump rambled on and on about a potential plan that he had “concepts of” regarding Obama Care. Despite the continued questions from the moderators asking what his plans were, he was not able to explain or mention one, proving that not only does he not have an outline – he has no backing.

One response points out the difference between their behaviors: “I’m voting for Kamala Harris. I believe that Trump doesn’t care about the environmental future of the world. America would look like a Great country that protects its freedoms and allies under Kamala Harris, or at least she would be a great step in that direction. I also believe she’s more collected than Trump. The debate made me imagine how Trump would keep his composure in a heated negotiation with an enemy. She has a better plan and better composure.”

Someone said, “I am voting for Kamala Harris because she at least has integrity.”

One response mentions age, which is very important because it was the main reason for Biden dropping out. The student writes, “If I was of age then Kamala Harris. Trump has done a lot to divide people within the community and kind of pit people against each other. I feel like his age as well and it’s the same reason I was critical of Joe Biden.”

However, one of the most specific responses shared a great perspective: the student writes, “Kamala Harris seems to be the definitive pick for me, Trump was all over the place and was lying all the time about everything, while also not tackling any of the issues brought up or having any policy that he didn’t in 2016 (which I do not think he did well as a president during that time). He also undermined democracy and staged a rebellion against the government because he was a sore loser. Kamala Harris, however, does have a clear plan for her presidency and policies that she is going to implement, on top of having, in my opinion, a better stance on Abortion, Immigration, Foreign Policy, the Economy, and current world events (War in Ukraine and Israel)”. This is coming from someone who was a supporter of Trump in 2016 and to me it demonstrates that we should all be more open to change in beliefs. Their recognition that what happened on January 6th at the capital was partially due to Trump and that it was not okay in the slightest is very respectable.

Lastly, I asked, “If you had the power to set up the national presidential debate what would you change about the outline, process, questions, location, and more?”

Many students replied with “Nothing,” but one person said that “They fact-checked Donald Trump 300% more than Harris”. To that, I say that the ABC moderators tried to not waste limited live time on fact-checking everything to prioritize hearing all that the candidates wanted to discuss. ABC published a separate “fact-checking” journal at 7 am the next morning where they analyzed the truth behind everything each candidate stated. The link is here if you would like to read and see that the fact-checking was equal.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-kamala-harris-donald-trumps-1st-presidential/story?id=113567997

Someone else wrote, “I would change the questions and make them more biased towards Donald Trump as I like him a lot more, and it would make him look better if they were biased towards him.” I think that this response takes away from the point of the debate: helping voters decide who to choose.

More responses focused on the moderators as written below:

• “I would include a Republican and Democratic moderator to moderate equally because finding completely unbiased moderators is incredibly difficult. I would not allow the moderators to interject but allow viewers to make their own judgements on the veracity of candidate statements. A neutral location should also be chosen as ABC may be slightly liberal leaning”
• “I would have the top candidate for the two major parties on the debate stage as well as the top non-republican/democrat candidate on the stage. I would also have the moderators be from non-major news networks (like from the Pew Research center or whatever) and it not be “hosted” by any network, all in an effort to remove any bias. I would also make the questions based on the current issues that voters think are the most important (I remember seeing a poll on that, so I know it exists somewhere). I would keep the amount of time that the candidates have to speak and rebut, but I would keep the mics on and have a small & VIP audience. The location should always be in Washington DC and there should be a required 2 debates, so the voters can see multiple “angles” of the candidates.
• “I’d want unbiased interviewers as well as actually good candidates who answer the questions and aren’t just arguing like catty teenage girls the whole time”

I do agree with the impossibility of finding unbiased moderators, and I think the proposal of finding a Republican and Democratic moderator would definitely increase the general fairness of the debate. That being said, there is a need for moderators to interject as each candidate should be rewarded the same amount of time so I agree with the student who wrote, “I would play a really loud buzzer when either of the candidates interrupts a moderator or another candidate.”

One student wrote, “Honestly, I believe the debates are a waste of time. I think a much better way of deciding who is a better candidate is by creating a thunderstorm. Put the two candidates in a cage and have them wrestle it out MMA style to the death!”

Someone else said, “I’d have a 100m dash to determine president” We all know that Harris would take the cake if this was the competition.

One raptor proposed, “If I was leading the debate, I would have picked people from both sides to lead and ask the question. This way there would be more of a fair representation of both candidates. I would also have an audience rather than just being filmed live. This way viewers could see how the population reacts to the candidates.”

Another agreed and stated that “I would include a live audience that can ask questions that concern the American people.”

The idea of a live audience is interesting, especially since this is the first debate to be private since JFK and Nixon (other than Biden and Trump earlier this year). I prefer no live audience, as the applause to me is unnecessary and time-consuming. Theoretically, the proposal of having citizens ask the candidate questions live could be beneficial as it would center the debate on American concerns. However, in actuality, this would be extremely hard to moderate and could potentially lead to many issues. For example, how would the citizens that got to attend and participate be chosen?

Just like the previous question, many responses lacked an actual answer, proper grammar, and logical reasoning. For example, someone said, “ I would maybe do it where they could both pay me money and then I vote for Donald either way because I like him. Donald has so much money and mr beat also has money and if he wins he will give me money like a mr breast Challenge. I could maybe do the squid game challenge like mr beat because that video was very good and the winner won lots of money i think. Besides Kris Tyson she did bad things but i like mr bask and Chandler Hollow.”

I hope everyone got some good laughs while watching the debate. I personally found myself cracking up a few times, like when Trump was adamant on the immigrants who have been eating dogs in Springfield or when he warned us about the transgender surgeries taking place on aliens in jail.

In a place filled with engaging teachers, rigorous courses, and strong academic curiosity, we are destined to have differing strong opinions. So as these important next few months for our country unfold, as a school we need to respect our peers – and, if engaging in political conversations, do so with kindness. That being said, time will tell (specifically by November 5th), and if you are eligible to vote, it is more than important that you engage in democracy and get registered!