The presidential election debates are a topic I am sure brings a lot of strong emotions, but how it relates to everyone is different. Is it because of the fear that we have over who wins or the excitement that we must see what insults and what things are going to be exposed? Ever since 2020, our electoral debates have gone through a change, from respectfully disagreeing to hating and being upset. These debates have become so focused on Someone vs Someone that it takes away from coming up with solutions to a failing country.
Some people may argue that these debates have always been focused on insults or trying to force their opinion across, while there is truth to this, it has gotten so extreme that recently the debate rules had to be updated. In 2012 an article by NPR.org, discussing the debate rules between former President Obama and Governor Romney, states, “In the first debate, Jim Lehrer of PBS demanded ‘Absolute silence’.” The article then goes on to explain, “The candidates may not ask each other direct questions during any of the four debates.” The last major thing that electoral debates had to deal with was heckling and people protesting in the audience. The 2020 debate was the turning point for these rules and what escalated the change in the U.S debate etiquette.
Time.com has created a list of all the rules introduced in the 2020 debate, and that was followed for the Trump v. Harris debates. The list consists of commercial breaks, no opening statements, muted microphones, no notes or live audience, and lastly, no White House reporters. The goal of these rules is to maintain the flow of debates and keep the conversation focused. Even with all these rules, the insults and disrespect between candidates is still very present. One of the most famous quotes between Trump v Biden was when Biden said to Trump, “will you shut up, man.” This leads to the point of this article, the normalized disrespect between debaters and how these discussions are being watched in hopes of hearing the drama or controversy first.
Since the 2020 election, Gen Z has been more concerned and active in watching these debates and reporting on what happened. The main place this information spreads is TikTok. According to Kamalaharris.com, she has an active campaign on TikTok in which her team will use trending sounds to edit the difference between her and Trump, usually by mentioning Trump’s recent criminal charges. This proves how Kamala Harris’s team uses social media to their advantage because they know that those on TikTok and in our society are now craving that drama and controversy between those running for office. It goes both ways, with things being said at Trump’s rallies and Trump making claims about Kamala’s race and false claims about immigrants. To read specifics of the racist claims, an article by APNEWS.com debunks them.
If you remember anything from this article, it should be that our politicians and presidential candidates have become more focused on creating drama and insulting each other than focusing on the correct information on what to do to help solve the U.S. issues. The reactions of people consuming this media are causing disrespectful debates to occur. We as a community should not be promoting this etiquette and lack of respect to those in line to lead our country. Please keep this in mind when voting for a leader to run our country, think about their character.
